Editor’s note: This article introduces a research paper that examines the pros and cons of the different O&M approaches applicable to wind farms. It is authored by Wind Energy Update and will be discussed at the upcoming O&M Summit in Dallas April 12 to 13, 2016. For more on the research: http://goo.gl/odzOr0
An industry overview
With 36 GW of new wind turbine capacity installed in 2013, and an additional 51.5 GW in 2014, it is clear that the wind industry requires an increasingly robust, distributed, and consolidated O&M services apparatus to meet this cumulative growth and attend to the ever complex challenges which a growing and maturing industry presents. The emergence of new onshore markets, an ageing fleet in established markets, increase in turbine capacity and a diversification in owner-operator profiles has led to a boom in the services space with an increase in both volume and type of O&M service providers and service options.
These factors have also altered the requirements in O&M service provisions and challenged the boundaries

This article introduces a research paper that examines the pros and cons of the different O&M approaches applicable to wind farms. Photo: BenQ Digital Camera
of O&M best practice. Within this ever complex services landscape there are an increasing number of considerations for both consumer and provider in the selection and deliverance of O&M service contracts, respectively.
For owner-operators, key considerations range from how often should I reconsider my service strategy to what is the optimum contract service contract length I can negotiate? And, from what are the financial and risk implications of switching service strategy to how do I balance investor risk adversity with securing the optimum ROI across my assets lifecycle?
For service providers, key considerations range from how often and at what stages in the project lifecycle do owner-operators tend to reevaluate their O&M service strategy to how can we align with customer’s objectives through the offering of energy-based availability as a reliability metric within contracts? And, from how can we secure full-service or full-wrap agreements and avoid leveraging our performance and reliability enhancements to competitors beyond the confines of our contract phase to should our services portfolio offer asset life-extension and re-powering options?
The Wind Energy Update Onshore O&M Service Options Report 2015 provides clarity for stakeholders across the services value chain through insight and analysis that can be easily transformed into actionable intelligence to guide and enhance service selection and deliverance experiences.
The authors say key reasons to purchase this research include:
■ Stakeholder perspectives: Identify the preferences of owner-operators in the selection of service contracts including driving factors and reassessment cycle periods, as well as the deliverables offered by service providers through exclusive in-depth interviews across the value chain
■ Inter-company and inter-market lessons: 15 focused case-studies covering a range of topics to bring you key lessons and the latest breakthroughs in the O&M services space, from the gains associated with a cross-transfer of knowledge between OEMs and ISPs to an examination of Virtual Power Plant deployment in different markets.
■ Exclusive global industry survey results and analysis: 144 responses from targeted stakeholders across the O&M service industry providing unparalleled insight, including; contract lengths, service strategy re-evaluation timeframes, maintenance responses to ageing fleet, contract cost variation expectations over the next two years and service strategy deployment breakdowns.
■ O&M market sizing: Comprehensive, up-to-date and digestible facts and figures on market sizing and trends, company share and O&M market sizing.
More information on the Wind O&M Dallas 2016 conference can be found here.
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