Thibault Desclee de Maredsous talks of operations and maintenance: We take local content seriously. If we take the example of Brazil, today you have to be close to 80% local content.

Interview by Jason Deign

Q: How is your O&M business developing in Brazil?

A: In Brazil we have 2GW of orders booked. As a less mature market, the customers in general had not looked at the O&M part. But many have come up with knowledge from established markets and now things are changing as customers see the importance of O&M.

As a result, we have started to build more tailor-made offerings. Before, there used to be a strong differentiation between capital and operational expenditure. Now customers look at the full picture. In Europe, that is standard.

O&M in Brazil is different to established markets because of the distance of the wind farms. In Brazil, you need guys nearer the site.

Q: How have you faced up to the local content requirements in Brazil?

A: We take local content seriously. If we take the example of Brazil, today you have to be close to 80% local content.

That is the game you have to play. We have a tower factory there and a nacelle factory, and we are creating jobs by building a local industrial footprint and creating O&M jobs.

Q: How important is O&M in helping you achieve a competitive edge?

A: O&M is a way to make the difference between your brand and everyone else’s. There are a lot of guys who can make good turbines on the market. When it comes to service, that is where you can offer an advantage. The O&M helps differentiate us from competitors.

If you look at who is successful in the wind business it is those who are delivering the highest quality. I don’t think you are going to win contracts on O&M on its own, though. It’s the full package.

Q: What is your view of who should be responsible for turbine O&M?

A: Clearly, when you are building a wind farm it is the OEM who understands the business.

Q: How do you see O&M developing in future? Do you think wind OEMs will come to resemble auto manufacturers in terms of their after-sales capabilities?

A: Wind is very different to an industry like hydro, which we are also heavily involved in. There, with each project you have to design a turbine. Wind, though, is all about standardisation and so for me the benefit of maintaining these products is part of the full picture.

Q: More widely, what areas of innovation are you focusing on at the moment?

A: We are doing a lot now in cold-climate countries, bringing additional features to our turbines. The customisation of the product is important, like whether you have de-icing features for the blades.

Q: Back in Europe, what is your position regarding O&M?

A: Our strongest O&M story is in Spain, from when we bought Ecotècnia, with 1.7GW. In offshore a lot of customers want to begin running and operating the wind farms themselves. If you look at guys like Dong, they want to take care of it. It’s a new business.