Technology
The wind industry is maturing and the technology that drives it is rapidly evolving. Product-based solutions and organisational structure have crucial roles to play, but developing strategies and understanding the technology landscape can be difficult and time consuming. You have many performance initiatives to explore, and you want to start the process of preparing for life extension, but just “doing the day job ” keeps you and your team busy as it is. How do you focus on the right things and how do you find the time and resource to progress them?
BVGA work in partnership with you to develop and implement optimised ownership strategies and solutions which are aligned to your overall operational strategy.
Our team has real-world engineering experience, based on many years working for major wind OEMs, project developers and service providers. Our strategic advice enhances the value of your wind farm assets at all stages of its life. Underpinned by our work in supporting financial transactions, ongoing wind farm operations and product support, our work is based on knowledge that is up-to-date and relevant.
We’ll help you to maximise the value of your wind farm assets. We will assist you in developing strategic asset management plans, designing future proofing product and technology improvements, and overseeing their implementation. Working alongside your team, and in line with your operational philosophy, with we will enable you apply the best possible design decisions, technology, analysis, management processes and commercial structures.
Asset management strategy
At BVG Associates (BVGA) we are well known for our business strategy advice to the wind industry, covering areas such as corporate transitions, supply chain analysis, and international industry development.
We also bring that strategic approach into the operational phase , where we advise our clients on a variety of key issues facing the industry today, such as through life management, organisational structures, transitioning to larger portfolios, level of in-housing, etc.
A crucial part of strategy advice is finding a common language with your client. The words and assumptions with which you frame the business challenges and associated advice are an essential cornerstone of that trusted relationship between consultant and client.
For collaborations in the operational phase, we are increasingly leveraging the concepts developed in the ISO 55001 standard for Asset Management (previously PAS 55). The standard outlines six core areas:
- Leadership
- Planning
- Support
- Operation
- Performance, and
- Improvement
We carefully select the pertinent parts from each to suit the specifics of a project, narrowing down on the key concepts that are relevant to what a client is trying to achieve.
Practical application of strategic thinking
Our client was revising its long-term strategy for its operations and maintenance (O&M) activities in offshore wind (OSW). It was seeking to pursue a self-operator model, with its portfolio on course to treble in capacity in the next seven years.
BVGA was engaged to review and validate findings on recent and future O&M market trends, and the impact these have on the client’s revised strategy. Our client wanted to examine the data, skills and technology solutions that will be crucial to successfully implementing its ambitions for a proactive O&M mindset, such as preventative maintenance and through-life management of asset integrity and reliability.
We approached the work in two phases:
- An outward looking review of the market, and
- An inward looking review of the client, its corporate structure, and its methods of operation.
Looking outward at the wider offshore wind (OSW) context, we considered other large offshore wind developers/owners, offshore wind contractors, potential O&M disruptors and O&M in other industries where reliability and maintainability are critical. Starting with the six core parts of ISO 55001, we created a matrix of cross-functional areas so that we could present a strategic analysis of the industry using a framework that used ISO 55001 at its core but which was directed at addressing our client’s specific objectives. These will of course be different for every project, but in this example they were:
- In-housing vs Outsourcing – breaking down the key areas of O&M, establishing the attractiveness of each to in-housing, based on our client’s O&M philosophy and relationships with key parts of the supply chain.
- Centralising and standardising – presenting the opportunities and risks of centralising what was a relatively devolved portfolio, referring to wider industry experience and aligning with our client’s internal structures.
- Cross-functional collaboration – assessing the internal structures within the client’s corporation, highlighting where functional barriers were hindering progress on their wider O&M agenda.
- Supplier relationships – comparing with wider industry trends, and assessing the impact of changing supply chain dynamics, we identified areas within their supplier base where the current relationship assumptions needed to be re-assessed to provide our client with greater resilience as they expanded their portfolio globally.
- Approach to risk – related to the supplier relationship assessment, we recommended specific areas in which a change to their traditional treatment of risk could provide significant operational improvements.
- Supply chain disruption – we assessed our client’s resilience to disruptive change within the supply chain, highlighting areas where an over-reliance on specific operational methods or on specific supplier relationships contributed to potential future weaknesses.
- Technology and innovation – we reviewed the impact that their internal innovation department was having, if it was achieving the right balance of internal vs external collaboration, and whether its primary areas of focus were aligned with our client’s future operational ambitions.
The result of the project was a detailed analysis of our client’s strengths and development areas as they start implementing their growth strategy through the rest of the decade. We presented this to their board, recommending a set of key actions that would future-proof their resilience to both planned and unplanned changes in the industry and within their supply chain.
Owner‘s engineer
Do you feel removed from the day to day management issues on site? How confident are you that your assets being actively managed to provide maximum value and in line with all compliance requirements?
We provide the resources and expertise to develop, run and manage your wind farms. Our experience helps you identify and manage risk, get the best service from your suppliers and ensure all technology improvements are considered and their economic effects understood. We will help review and prepare all monthly reporting, ensuring the right information reaches the right people at the right time. Particular attention is paid to asset performance and reliability, health and safety, compliance issues and industry best practice.
Life extension
How well prepared are you for getting life extension or re-powering over the line? Even if you don’t intend to own your assets past the end of their design life, you can be sure that someone will have an interest in extracting a few extra years from them. The better you have prepared the more attractive your assets will be.
It is never too early to start planning for life extension, and BVGA can help guide you through that process.
We work with asset owners of all sizes, assessing their portfolios, providing independent, real world advice on their best life extension strategy. We visit your sites, engage with your team and review data on project history, performance and reliability, and use our experience of various turbine models.
Crucial to any analytical approach to calculating remaining useful life (RUL) is a comprehensive understanding of the wind conditions at each turbine. If you are starting your assessment late in the asset life, this part of the process can introduce the highest uncertainty. We enhance this with detailed site inspections, failure-modes and effects analysis (FMEA), a review of project history and an understanding of your approach to operations. Add to these a full review of consents, permits and licences, and any implications of you own commercial and political structures, and you have as complete a picture as possible of the risks and opportunities available to you for life extension.
We model the financial impact of options to establish your highest value options, taking into account ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ restrictions. We deliver a detailed plan identifying a range of intervention
Due diligence
We undertake due diligence on renewable energy technology and projects.
We have a strong track record of helping companies make robust, evidence-based M&A decisions, getting to the heart of the technology, organisation and market issues through focussed, knowledgeable, no-nonsense dialogue between senior staff. Understanding your needs and risk profile is paramount and we will work closely with you throughout the project.
Our technical expertise, market knowledge and financial modelling help you understand the risks enabling you to make the right decisions and getting the right deal for your renewable energy investments. Our involvement can range from high-level contract and reporting review, down to detailed analysis and work practices and post construction yield analysis (PCYA).We cover a lot of ground quickly in order to help you close the deal.
Performance management
Even if budgets are being met, are your assets are really performing at their best? Could you get an extra 1% of energy out just by adjusting the wind vane calibrations? Are you actually sweating your assets too much and storing up problems a few years down the line?
By interrogating SCADA data, analysing technical reports, monitoring on-site business practices and checking against industry benchmarks, we will help you understand the details so that you can ensure you are maximising the value of your assets and obtaining best value from your suppliers.
By applying tried and tested business analysis tools, allied with our deep technical knowledge and experience of wind farm operations, we take pride in working in partnership with clients to develop the performance of their assets.
We can specify, recommend, implement and interpret condition monitoring, SCADA, lidar and other asset optimisation solutions, ensuring that you have the information you need to get the most from your portfolio.
Technical assessment
We understand that operational teams have a demanding day job keeping on top of the ongoing challenges of operating a wind portfolio. We also appreciate that it can be a challenge for organizations to take a step back and assess the ever increasing pace of technologic developments.
We work with you to assess potential technology, to make sure any investment delivers a strong return. We deliver an independent, robust and rigorous assessment.
We will clarify the value and timing of introduction of new technologies into your projects. We have led major technology development projects from within renewable suppliers, so we know what is required, both technically and commercially, to make technology work.
We will develop roadmaps to help mitigate technology risks, identifying activities that are likely to have the biggest impact on the bottom line. We don’t just map possibilities – we help make the right things happen.
Change management
Is your portfolio growing? Are you increasing the technology base of your assets? Do you feel that you could be “doing more” in terms of analysis, efficiency and streamlining? Do you wonder how you compare with industry best practice?
We perform gap analysis across all parts of your business, from site management through to business strategy, and focus on helping you identify and implement change at all levels to ensure you maximise the value of your assets.
We apply a framework of industry best practices in terms of processes, levels of performance, technology and team capability. We work with you to systematically appraise where your own assets, operations and systems rank in terms of competence and functionality against this benchmark. This work allows you to assess their ongoing operations and to prepare for significant milestones and events such as end of warranty, end of service contract, repowering and life-extension.
Our heritage in detailed techno-economic studies to express the impact of change in terms of the project economics, allows you to make the best informed investment decisions.