DISTRIBUTED WIND
FEATURE SPONSOR
DISTRIBUTED WIND
ICE RENEWABLES CONTINUE TO SUPPORT OUR PUBLICATION BY SPONSORING OUR DISTRIBUTED WIND FEATURE. JULIAN MARTIN (CEO) HAS CONTRIBUTED SOME VERY INTERESTING AND HELPFUL ADVICE TO THIS PARTICULAR SECTOR WITHIN THE INDUSTRY ON A REGULAR BASIS.
We now turn our attention to the company’s Director of Operations, Michael Hickey to give us his thoughts…
MICHAEL’S ROLE AT ICE RENEWABLES Michael has worked for ICE since April 2012; he is responsible for project construction and delivery, turbine installation and fleet operations and maintenance, strategy development and implementation.
Michael is accountable for the development of the internal operations and maintenance team and function. He brings to ICE 7 years of experience from previously working within the renewable sector with Vestas at a senior management level, primarily in manufacturing, supply chain onshore/offshore project management and development.
He also has
experience within the retail logistics, manufacturing supply chain and contract logistics fields with globally recognised companies, bringing to ICE a strong commercial leadership and a strategic view towards the company.
SPECIALISED OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE SERVICE
Question: You have recently launched a specialised Operations & Maintenance service – why has ICE decided to extend this service to manufacturers, developers and customers in the medium and MW wind sector?
“ICE currently operate and maintain their own wind turbine installations and have 12 turbines from Cornwall to Scotland. We brought the maintenance in house because we were not happy with the quality of the O&M work being contracted out and since then our customers are happier and the performance of the
turbines has improved. The last quarter we hit 99.6% availability, which big wind farms would dream off! As we get more of our own turbines in the ground and with an increase in installations across the UK, it made sense to offer our service and our expertise to a wider selection of turbines in our wind sector.”
Question:
Why is Operations & Maintenance so important to the lifetime of a turbine?
“On a practical level you can’t just put a wind turbine up and expect it to run for twenty years without looking after it. It is the same principle as running a car. If you look after it and service it regularly it will run more efficiency and last longer. Customer’s warranties are also tied in with regular operations and maintenance routines and will be void if you don’t look after them.
“If you have financing on the turbine then it is likely that you will also be legally required to have an O&M regime. On a more basic level, a working, efficient turbine will extend its lifetime, reduce costs and increase its availability, offsetting more energy and hitting or exceeding expected income revenues.”
Question:
What should customers be looking for from a potential wind turbine provider and maintenance team?
“We hold regular wind turbine owners’ club meetings and are always listening to our customers to understand what we are doing right and how we can improve our services.
“What is clear is that they want good communication, fast response time, to minimise their turbine’s down time, well trained engineers who have the experience to deal with issues on site, good parts availability, a good relationship with the manufacturer and a set of complementary added value services such as high voltage maintenance work and blade repair, so that they do not have gaps in the service of their turbine.”
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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