Official opening of Competence Center

Together with its business partners, SSB Service, the independent WTGS service provider, celebrated the official opening of the new Competence Center on 13 August in Hamburg and Norderstedt.

Amongst other things, SSB Service GmbH, Rheine plans to use the Norderstedt Competence Center to examine more closely the WTGS technology of one of the world’s leading manufacturers of wind turbines, in order to be able to offer a comprehensive know-how for service performances.

“Using specific servicing and maintenance concepts, our task will be to further improve the availability of Vestas V80 and V90 2 MW turbines. Similar to our already very successful servicing concepts for Tacke, Enron and GE turbines, we will have to obtain the relevant comprehensive detailed knowledge for this purpose“, explained Olaf Kleesch, who has been in charge of the Norderstedt Competence Center since April 2009.

With his current team of seven, Olaf Kleesch will focus on the independent supply of spare parts, independent monitoring of Vestas turbines and preventive maintenance. “This will naturally also include the further development of critical hydraulics as well as electrical and mechanical components“, emphasised Olaf Kleesch, who is responsible for the maintenance concepts of the Vestas turbines.

A contract for around 15 Vestas V80 turbines has already been signed. “We are working closely with a cooperation partner and have unrestricted access to the WTGS to allow, for instance, training of our service teams. We will therefore have considerable practical experience on the planned starting date for our service operation. Our clients can thus rest assured that all work on Vestas turbines will be carried out correctly and that we will use all available know-how to improve availability of the WTGS. In future, the control and coordination of all service activities for Vestas turbines will be handled by our Rheine site“, stated Henning Wegner, supporting the activities of the Competence Center as SSB´s Service Manager for Germany and who, together with Olaf Kleesch will be the central contact person for clients.

Ulrich Schomakers, CEO of the SSB group, appeared both delighted and optimistic during the official opening of the Competence Center: “Experience gained in recent years has shown that SSB´s maintenance and servicing concepts are successful and are therefore requested by an increasing number of clients. The opening of our Competence Center represents another important milestone for our independent service company. We have deliberately chosen the site due to its close proximity to Hamburg, as the city offers an enormous potential for engineering know-how due to, amongst other things, its universities. Engineers and other well-trained expert personnel can consequently be found on our door step. I am very confident that we will be able to meet our schedule and will be able to offer the first actual maintenance and servicing concepts from January 2010 onwards.“


All about the SSB group

Since 1970 the SSB group has been on the move worldwide with customer-specific products revolving around drive technology and wind energy. The company’s longstanding experience and considerable know-how form a strong foundation for a comprehensive range of products and performances: from motors, gears, control and switch gear up to control elements for Wind Turbine Generator Systems, SSB offers sophisticated solutions for standard products or one-off designs. SSB is one of the pioneers of the rapidly growing regenerative energy production market and has been the market leader in the segment electrical pitch systems and switch gear since 1995. In particular for the wind energy sector, SSB Service GmbH offers a proactive all-inclusive worldwide service for all types of Wind Turbine Generator Systems. This includes the entire value-added chain from remote monitoring and maintenance to the supply of spare parts and fault finding up to the optimization of systems by staff with over 10 years of experience in the wind sector.