New value-added tools

In 2011, Gamesa launched new operation and maintenance value-added tools, including:

• Reconditioning large components, which increases the useful life of wind turbines by improving or replacing turbine components (blades, gearboxes, generators) with the latest technology. This maximises turbine performance and, therefore, wind farm productivity, while reducing O&M costs.
• The GPA programme, based on 2 years of analysing improvements in availability and reliability in the 2.0 MW platform, which enables us to optimise the fleet's competitiveness through specific enhancement packages. The results of this programme are now a reality: an improvement of up to 10% in farm opex, with prospects of attaining 99% turbine availability. The new GPA programme is being applied to all new Gamesa turbines.
• Gamesa is working to extend turbine useful lives to up to 30 years of sustained operation by means of preventive and/or corrective actions, and upgrading large components to new specifications throughout the turbine's additional lifespan.
  
  Actions include implementing individual technical audits and customised plans, redesigning components, improving turbine efficiency and performance and keeping operating costs low in the long term. The programme offers numerous advantages, including stability in operating costs at around the level of a 10-year-old farm, extending a wind farm's useful life, and increasing asset value by between 33% for 5-year-old turbines and up to 100% for 15-year-old turbines. This automatically increases capital and EBIT-with no need for capital expenditure-by spreading depreciation and financial costs over a longer period.