Over 110 wind farm owners including Iberdrola, NextEra, EDPR, E.ON, Google, Infigen, NRG Energy and EDF Renewable Energy will gather at next week’s Wind O&M Summit in Dallas (14th – 16th April) to devise asset life extension and performance enhancement strategies to meet 2020 renewable energy targets.
Stephen Steen, Director of Sales at Sentient Science commented that ‘the focus for this year’s O&M conference really attacks what the industry needs most; life extension through prognostics’.
73% of U.S. wind farms will come to the end of their warranty period in the next three years. Now is the time for wind farm owners to develop a resilient post-warranty strategy and protect against O&M costs that are predicted to rise to US$6 billion annually by 2025. Critical topics including cost efficiency to increase ROI, technologies to enhance production, strategies to extend asset lifetime, reducing main component failure, performance enhancing retrofits, data gathering, post warranty management and safety standards will form the basis of the 2014 agenda.
The 350+ summit attendees will discuss the impact of the PTC extension – which in 2013 enabled a record 12GW of wind farms to be installed. The uncertainty for funding of new projects has placed the emphasis on implementing a cost effective O&M strategy across all assets to ensure increased power production.
Business leaders have dubbed the sell-out event an unrivalled opportunity to learn from, do business and network with the industry’s front runners. David Capparelli, VP of Business Development at Sulzon stated that ‘following the excellent experience last time we attended, we feel the Dallas Summit is essential to anyone in the O&M business.’
Elizabeth Demestiha, Director at Wind Energy Update, said they are thrilled to see this many industry experts coming together to resolve challenges that will contribute to improved performance and higher efficiency. ‘For the first time we have seen great interest from investment firms including Google, JP Morgan, Bank of America Merril Lynch and Societe Generale demonstrating the need for financial clarity in an industry with vast investor potential.’
The collected expertise surrounding performance enhancement and post-warranty management is unprecedented – providing the setting needed for owners to engage in timely discussions and share insight. Past attendees acknowledge that the event has fast become a renowned business platform that serves industry leaders with critical intelligence and an extended commercial network.
Speakers, sponsors and attendees include Iberdrola, NextEra, EDPR, E.ON, Google, Infigen, NRG Energy, EDF Renewable Energy, Acciona Energy, BP Wind Energy, Duke Energy, DTE Energy, AIG, DNV GL, Gamesa, Broadwind Energy, GE, Siemens, Vestas and Romax Technology.
For more information on this event, attendee list, agenda, workshops and to secure a pass visit the website: http://social.windenergyupdate.com/operations-maintenance-usa/