By Renewable Energy Focus Staff

Renewable energy consultancy group Natural Power has been appointed by Bord Gáis Energy to manage the day-to-day operations of its portfolio of wind farms in Ireland.

Bord Gáis Energy operates 13 wind farms totalling 225 MW across Ireland. It will use Natural Power’s WindCentre service, which monitors, manages and controls wind farms, to achieve effective operations across the portfolio.

WindCentre is manned by experienced engineers and uses purpose-built software for health and safety management, work order recording and access control. In addition to operations management, Natural Power’s WindCentre will perform remote operation and reset on some of the turbines within Bord Gáis Energy’s portfolio.

Scott MacKenzie, Asset Management Director at Natural Power, says: “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."

George Martin, Head of Asset Operations at Bord Gáis Energy, says: “This contract represents an important step for Bord Gáis in providing world class asset management for our expanding renewable energy fleet and we are pleased that Natural Power’s WindCentre will play an important role in this strategy.”