According to a recent article in The New York Times, Xcel and other power companies nationwide are rapidly and strategically positioning for wind turbines and solar panels that generate less costly energy than coal-fired plants. In fact, Xcel says it’s rapidly becoming cheaper to build (and generate energy from) wind farms and solar plants than rely on coal. As these renewable plants come online, how will utilities and their partners handle emergent work and assess damage in the wake of major events?
Industrial wind turbines, often in remote locations, can measure up to 100 meters tall. At the top of these turbines, in the nacelle and hub, is where maintenance and repairs most often occur. Whether a turbine goes offline due to a component failure, such as a pitch system, or severe weather causes external damage to rotors, plant owners must respond safely and swiftly because they are losing, on average, several thousand dollars per day per turbine. Getting workers and resources into position happens faster with automated callout and a closed-loop damage assessment process.
Imagine a scenario in which you can quickly assemble and dispatch assessors. Humans and drones then submit damage assessment reports, which a network delivers to a control center to view all completed jobs and a summary of collected damage (by turbine, component, etc.), while automatically generating a work packet and integrating with an OMS and WMS for field crew assignment.
The future is almost here. Is your callout and damage assessment strategy ready?
