Siemens Gamesa wins significant service extension contract for 504-MW Greater Gabbard wind farm in UK

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is announcing the renewal of its contract to service the Greater Gabbard wind farm, located off the east coast of the UK. The five-year contract is for the provision of operation and maintenance for the 504-MW wind farm, until 2022.

Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm Ltd (GGOWL), the owners of the wind farm, have contracted Siemens Gamesa to provide scheduled servicing, troubleshooting and technical support to the 140 SWT-3.6-107 turbines installed at the site. The £1.6bn site itself lays 23km off the Suffolk coast, and was opened by the then Energy Minister, Michael Fallon MP in August 2013.

This contract continues, and builds upon, the service work that Siemens Gamesa has provided since 2013. Onshore 24/7 monitoring and diagnostics of each of the turbines will take place at the company’s dedicated control room, based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.

Servicing Greater Gabbard is the most recent of three service contract extensions awarded to Siemens Gamesa. Building on the success of 10-year secured service agreements for the 175-turbine London Array wind farm, and the 54-turbine Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms, this is the first contract to include the Balance of Plant.

These extensions bring the number of individual turbines monitored in real-time by the Service business of Siemens Gamesa in the UK and Ireland to well in excess of 3,200 at over 128 wind farms (onshore and offshore), with an output capacity of approximately 9.5 GW. This, combined with advances in predictive diagnostics, have made servicing and maintenance a data-driven process, rather than at scheduled periods. These innovations have helped the company preserve the reliability it is well known for, while delivering efficiency gains to the customer.

"We are very pleased that Siemens Gamesa has been selected again to provide service and maintenance services for the Greater Gabbard wind farm,” said Mark Albenze, CEO, Service, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. “This five-year extension underscores our commitment to providing customers with value-driven service plans targeted to their specific operational needs and complemented with our advanced digital services that help drive down the costs associated with wind energy. We thank GGOWL for their continued confidence in our products and services.”

With more than 6,000 employees focused on providing safe and cost-effective service and maintenance solutions in 53 countries, SGRE services more than 23,000 turbines worldwide, totalling 54 GW.