PROGRAMME

DAY ONE: Tuesday 11th November 2008

9:00 – 9:30
Best practice methods to manage operations and maintenance

• Learn from the experience of the offshore oil and gas industries so you can develop the best practice methods to access your wind farm
• Decide whether to provide accommodation on fixed platforms or floating vessels, or whether to ferry technicians to and from the site to ensure your O&M safety is as cost-effective as possible
• Discover how legislation from the oil and gas industries may affect your wind farm so you know how to prepare in advance

Ralph Hardwick, Manager of Regulatory Affairs, Offshore Solutions BV

9:30 – 10:00
Optimise your Performance With SCADA data

• Hear how routine operational wind turbine SCADA data is a grossly underexploited resource that can be used to optimise your wind farm performance
• Discover how systematic, regular and automated analysis of routine SCADA data can improve the output of your wind farm by as much as 3%
• Hear how you can commence performance monitoring now without the need for special instrumentation

10:00 – 10:30
O&M lessons learnt from the oil and gas industry

• Understand the implications of locating in water deeper than 30m for your offshore maintenance strategy
• Learn at what stage in your offshore development a maintenance platform is advantageous for your operations so you can implement an efficient maintenance strategy
• Discover how to account for the hidden cost of health and safety, insurance, resource retention and innovation within harsh conditions so you can save time and money

David Surplus, Managing Director, B9 Energy O&M Ltd

10:30 – 11:00
Networking coffee break

11:00 – 11:30
The Lighthouse Authorities Perspective on Renewable Energy

• Hear how to ensure you select the best possible location away from heavy traffic to reduce the risk of damage to your wind farm
• Understand how to sufficiently mark your turbines and learn whether your site requires additional buoys to avoid costly complications
• Discover the dangers onsite during construction, operation and decommissioning so you can keep your mariners safe in poor conditions

Captain Roger Barker, Navigation (Examination) Manager, Lighthouse Authorities

11:30 – 12:00
Round 3 next steps, key challenge

• Discover how The Crown Estate will fund up to 50% of the cost of planning consent costs and work with you to optimise the delivery time of your wind farm
• Understand plans to expand existing onshore sites so you can maximise the generation potential of your onshore wind farm
• Hear how The Crown Estate will work with wind farm developers to establish the best location for new wind farms and gain consensus with key stakeholders to successfully deliver each scheme

Peter Lawrence, Crown Estate

12:00 – 13:30
Networking lunch

13:30 – 14:00
How to increase your supplier base

• Learn who is able to supply components and the time frames they work to so you can avoid costly delays
• Discover who the new players are, who is breaking into the market and the impact they could have by introducing competitive prices
• Find out when high voltage cables will be available and how this will allow you to close the gap between your theoretical generation capacity and actual output

Russell Davis, Business Development Manager, UK Renewables

14:00 – 14:30
Reduce your costs with Meteorological information

• Understand which types of meteorological information you can use at each stage of your project to maximise profitability
• Discover how your team can use weather forecasting and forecasters to maximise the value of your risk assessment and operations management
• Learn how to ensure you get the right meteorological information at the right time for your project so you can reduce downtime and cost

Cat Williams, Marine Department, Meteo Consult

14:30 – 15:00
Harnessing the power of the wind

• Hear how the need for accurate short range forecasting of hub height wind speed is crucial to optimise the power generated by your wind farm
• Learn how the Met Office are developing high resolution modelling capabilities to forecast the timing and magnitude of wind ramping events up to a day in advance
• Discover how high resolution modelling coupled with statistical post-processing is an extremely useful tool for effective wind farm operation and power management

Ian Pearman, Senior Applied Scientist, Met Office

15:00 – 15:30
Networking coffee break

15:30 – 16:00
Minimise the effect of the supply chain bottleneck on your wind farm

• Hear how small sub-groups of wind turbine owners have come together to purchase gearbox components to hold in stock and overcome long waiting times
• Discover how groups of turbine owners share their experience to provide solutions and overcome the bottleneck challenge
• Understand the importance of upgrading local workshops for gearbox repair so you can eradicate lengthy manufacture waiting times

Strange Skriver, Chief Technical Consultant, Danish Association of Wind Turbine Owners

16:00 – 16:30
Wind turbine blade technology – past, present and future

• Understand the effects of rapid industry growth on blade technology
• Discover the driving factors that you should take into account when purchasing rotor blades
• Discuss whether a 20 year life is a realistic prospect

Andrew Bellamy, Composites Processing Manager, Gurit

16:30 – 17:30
Recruitment and retention interactive workshop

• Evaluate your recruitment and retention strategy against your industry peers so you can overcome any pitfalls
• Assess the level of financial commitment required to secure the correct candidates and encourage loyalty to your company
• Discuss how you could work with your industry peers to develop an effective partnership with academic institutes to attract the right talent to fill the skills gap
• Investigate what you can do to encourage more engineering graduates to enter the wind energy market

Co-ordinated and led by
Tom Hopkinson, Divisional Manager, Energy and Environment, Eden Scott

17:30 – 18:15
Speed networking

18:15 – 19:30
Networking drinks

End of Day One

DAY TWO: Wednesday 12th November 2008

9:25 – 9:30
Chairman’s opening

9:30 – 10:00
Optimise your O&M with an efficient installation strategy

• Understand how to use careful pre-planning, cable route selection and risk assessment to cost effectively assess and mitigate the short and long term risk of damage to your wind farm cables
• Learn from the experience gained with wind farm cable installation to date to ensure you set realistic schedules
• Hear the latest methods being used for more efficient cable installation with a view to a hassle-free cable installation programme

Mike Nichols, Director, Engineering Technology Applications

10:00 – 10:30
Develop the most cost-effective O&M strategy

• Discover how to calculate the yearly cost of maintaining your wind farm so you can identify where to save money
• Uunderstand what maintenance needs to be carried out when taking into account prediction, logistics, constraints and guarantees
• See how you can use operational data and available measurements to accurately predict future maintenance costs

Luc Rademakers, Head of Group: Operations and Condition Monitoring, ECN Wind Energy

10:30 – 11:00
Networking coffee break

11:00 – 11:30
CASE STUDY
Best practice O&M techniques: Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm

• Understand the importance of your O&M strategy during site selection to ensure your programme runs smoothly
• Learn about the latest oil and gas industry expertise so you can implement the most cost-effective O&M techniques into your strategy to save time and money
• Hear a case study about the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm with a detailed exploration of wind farm design, operating strategy, and resource and contractors

Jonathan Duffy, Offshore Operations Manager, Airtricity

11:30 – 12:00
Best practice asset management

• Understand the implications of the BWEA wind turbine safety rules so you can effectively monitor and control O&M contractors on your sites
• Hear how to manage high voltage systems to minimise your wind farm downtime
• Discover the latest tools to identify and quantify performance problems to aid decision making

Scott MacKenzie, Asset Manager, Business Manager, Natural Power

12:00 – 13:30
Networking lunch

13:30 – 14:00
Latest techniques to cut the cost of O&M access

• Understand the demands on the service organisation to ensure you have a reliable and robust operation and maintenance strategy
• Discover how to select the most stable vessel to safely transfer personnel to your wind farm in a harsh environment
• Learn how to utilise scenario modelling to build a virtual model of your wind farm and move swiftly through the O&M planning process

Colin Morgan, Director, Offshore Wind, Garrad Hassan

14:00 – 15:00
Roundtable discussion groups

• Minimise O&M costs
• Maximise performance with meteorological information
• Best practice asset management
• Round 3 funding
• Overcome the bottleneck challenge

15:00 – 15:30
Optimisation of operation and maintenance strategies for offshore wind farms

• Take part in a detailed analysis of the differences between onshore and offshore projects
• Discover the reliability theory prediction simulations of failure rates in offshore wind turbines
• Understand the development of computer based modelling using Monte Carlo method to simulate a planned intervention strategy
• Sumulation of “How Green is Green” CO2 emissions associated with the adopted O&M strategy

Alexander Karyotakis, Researcher, University College London

15:30 – 15:45
Chairman’s closing

End of Summit