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Monday 21st September 2015

Navigating the options and effectively implementing Condition Monitoring Systems

10:00am Registration and welcoming coffee

10:30am Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
David Clark, Founder and Owner, CMS Wind

10:35am CMS basics
 Distinguishing what condition monitoring really is and lessons that can be taken from
other industries and applied to wind power
 Determining the failures that you could expect CMS to pre-empt and the rate at which
it will do so

David Clark, Founder and Owner, CMS Wind

10:50 am CMS ROI
 Balancing CMS capex against the expected cost savings from a reduction of reactive
maintenance to decipher true value
 Understanding the value of CMS in relation to installed capacity and size of turbines
to inform your procurement strategy
 Navigating the uncertainty of the value of adding CMS to turbines deep into their
lifecycle to make cost effective strategic decisions

David Clark, Founder and Owner, CMS Wind

11:20am Vibration analysis at the end of warranty
 Exploring the wealth of data and evidence that effectively implemented CMS can
provide at the end of warranty and directly utilising this in a claim
 Negotiating with OEMs over the findings from CMS and overcoming the common
stumbling blocks in this process

Don Roberts, Owner, DA Roberts LLC, Subcontractor, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL)

Including Q&A

11:50am OEM CMS
 Using CMS to make prognostic analysis and inform a predictive maintenance strategy
that reduces downtime
 Determining increased electricity generation from assets after CMS adoption and the
contributory factors leading to this
 Installing a grass-roots predictive maintenance culture within your organisation to
guarantee CMS buy-in and resulting performance gains
Including Q&A

David Clark, Founder and Owner, CMS Wind

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12:20pm Blade CMS
 Learn the five major blade failure modes
 Comparison of old technologies
 The newest technologies in blade specific CMS
 Blade rotor sweep loading mapping
 Blade CMS for SCADA and improved efficiencies

Dr. Shaw Makaremi, Founder, Bajou Engineering

12:50pm Networking lunch

1:50pm Gearbox and generator CMS and advanced health check
Statistical approaches to improve prediction capability of CMS

 Maximize value by effective configuration of CMS and statistical alarm adjustment on
the gearbox

 Diagnostic improvement using appropriate methods based on tracking and trending of
individual component defect histories

 Comparison of vibration behaviours among the fleet, providing an enhanced decision
base in support of maintenance

Fabrice Drommi, CMS Business Development, SKF
Insulation testing on generators

 Modern technologies for generator testing to reduce costs and avert costly unplanned
motor and machine downtime

 Improved detection of weaknesses and faults in insulation to assess needs for
maintenance or replacement of generators

 Financial ROI on high-voltage test equipment for testing while off-line
Mike Teska, Electric Condition Monitoring, SKF

2:50pm Collecting, understanding, storing and managing CMS data to maximize its effectiveness
for your assets and understand their true performance

 Grappling with the wealth of data provided by CMS to ascertain what the data is
telling you and accurately interpret the findings

 Developing the systems and capacity to store CMS data to enable optimal access and
performance analysis

 Ensuring all internal stakeholders have access to the right CMS data to enable them to
make maximally informed strategic decisions

John Ugland, Technical Account Manager, Condition Monitoring Systems, Renewable NRG
Systems

3:20pm Networking break

4:00pm Condition monitoring in the wind industry, relevant technologies and its importance
Nicholas Waters, Key Account Manager, Bachmann Electronics

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4:30pm Oil analysis/oil particulate analysis
 Detect gearbox faults through rigorous analysis of fluid composition and elements
within it
 Developing an oil monitoring schedule to ensure optimal time frames of analysis and
prognostic value
 Highlighting and seizing upon the benefits of oil monitoring over and above
alternative condition monitoring options

Don Roberts, Owner, DA Roberts LLC, Subcontractor, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL)

5:00pm Strategies for post warranty predictive maintenance using CMS to reduce cost at the end
of warranty
Mike Hornemann, Wind Drivetrain Engineering Consultant, Romax Technology

5:30pm Combined Q&A with the session speakers: Your chance to become part of the discussion
and pose questions to these industry experts
John Ugland, Technical Account Manager, Condition Monitoring Systems, Renewable NRG
Systems
Nicholas Waters, Key Account Manager, Bachmann Electronics
Don Roberts, Owner, DA Roberts LLC, Subcontractor, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL)
Mike Hornemann, Wind Drivetrain Engineering Consultant, Romax Technology
James Anderson, Sales and Marketing, Skycasters
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6:00pm End of pre-day and VIP Networking Drinks Reception

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Tuesday 22nd September 2015

8:00am Registration

9:00am Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
Steven Gilbert, O&M Users Group Chair, UVIG

9:10am Assessing and forecasting the North American wind O&M market to refine expectations
and inform cost modelling and operational strategy

 Deciphering O&M spending over the last year, how this could be expected to develop
and the resulting impact on key players across the value chain

 Clarifying the affect of current and projected development on the O&M market and
highlighting the opportunities it will unearth

 Placing the North American O&M market within the context of PTC uncertainty and
identifying how varying scenarios will affect the value chain

Dan Shurey, Lead North American Wind Analyst, Bloomberg New Energy Finance

9:40am Keynote operator panel
Formulating an O&M budget for a project lifecycle that represents the ‘best fit’ strategy
and delivers investor confidence

 Understanding the increasing awareness of investors of operational realities across a
wind farms’ lifecycle and responding to this in your cost model

 Drawing on industry wide experience to inform your O&M budget forecasts and
balance opex and capex effectively

 Creating an upfront strategy that represents the strategic direction a project should
take from first coming on-line, to end of warranty, post-warranty, retrofitting and
decommissioning

Matthew C. Burt, SVP Operations, RES Americas
Andrea Miller, VP Asset Management, Apex Clean Energy
David Nutt, Asset Manager, EDP Renewables
Willem Jan van der Ven, former VP Asset Management, Atlantic Power

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10:40am Networking coffee break

11:15am Main component O&M roundtable sessions: Be part of discussion as stakeholders from
across the industry share their challenges, solutions and opinions on O&M of specific main
components
Join a table led by an industry expert to discuss critical O&M considerations around the
respective main components. This roundtable format gives attendees the chance to not
only boost their networking, but to be part of and guide the discussion themselves,
ensuring their very business needs are raised.
After 45 minutes the roundtables will rotate, giving attendees the chance to discuss a
second topic of interest.
Roundtables will be chairperson led but participant driven, involvement from all parties

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is encouraged to enhance knowledge and practice sharing. There will be 2 roundtables
for each topic running concurrently.
Gearbox
Evaluating practices for and highlighting success stories in maintaining and extending the
life of the gearbox

 Successful practices in gearbox O&M during the 5-8 year window to mitigate against
catastrophic failure further down the lifecycle

 Understanding the critical success factors in gearbox monitoring and the early
identification of potential failures

 Best practice in gearbox lubrication, load reduction and planned up tower
maintenance

Steven Gilbert, O&M Users Group Chair, UVIG
Main bearings
Developing strategies to mitigate catastrophic failure of main bearings and implement
effective predictive maintenance

 Examining monitoring and predictive maintenance strategies for the main bearings to
cost effectively pre-empt failure

 Assessing industry moves to increase knowledge and understanding of bearing failure
 Ensuring supply-chain security to mitigate against production losses caused by bearing

failure
 Performing effective root cause analysis to minimise repetition of main bearing

failures
Aaron Greco, Materials Engineer, Argonne National Laboratory
Don Roberts, Owner, DA Roberts LLC, Subcontractor, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL)

Blades
Responding to environmental and lifecycle impacts with cost effective and timely blade
maintenance and repair

 Calculating, responding to and mitigating against the increasing cost of blade damage
caused by lightning

 Implementing effective diagnosis and root cause analysis of blade damage to ensure
repairs are long lasting

 Implementing a blade inspection and proactive maintenance schedule across a fleet
that provides an ROI and boosts energy yield

Christopher Niezrecki, Director- Center for Wind Energy, UMass Lowell
Ben Rice, Manager, Operations Engineering, Pattern Energy
Generator
Save money and increase uptime through generator O&M

 Avoiding future catastrophic failure through rigorous generator monitoring
 Learning from success stories in generator remanufacture to increase longevity and

cut costs
 Developing generator supply chain security alongside technical expertise to ensure

you can respond in a timely manner to generator faults
Matthew Senn, Reliability Engineer, Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation

12:45pm Networking lunch

2:00pm Clarify operational performance and accurately measure risk through effective technical
due diligence and monitoring of assets

 Aligning an asset management strategy and the allocation of funds in response to
performance modelling

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 Decipher and interpret data to identify and respond to shortfalls in energy production
and prioritise O&M accordingly

 Balancing in-house capabilities with the use of external stakeholders for technical due
diligence and communications with financers

Chris Zielser, Project Manager-Due Diligence, AWS Truepower

2:20pm Analysing the on-going role of wind resource assessment in determining asset
management decision making

 Understanding the resource assessment demands financers and insurers will make,
how they inform their decision making, and how these can be met

 Using resource assessment to contribute when building internal O&M cost models
 Working with external stakeholders to ensure resource assessment delivers the

maximum intelligence on the potential productivity of an asset
Amit Bohara, Wind Energy Operations Consultant (Independent)

2:40pm Investor – Owner Operator Thinktank
Compiling the data and evidence to ensure investors remain attracted to a project

 Gauging increasing investor savvy towards wind power projects and understanding
how this has come to affect what they will demand from operators in terms of
operational evidence

 Working with third parties to perform independent due diligence and appease funders
of the viability and continuing profitability of a wind operation

 Compiling long term, evidence based, O&M budgets to satisfy financers
Vinod Mukani, Director, Deutsche Bank Securities
Ari Pribadi, Managing Director, Marathon Capital LLC

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3:10pm Networking break

3:40pm Post-warranty Panel
Managing operational risk and securing long-term cost effective electricity generation
through implementing a bespoke post-warranty O&M and asset management strategy

 Assessing the extent to which dependence on OEMs leaves operators with their
‘hands-tied’ and unable to see their specific needs satisfied, versus the reduction of
operating risk through greater knowledge, O&M capabilities and supply chain
advantages

 Weighing up the capabilities of ISPs in terms of knowledge, part supply and access to
data and calculating the extent to which this negates, or justifies their cost
effectiveness

 Calculating the advantages to be gained from bringing O&M in-house and the extent
to which your organisation has the economies of scale to make this a practical and
cost effective option

 Developing and maintaining effective communications with service providers and the
wider supply chain to minimise downtime and ensure cost savings are not negated by
unnecessary stoppages to production

 Overcoming pitfalls and capitalising on advantages by arriving at a hybrid post-
warranty O&M strategy

Steven Gilbert, O&M Users Group Chair, UVIG

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Rob Edinger, Senior Business Manager – Wind, Algonquin Power Co.
Ryan McGraw, President, Orion Energy Group LLC
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4:20pm Working group discussions:
Accessing, collating, interpreting and storing a wealth of operational data to inform and
optimise O&M strategy
Data, and lots of it, is continually central to the optimization of wind power operations.
Nevertheless ownership, access, historical records and the experience needed to make the
most of it all contribute to making data an area in which operators still have a lot to gain.
During this one hour working group discussion you will have the opportunity to share your
challenges and solutions in data management and usage. Led by a table chair who will guide
the discussion and facilitate participation you are invited to share views and expertise on:

 The selection of software and data that meets the specific operational needs of a
fleet

 Software upgrades to expand the data pool illustrating fleet performance and
enable a refining of asset management strategies and greater power production

 Integrating and storing a wide variety of data holistically to inform asset
management planning decisions

 Industry level sharing of data to benchmark operations and identify realistic
production expectations

 Multi-stakeholder relations and interaction in the gathering, sharing and analysing
of operational data

 The compilation and use of data in successful end of warranty claims and for post-
warranty strategy development

Paul Haberlein, Director, Operations Engineering, Pattern Energy
Carsten Westergaard, Senior Advisor, Sandia National Laboratories
Jaimeet Gulati, Operations Performance Analysis Manager, EDP Renewables
David Azari, Director Asset Manager, Invenergy LLC
David Nutt, Asset Manager, EDP Renewables
David Clark, Founder and Owner, CMS Wind
Tim Leier, Lead Performance Engineer, Vestas
Emil Moroz, President, EM Energy LLC

5:20pm Operator fireside chat: Gather round as operators, ranging from ‘large’ to ‘small’ share,
discuss, compare and contrast their operational challenges and how they’ve addressed
them

 Building and maintaining a relationships with your OEMs which sees them respond in a
bespoke manner to your operational needs, fostering transparency and a pro-active
approach to sharing data

 Examining the economies of scale seen as an operator grows and how these can be
capitalised upon in an asset management strategy for increased profitability

 Doing things on a shoe-string: Learning how smaller scale operations have been able
to operate profitably despite lacking the financial clout and operational expertise of
bigger operators. What can all operators learn from this?

Judah Moseson, VP O&M and International Services, Cielo Wind Power
Rob Edinger, Senior Business Manager – Wind, Algonquin Power Co.
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WOC-agenda.indd 8 17/09/2015 17:03

6:00pm Networking drinks reception

8:40am Wednesday 23rd September 2015
9:20am Registration
Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
Dan Shreve, Partner, MAKE Consulting

9:30am Presentation
Beyond the turbine: Refining a focus and understanding of balance of plant to keep power
generation maximised and supply electricity to the grid

 Quantifying the cost of balance of plant as part of an overall O&M budget and
unearthing the point where maximum value lies

 Implementing an effective substation monitoring and testing regime to guarantee
electricity flow

 Collating and interpreting SCADA data to develop an optimal O&M strategy for non-
turbine electrical systems

 Deciding upon the most suitable contractual arrangements with OEMs and/or ISPs to
execute balance of plant

 Quantifying the impact of roads and access routes on a wind farm’s performance and
discussing best practice for their maintenance

Judah Moseson, VP O&M and International Services, Cielo Wind Power
Be part of the dialogue and pose your questions to speakers on sli.do using #WindOCNA

10:00am Safety panel presentations
Navigating the hurdles and highlighting successful approaches in the implementation of
health and safety strategy
 Formulating a perception amongst senior management that recognises the commercial
value of health and safety and ensures their cooperation and committal of adequate
resources
 Calculating the cost of health and safety failings on an operations bottom line to build
a cost model and justify ROI
 Overcoming a lack of transparency to ensure health and safety requirements are
understood in their entirety by all team members and they have the capacity to meet
them
 Developing, implementing and sustaining a health and safety training programme
which is able to react to changes in legislation and advances in wind farm technology
and working conditions
 Monitoring health and safety compliance across a fleet to mitigate against negligence
and its associated
John Boyle, Former Senior Health and Safety Manager, Infigen
Grayling Vander Velde, Principle Safety Professional, NextEra Energy
Daniel Olson, EHS Manager, GE

11:00am Networking coffee break

WOC-agenda.indd 9 17/09/2015 17:03

11:40am Technician Case Study
Developing a workforce with a technical skillset that enables a continuing and effective
response to the operational demands of your assets

 Identifying and instilling the ‘right’ skill-set amongst your technicians as turbines age
and new technology is integrated

 Maintaining a culture of accountability and transparency of expectations amongst a
technical workforce

 Ensuring long-term returns on your staffing investments through retention and
progression of a workforce

 Overcoming the competition from other industries and perceptions on the working
environment to successfully recruit skilled technicians

Troy Ryan, Eastern Regional Manager, Infigen

12:10pm Reducing cost and returning aging turbines to operation quickly through well scheduled
and executed up tower repairs

 Scheduling crane access and technician availability to ensure up tower repairs are an
integral and practical element of O&M strategy

 Formulating a supply chain which guarantees up tower repairs can be conducted and
pre-empts catastrophic failure

 Channelling predictive data into the development of an up tower maintenance
schedule

Mike Johnson, Director of Program Management, Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation

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12:40pm Networking lunch

Afternoon chair
Troy Ryan, Eastern Regional Manager, Infigen

1:40pm How to minimize blade risks with in-depth asset understanding and preventive
maintenance

 Current options on blade inspections
 Preventive blade maintenance as a strategy
 Case studies and lessons learned from a major asset owner
Ville Karkkolainen, Managing Director, Bladefence

2:00pm Transitioning from understanding operational performance on a turbine level to the farm
level and quantifying the long term production increases this could facilitate

 Highlighting the shortfalls and operational consequences created by a failure to
understand a wind farm holistically

 Enhancing wind farm productivity through a concerted coordination of turbine
controls with one another

 Analysing research and developments into farm level turbine performance to gauge
how the industry could benefit in future

WOC-agenda.indd 10 17/09/2015 17:03

Tim Leier, Lead Performance Engineer, Vestas

2:30pm Networking break

3:00pm Strategies for Mitigating Wildlife Impacts During Wind Farm Operations
 What do recent studies suggest about optimal wind turbine curtailment strategies to
reduce bird and bat fatalities?
 What progress is being made with respect to technologies to detect and deter wildlife
at wind energy facilities?
 How is the effectiveness of available technologies and strategies being evaluated?

Abby Arnold, Executive Director, AWWI
Tim Hayes, Environmental Director, Duke Energy Renewables
Matthew Becker, Senior Environmental/Permitting Manager, Iberdrola Renewables

3:30pm Closing panel discussion
A performance paradigm shift: Highlighting the operational advances to be achieved
through a collective move towards revenue based, over time based, guarantees

 Understanding the advantages to your business model and consequent operational
performance through shifting a focus to electricity generation and revenue ahead of
turbine uptime

 Overcoming the challenges to aligning stakeholders across the wind power value
chain to collectively focus their strategies towards revenue generation over time

 Justifying an increase in operational costs through a clear and sustained increase in
revenue that can be attributed to them

Dan Shreve, Partner, MAKE Consulting
Emil Moroz, President, EM Energy LLC

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4:10pm Chair’s concluding remarks and close of the Wind Operator Congress North America 2015

WOC-agenda.indd 11 17/09/2015 17:03

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The Power of Knowledge Engineering 17/09/2015 17:03

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