Service excellence and the bottom line
Optimizing performance and mitigating risk for a Spanish customer
The Service team at Siemens Gamesa works with many customers around the world. Whether it is working in partnership with multi-national companies to manage their portfolio of global wind assets, or with developers who have a single project powering the energy needs of the local community, and every profile of customer in between.
One thing is common, our commitment to service excellence. As our industry continues to evolve, we work hand-in-hand with customers to maximize output and extend the life of turbines. Whether it is deploying maintenance drones, harnessing the power of data and machine learning, or being on hand when things go wrong, we stay one step ahead in terms of innovation. For us, service is about creating and delivering value to our customers day in day out.
As no one customer is the same, we want to bring to life the work we do for customers of all profiles. To do so, we are developing a series of case studies that showcase the value we bring and the services we offer. While the case studies are hypothetical, they draw upon the extensive expertise and real-life insight of our teams across the world who work tirelessly to support our customers.
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Viento2Zero is a medium sized family business, operating onshore in Spain. The family has owned agricultural land in Sierra Nevada for three generations. But it is a commitment to the environment that led the latest generation to turn over a large portion of land to renewable energy. With approximately 100 onshore turbines from different manufacturers across two sites in the region, their ambition is to maximize the output of turbines and ensure that they are a key contributor to Spain’s clean energy supply as well as expanding the business to help drive the clean energy revolution.
- Medium sized company
- Family-owned
- Spain
- Onshore
We’re proud to be part of the movement towards net zero, protecting the environment for generations to come. As a family-owned business, we believe in stewardship and it is imperative that we act now to protect our collective future
One of the central aims of the company was to maximize output from their existing fleet. Yet, the company also has a mix of turbines, many of which are over 15 years old, after being installed at different stages over the years. With strict planning restrictions in Europe forbidding the straightforward replacement of old turbines with new ones, the customer needed to explore ways to improve output and performance.
Another key consideration was the need to mitigate risk wherever possible. Viento2Zero is passionate about sustainability and providing clean energy, and the team wanted long-term stability and peace of mind when it comes to its renewable assets.
Viento2Zero is not a global firm, and it does not have a fleet of service technicians with vast expertise. Therefore, it was looking for peace of mind and stability, safe in the knowledge that it was running an effective business and future-proofing its assets. It required additional maintenance for its aging fleet and wanted to balance this with optimal output wherever possible by minimizing periods of downtime. It also needed advice on lifetime extension programs and had key questions such as how to bring a turbine beyond year 20, the designed operating lifetime of a turbine.
At Siemens Gamesa, it quickly became clear that we needed to effectively deliver the upgrades to the SGRE manufactured turbines that would enable the customer to maximize the output of its assets and deliver performance improvements.
Backed up by 40 years of onshore experience, we were quickly able to bring our engineering knowledge to the fore. Yet, our experience has taught us that improvements can only be delivered by listening to and collaborating with the customer.
“Working with Siemens Gamesa we’re able to solve any problem that arises; they know just what it takes to manage a successful onshore project, which is particularly crucial for a family-run business such as ours with aging turbines.”
“It’s especially pleasing that our environmental commitment has been matched by Siemens Gamesa. Across the board, it’s clear that our performance is viewed as their performance and there’s a genuine sense of teamwork and overcoming challenges together.”
We’re also able to utilize advanced scheduled maintenance which means that work is only carried out at the times when turbines are producing the least amount of energy in order to minimize potential disruption to output.
Our approach is to form a partnership with customers in order to leverage the entirety of our arsenal. From technical expertise to preventative measures, predictive diagnostics, or intensive monitoring, we’re always alert to minor problems which ensures that they don’t turn into major issues. That is why many Siemens Gamesa turbines continue to be productive, and deliver high performance, after 20+ years.
We’re also able to utilize advanced scheduled maintenance which means that work is only carried out at the times when turbines are producing the least amount of energy in order to minimize potential disruption to output.
As an independent wind energy producer we are proud that we are able to power over 200,000 households with reliable, safe and clean electricity from our turbines
One of the key areas of advice was around lifetime extension. Our experts provided Viento2Zero with immediate recommendations for short-term boosts to performance that ensured it was using its assets to produce the greatest amount of energy possible while providing peace of mind on the safety and reliability of turbines.
The team ensures it provides continuous advice on reinforcements that are needed; updates that are required; or on the new software that could be used, meaning that insights help the customer team to improve its own knowledge and understanding.
Another crucial component of our strategy with Viento2Zero was to adapt to their level of risk. We always ask ourselves: what is the risk appetite of this customer? Followed by “what is the strategy that should be applied?
Let’s look at one concrete example:
The customer wanted to control their OPEX as well minimize the risk the operation, including any major component exchange. As a result, when big storms pass through the locations of their aging fleets, we turn off the turbines. Extreme wind speeds are great for producing more energy, yet also increase the risk of increased wear on internal components such as the gearbox.
“The team at Siemens Gamesa has repeatedly demonstrated their ability to deeply understand the nature of our business; every decision they have made has our long-term goals and company ethos in mind. They’ve also demonstrated absolute commitment to health and safety whenever carrying out maintenance.”
He adds, “What’s more, they have been able to secure the component exchange and in particular the availability of major and minor components which are scarce in the market for wind turbines that are 15 years old or more. There are companies out there with operational experience, but few come close to what Siemens Gamesa knows about all of the potential failure modes, due to the huge size of their maintained fleet. And as they own the aeroelastic models, they can predict the behaviour of rotor blades better.”
The CEO of Viento2Zero then concludes: “So, they are pretty much the only ones in the market that have old model parts available. There is a big scarcity in the market. And the combined proposal of experience, owning the IP and offering spare parts is a value proposition that no one else in the market can compete with. And last but not least, in times of rising interest rates, it is also relevant that we are eligible for better financing rates because we use the parts that Siemens Gamesa refurbished. This way we contribute to the circular economy and our bottom line without compromising quality.”
At Siemens Gamesa, we’re committed to our partnership approach and have been able to offer Viento2Zero advice ranging from meeting new grid restraints to noise or even shadow restrictions. By being customer orientated, we have been able to collaboratively develop solutions that capitalize on our vast experience and knowledge while specifically addressing the challenges of Viento2Zero's business.
“Siemens Gamesa’s commitment to sharing their knowledge with us and helping us grow even though we didn’t buy all of our assets from them in the first place has been invaluable.”
“To us, it’s most important that we remain driven by the need to deliver clean energy for generations to come, and this mission has resonated with the teams at Siemens Gamesa whether that be in the field or more technical areas – it’s a wholesale mindset that can only be generated by passionate energy industry pioneers. We’ve been supported with longer-term strategies that will help us to play a growing role in Spain’s clean energy revolution.”
Viento2Zero came to us as looking for stabilizing and innovative solutions to extend the lifetime of their fleet and maximize output. We’re happy to see today's turbines running after 20 years through partial repowering, with some turbines only changing their blades and others changing both blades and nacelles, going up to 22% more production, as well as ensuring the availability and safety of their assets across its two locations.
However, it is not just lifetime extension that Viento2Zero came to us for. Our approach to continuous innovation means that we are actively engaged with them and similar profiles of customers about hybridization and green hydrogen production. For us, we are focused on fulfilling the potential of wind and this involves continuing to push the frontiers of innovation, which is necessary if we are to deliver on the global net zero goals.
At Siemens Gamesa, partnership and purpose are implicit in everything we do.
