http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/investor-news/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/natural-power-contracted-by-bord-gais-to-manage-13-irish-wind-farms.html

 

Irish power producer Bord Gais Energy has contracted renewable consultancy Natural Power to manage operations of it portfolio of wind farms across Ireland. Natural Power will deploy wind farm monitoring, management and control solution WindCentre to observe and respond to the 13 sites, which have a combined capacity of 225MW.

 

WindCentre is a control room manned by engineers and facilitated by software for health and safety management, work order recording and access control. Remote operation and reset will be available for many of the turbines within the portfolio and the operations base can be accessed remotely through the internet by site engineers.

Scott MacKenzie, asset management director at Natural Power, said, 'This deal demonstrates the real value that can be provided by a multi-client independent control room such as WindCentre. It complements the existing capabilities of a utility while enhancing the level of supervision, control and monitoring on wind farm assets, at a reduced cost when compared with setting up such a system in house. We are delighted to have broken into the Wind Farm Asset Management market in Ireland with such a prestigious client who clearly recognises the advantages of Natural Power's WindCentre.'

In June, it was announced that Natural Power had won site management contracts from renewable generator Infinis that will see it manage a quarter of wind farms in the UK.

Wind power in Ireland is set to increase dramatically as Renewable Northern Ireland recently unveiled a strategy of developing 100MW of new projects in the country.