Sometimes you focus on a certain part of a job and can not see the whole picture. When we had first started wind turbine erection projects, I haven’t though that the erection process is just a beginning for our future jobs in wind energy sector. As Salman Rushdie indicated "The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame". For I had only focused the wind turbine erection jobs which were going to be executed, I hadn’t though about the future maintenance and repair operations.
Now I can clearly see that maintenance and repair operations have the lion’s share in wind energy business from my company’s perspective. We have currently on going three wind turbine maintenance projects which are executed in Samli Site, Sebenova Site and Catalca Site. Our cranes had worked more than one month in each site and there will be further maintenance projects in these sites within one month. Catalca Site’s access roads are prepared according to manual provided by wind turbine manufacturer by taking our opinions into account. Owner of Samli and Sebenova Sites did not want to invest much money for access roads, because they did not think that the wind turbine farm projects are long run projects. They thought that the expenditures, that were cut during erection of wind turbines, were going to be their profit. There are considreable amount of companies which know the the price of everything, but the value of nothing in wind energy market in Turkey . They had lost considerable amount of money during these maintenance and repair operations while preparing adequate access roads for the transportation of mobile cranes between wind turbine pads. The thought provoking side of this preparation is that it is just a temporary solution; the company did not invest enough money for access roads which are resistant to rain, flood etc… Consequently, they had paid 1,5 times more rental price per turbine.
As it can be clearly seen, not only individuals but also companies sometimes can not see the whole picture. To be able to step out of the frame, I had dotted down some notes which are considered to be beneficial for our future maintenance and repair projects. These notes are:
- How many months have passed until first maintenance or repair? By answering this question, we will be able to see average maintenance or repair period for each turbine type.
- What are the finished wind farm projects in Turkey? What are the type of wind turbines erected in these wind farms?
- What is the average working period for cranes on each turbine?
- How many equipments which can be used for wind turbine maintenance and repair projects, do we have?
- Which cranes can be used to dismantle and mount blades, gearboxes (if avaliable) in different wind farms? What is the share of each crane in these potensial maintenance and repair projects?
- Estimate the future demand for cranes by taking first two questions’ answers into consideration.
- Who are the authorities responsible for these maintenance and repair projects in both manufacturer companies and investors’ companies?
This list surely can be extended.
In my opinion, a certain perspective and some tools are always required to step out of the frame and this perspective and these tools are the ones which are going to help us on the road of getting lion’s share of wind turbine maintenance and repair operations.
Yigit NEPHAN
28.12.2009
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