Below are the excerpts of Windinsider’s recent interview with Mr. Praveen Kakulte, CEO, Powercon
What is the role of Operations & Maintenance for effectiveness in the wind business?
O&M is the lifeline of wind business.
During operations phase, wind turbines are required to deliver optimal electric yield while maintaining a safe & sound technical state over its operating life. The function of O&M is to squeeze, optimise and regulate delivery of electric power while ensuring upkeep of the plant. In that, perform cyclic maintenances, breakdown restorations; enhance technical reliability, combat production loss elements, act & forecast, and practise innovations to ensure peak performance while producing clean electricity, efficiently!
O&M guarantees optimum power delivery complying with technological advancements over lifetime.
What are the key performance factors for a wind power plant during operations phase?
Effective use of collective intelligence captured from the in-built sensoric of wind assets with a 3-dimensional performance orientation enables harnessing of winds profitably –
- Yield Maximisation
- Asset Longevity
- Reduced O&M cost per kWh
What is to be understood from yield maximisation? How do we achieve it?
Yield maximization is about making a wind power plant operate to the fullest available and true potential, at any point of time. It’s an industry myth that, the returns on investment are influenced by ‘Availability’; the truth however is that, the ‘Operational Efficiency’ during the Available period determines the returns!