Customer earnings are directly affected by whether an offshore service visit is performed on a windy or a calm day. The newly launched Active Output Management (AOM 5000) service contract has been tailored to suit Vestas customers’ best interest – The future offshore contract ensures uptime when most profitable, maximum energy output and maximum turbine performance.
Asger Pedersen, Director of Contract & Customer Management in Vestas Offshore, explains how the major change from the previous service contracts to AOM 5000 is cemented in maximizing the energy output for customers.
“In effect, this means a contract which now ensures our customers a maximum production at all times as we now are measured on actual production compared to what could have been produced at any given time. This is to be compared to the previous contracts which primarily ensured a general time based availability of the turbines which did not take into account whether the wind was blowing or not. It does not take much math to calculate that customers want to utilize the high wind season fully as this is the ground pillar of their business case, and hence, the new concept is focused on this main aspect while offering them more flexibility.” Asger explains from his office in Vestas’ headquarter, Denmark.
The contract is based on a refined management system which appreciates the service opportunities in the low wind speed seasons and employs an intensive offshore site servicing in order to utilize Mother Nature’s conditions best. The management system also guarantees customers a maximum energy output, in high wind seasons, so their business case improves significantly. In addition, the future offshore contract, which is being negotiated with present customers reshapes Vestas Offshore’s servicing as service teams now become bigger in order to act faster and even more efficiently. The philosophy of this approach allows solving scheduled and bundled service items faster, more efficient and better than ever, when the wind is not blowing, which has a side benefit of driving down cost of energy.
Asger ads to his explanation:
“Our promise to the customer requires that we continue to bundle service and react proactively to stay loyal to our high problem solving rate and ability to detect potential problems before they occur – while ensuring that we do not compromise safety, quality or efficiency. With years of experience in this field, Vestas knows what it takes to deliver quality and efficiency in the O&M. This fact sets the agenda when we raise the bar for offshore service in the industry with the AOM 5000 – it is truly exciting to be offering offshore customers such a product.”
With AOM 5000 Vestas is now also taking a higher risk as we ensure the customers’ business case to a new industry level. Embodying such a strong business case in the O&M products is a refined result of the journey Vestas has taken in the offshore market the last 20 years. Asger explains that the risk of such a new O&M product has been considered for some time prior to the development of AOM 5000.
“We are taking a higher risk, because if a major component fails in the high wind speed season we will be punished harder. This means that we will be paying the bill for the lost production of wind. Obviously, we would not take on such a risk, if we did not trust our products with the future of our own business. We have confidence in our products and in our ability to predict faults due to our long track record. With preventive and predictive maintenance, we have created a benchmarking availability for our customers and established a predictive service management approach, which is inspired by areofleet services. This is an industry, which relies on extreme prediction and bundling of service. “ Asger ends the interview as he packs his suitcase to meet a customer who wants to learn more about the new contract.
To read more about the AOM 5000, go to:
http://www.vestas.com/Default.aspx?ID=10332&action=3&NewsID=2602
