The wind sector has always had a challenging business model. Wind energy projects depend on high initial investments with fluctuating production and price levels. To mitigate financial risk, wind project developers secure fixed revenues through power purchasing agreements (PPAs). Their bottom line depends on maintaining or expanding the margin between operating costs and the contract power purchase price.
Different farms use turbines, sensors, and control room software from dozens of vendors. The lack of a unified operational view inhibits operators from optimizing performance and impedes the deployment of innovations in predictive maintenance and AI. The result is pervasive inefficiency, a death knell in an industry where maximizing uptime and efficiency is essential for profitability.
With most maintenance occurring during daytime, wind farms require less engaged monitoring during evening hours. By consolidating the monitoring of multiple sites to a single centralized control room during off-hour periods, wind turbine companies can reduce their staffing. With VOX, night-time operators at remote control rooms share a common operating picture, enabling a seamless handover and limiting operational expenses.
The retirement of nearly 50% of utility workers over the next decade is creating a huge strain on workforce planning and an impending risk of a labor shortage. With tailored, uniform screens, VOX speeds up onboarding and improves workforce flexibility. As new recruits are being trained, operators and technicians from other sites can fill in without having to learn an entirely new system.