The Operation Development, Innovation and Others segment brings together all of the various activities aimed at improving the operating profit margin after commissioning of the wind farm or solar park. Such activities include in particular: Operational management of wind farms (technical and commercial) and all activities aimed at reducing costs, extending service life and increasing yields, e.g. predictive, preventive maintenance, direct marketing of the generated power and rotor blade extension.
Regardless of whether the developed projects are sold or included in the Group's portfolio, Energiekontor typically assumes responsibility for commercial and technical operational management, thus generating an ongoing cash flow for the company.
Commercial activities include in particular the settlement of accounts with the energy supplier, the service/maintenance companies and the landlords. Other activities include communicating with banks, insurance companies and investors.
Apart from wind turbine monitoring and data reporting and analysis, the technical services rendered by Energiekontor mostly involve the coordination of repairs and servicing teams working on-site, as well as the planning and implementation of preventive maintenance work. This preventive maintenance work can substantially extend the service life of both individual turbines and the overall site, while simultaneously achieving considerable savings in costs for repairs of primary components.
Technical innovations such as rotor blade extension also form part of the activities designed to optimise performance, yield and cost savings. This extension process invented and patented by Energiekontor is a technique for lengthening the rotor diameter that has now been tested and implemented successfully in the field for some years. Installation is carried out with the blade attached, i.e. without dismantling the blade. This concept allows crane costs and downtimes to be kept at a minimum. Currently, manufacturing of the rotor blade extension for serial operation is being prepared.
Research and development
While the company does not conduct R&D in the conventional sense of the term, the various activities handled by the Operation Development, Innovation and Others division are, on the whole, nonetheless designed to improve the operational performance and efficiency of wind farms and solar parks. Besides the repowering of Group-owned wind farms or preventive turbine maintenance, this also refers to technological innovations such as rotor blade extension and optimising blade aerodynamics.
