Services

Wind Energy Consulting
Autonomous Electrification Consulting

Wind Energy Consulting

As stated by the World Wind Energy Association http://www.world-wind-energy.info/, "Proper management of operating wind farms is critical to maximising returns from a wind farm investment. Besides day to day management of the wind farm, the Operations Manager will seek to pro-actively extract every possible hour of availability from the turbines."

Renewable Generation provides these pro-active management services covering the complete technical operations of wind farms. In this way, the owner and investors do not need to involve themselves with the daily operations and can keep up to date on the financial situation through the receiving of reports at regular intervals. The goal is to protect the owner's investment and to secure its profitability during and/or after the manufacturer's warranty period over the lifetime of the wind farm.

As the Operations Manager for wind farms, we serve as the liaison between the owner and all other parties involved including the turbine manufacturer, utility company, insurance company, local authorities, and community members.

To achieve this, the following four areas of service are provided:

To achieve this, the following four areas of service are provided:

1. Analysis and Reporting
   • the monthly production of the wind farm is compared to the expected production
   • possible sources of performance deficiencies are investigated and work is done together with the turbine manufacturer to rectify the situation
   • analysis of the energy production of the wind turbines and the site conditions is done to explore possible optimisations of the performance of the wind farm
   • the failures of each of the turbines in the farm will be recorded and analysed in order to recognize trends as a means of preventative maintenance and to reduce the amount of corrective maintenance necessary, keeping the turbine availability as high as possible
   • monthly and yearly reports are provided detailing the energy production, turbine availability, failure analysis, maintenance and repairs summary, an economic overview of income and expenditures, and any other relevant events
2. Maintenance and Repair Supervision
   • during the warranty period the correct timing and the quality of the manufacturer's regular maintenance and their repairs is ensured
   • after the warranty period recommendations are made to the owner of the wind farm whether to extend the service contract with the manufacturer or seek a third party
   • the turbines are inspected regularly, visually and audibly, in order to ensure the proper operation and safety of the wind farm and to catch problems in an early phase before they develop more seriously into costly damages
   • the manufacturer of the turbine and the component suppliers are monitored to make sure they fulfill their warranty obligations, including an inspection of the turbine when the end of the warranty period approaches to see if any components are showing signs of premature failure
   • all insurance claims regarding the wind turbines, such as component damages and replacements, are dealt with together with the insurance company
3. Overall Site Supervision
   • we ensure that the wind turbines and the site of the wind farm consistently meet Canadian safety regulations and that all persons working at the site meet the necessary standards
   • all the access routes to the wind farm and turbines are kept clear and all auxiliary building are kept in proper order
   • the energy metering, sub-station and reactive/active power issues will be coordinated and handled together with the utility company
   • an archive will be kept of all correspondence with the utility company, turbine manufacturer, maintenance companies, local authorities, and other third parties
4. Capacity Building and Consultations
   • the owner, investors and others affiliated and interested in the wind farm have the opportunity to participate in workshops and training courses to learn about wind energy in general and the specific technology used in the wind turbines at the site
   • we will represent the owner of the wind farm at community events in order to deal with any concerns and questions the local inhabitants may have
   • if the owner is interested in expanding the wind farm or investing in a new site, we offer consultation with respect to which turbines and manufacturer to choose and the contents of the delivery and O&M contracts

Autonomous Electrification Consulting

Along with the development of grid connected renewable energy projects such as wind farms, the area of autonomous electrification with renewable energy technologies that are independent of the grid has also been maturing rapidly. While autonomous rural electrification projects using hybrid systems consisting of renewable energy technologies are more common in developing countries, their application in industrialized countries such as Canada is also an attractive possibility. On the one hand some cottages or second homes may be so far outside of an urban centre that there is no grid expansion planned and if it were, it would be very costly. On the other hand, the Native Canadian reserves are often so remote that they are relying on intermittent electrical service from diesel generators that are loud, heavy polluters and maintenance intensive. For both these cases hybrid systems used to create a mini-grid for a community or applied as an individual system are not only the better choice for the environment but are also a more cost-effective solution.

In this field of work, Renewable Generation offers the following four areas of service as a Hybrid System Planner:

1. Project Design
   • we assist in the search for funding of the installation through government incentive and subsidy programs as well as local and international research grants
   • we study and interview the eventual users of the hybrid system in order to understand their energy requirements
   • we study and interview the community and the eventual users of the hybrid system using participatory sociological and psychological tools, which is necessary to decide how to best structure the electrification project in order to make it sustainable and successful
   • we assess the renewable energy resources of the site to size and select the best type of generators to use such as small wind turbine, photovoltaic panels, biomass, and/or pico-hydro turbines
2. Project Coordination and Implementation
   • we procure the components and material to be used in the installation
   • we coordinate the work of the installers, infrastructure builders and other third parties required for the installation
   • we select of the most appropriate operation structure for the electrification including the setting of the tariff structure and the maintenance responsibilities
3. Monitoring and Evaluation
   • once the installation is in operation, we monitor certain key parameters and indicators (technical, economic and social) at regular intervals and evaluate the results in order to evaluate the success of the project and how certain aspects can be adjusted for improvement
4. Capacity Training and Information Workshops
   • we train end users on how to optimise their consumption patterns, use the energy efficiently and on the technical aspects of the installation
   • we invite third parties such as maintenance workers, local authorities and other community members to participate in workshops to learn about the technology being used