Thanks to a global supply chain, Availon can supply components with short delivery times, which contributes to reduced return-to-service times and greater productivity.

Availon, a multi-brand independent service provider for wind turbines, has successfully kept the U.S. wind farms it has under O&M contracts at historical levels of availability.

The most challenging wind site, which remains undisclosed at this time, is now continuously running at above 98.4% availability. Other less challenging wind farms enjoy availability levels between 99.4 % and 99.8%.

Availon was able to achieve the highest contractual availability, which the sites has ever seen, a remarkable performance considering that the increasing age of the turbines. With turbine downtime brought down to a level of near zero, Availon’s customers are able to maximize revenue yields.

“We are extremely proud of those results. When your business is to harness the wind, it’s vital to keep your turbines online. Our very name, which comes from “Availability ON,” underpins our mission to reach the highest availability and lowest component failure rate to drive peak profitability of the wind farm assets under our care,” said Ulrich Schomakers, CEO, Availon Inc.

Availon’s team helps clients manage costs by minimizing unscheduled maintenance, preventing turbine failure, and optimizing turbine performance. Clients are attracted to the unique blend of local solutions and global expertise Availon provides. Now, customers in North America are seeing the same benefits on their projects.

“We’re excited to offer our services to more customers in North America,” said Schomakers, who noted that Availon has its U.S. headquarters in Grimes, Iowa, along with another office in Texas. “Being located in the heart of America’s leading wind energy areas keeps us close to our customers. We deliver the wow factor. That’s why more and more U.S. owners trust their service needs to our expanding American business. We have built up the organization and are now ready to take the next steps to significantly grow our O&M global business in the next years.”

With more than 20 years in the wind energy business, Availon focuses on wind energy technology from GE, Vestas, and Gamesa equipment. The company has more than 1,700 turbines under contract, representing over 2,600 MWs of installed power. Approximately 10% of this business is located in the United States.

Availon
www.availon.com

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Together, Vestas and UpWind Solutions will service approximately 17 GW of turbines in the U.S. and Canada.

Vestas has acquired UpWind Solutions and its subsidiaries, a leading independent service provider in North America. With about 310 employees, UpWind Solutions currently services wind-power plants in nine U.S. states with a total capacity of more than 3 GW.

The wind-power plants under UpWind’s service represent a diverse customer base and include turbines from a number of manufacturers. The company also supplies parts for most major turbine technologies, performs blade inspections, and offers various performance upgrades.

“The acquisition accelerates our profitable growth strategy and helps Vestas to capture the full potential of the service business. We are broadening our capabilities and increasing the size of our addressable market for all major turbine technologies. In short, the acquisition is a strong strategic fit,” said Group Senior VP Christian Venderby, Vestas Global Service.

“North America is an important market for Vestas, and this acquisition will contribute to Vestas becoming the customers’ preferred fleet-wide service partner,” says Chris Brown, President of Vestas Sales and Service Division in the United States and Canada. “We are very pleased to welcome UpWind Solutions and its employees to become part of the Vestas organization.”

Vestas has more than 50 GW under service worldwide, and together Vestas and UpWind Solutions will service approximately 17 GW of Vestas and non-Vestas turbines in the United States and Canada with ambitions for further growth.

“Vestas represents high-quality technology and service and shares UpWind Solutions’ passion for excellence. We’re delighted to become part of the global wind industry leader, and look forward to jointly ensuring that our expanded customer base receives the best possible operations and maintenance service for their fleets,” says CEO Peter Wells, UpWind Solutions.

The acquisition price for UpWind Solutions is USD 60m (approximately EUR 55m) on a debt and cash-free basis. The consideration has been paid in cash from readily available sources. On a standalone basis excluding synergies, UpWind Solutions is expecting for 2015 to report consolidated revenues of USD 55m (approximately EUR 50m), an EBITDA of USD 3.4m (approximately EUR 3.1m), and total assets of approximately USD 20m (approximately EUR 18m).

The acquisition of UpWind Solutions is effective as of today. Vestas expects the acquisition will have only a limited effect on Vestas’ expected result for 2015. Outlook for 2015 revenue and EBIT margin before special items are maintained, while total investments are now expected to amount to approximately EUR 400m and free cash flow is consequently expected to be between EUR 750m and 950m for 2015.

Vestas
www.vestas.com

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Successful on-turbine trials demonstrate the value and flexibility of the blade-maintenance Habitat.

GEV Wind Power’s first set of onshore trials for its innovative blade-maintenance Habitat have been successfully completed, presenting a major milestone for the company.

The Habitat enables technicians to conduct essential repairs on remote wind turbines while remaining sheltered from the elements. It also provides O&M companies a greater scope throughout the year to schedule repairs because the sheler provides protection, even in more adverse seasonal weather conditions.

The Habitat was installed on Power Climber and Kaeufer access platforms in varying weather conditions and ranging between 30 meters and 100 meters high, with successful deployment demonstrating the flexibility and operability of the Habitat in a real-life environment.

“Our Habitat plays a key role in facilitating O&M operations in this rapidly developing industry, while providing cost-saving benefits which are vital throughout the entire supply chain,” said Alastair Gadney, Project Director for GEV Group.

“These trials are a huge leap forward in not only reinforcing the concept of the Habitat, but also proving how it can be applied to a range of turbine and access platform sizes. We are also exploring different configurations of the Habitat, from a simple wind break to a more complete waterproof solution,” he added.

GEV Wind Power also now offers a 24-hour working window using fixed lighting within the Habitat, ensuring complex repairs are completed and turbines returned to service much quicker than is currently achievable. The Habitat is expected to offer huge savings to both O&M providers and asset owners.

The trials also enabled GEV technicians to test the company’s bespoke blade maintenance App, I-RIS (Intuitive Reporting and Inspection System), which facilitates timely project management as data is communicated, near real-time, via satellite to a web-based monitoring and reporting tool. The tests clearly demonstrated the value of I-RIS, which provides a simple interface offering savings across data capture and reporting.

GEV Wind Power
www.gevwindpower.com

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