Program Agenda	Print Agenda

	Tuesday, January 19

11:30 am
Registration Opens

Lunch will not be provided
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1:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Welcome & Introduction

Speakers:
John Dunlop, Senior Technical Services Engineer, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)

Program Chairperson: Eric White, Vice President,
Consulting Services, AWS Truewind, LLC
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1:15 pm – 1:30 pm
A Year of Transition: Wind Energy 2009 in Review
This session will review the latest results from the American Wind Industry’s performance in 2009. It will provide an overview of preliminary industry wide facts and figures for 2009 related to its continued growth, performance and overall status amidst the financial crisis, stimulus package effects and industry momentum. This will put into context the significance of wind in the US energy picture in general, and on the rapidly increasing role of sustaining operations in supporting wind in the future.

Speaker:
Stephen Miner, Senior VP of Conference,
Membership and Business Development, AWEA
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1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Improving Performance and Cost Competitiveness
A leading owner-operator will discuss their thoughts, experience and perspective on critical aspects of operational programs designed to optimize overall wind project performance, productivity and reliability. It will describe these contributing elements, and illustrate how these directly link to the project bottom line financial success, providing an overview of a path to project success.

Speaker:
Marty Crotty, President, AES Wind Generation
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2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Building Successful Operations
Two foundational elements of any successful project, and the industry in general, are ensuring safe workplaces, and actively managing the development of the overall workforce. In a rapidly growing industry such as wind, it is of particular importance that both of these sectors maintain prominent roles in everyone’s planning. Industry wide efforts are critical to success in these areas. The first talk will look at key takeaways and thoughts from AWEA's Health and Safety workshop held earlier in the year. The second talk will discuss overall industry needs, and what the AWEA Education Working Group (EWG) is doing to help address them.

Speakers:
Mike Kelley, Corporate Environmental Health and Safety Manager,
Upwind Solutions, Inc.
Health and Safety: The First Priority

Jennifer Askew, Vestas Americas Wind Technology and AWEA Education Working Group (EWG) Chair
Training: Meeting the Industry’s Staffing Needs
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2:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Break/Exhibits
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3:15 pm – 4:00 pm
Wind Variability: Minimizing its Impacts
Understanding and minimizing the impact of the inherent variability of wind power can be critical to successful operations and maximizing overall project returns. Integration into the grid, particularly at increasing penetration levels, is best accomplished with use of forecasting systems to anticipate projected power levels and adjust accordingly. This helps ensure all potential generated power can be effectively used by the system operators. While many wind projects provide input to system operators, they may see little feedback on how the data is used and how it impacts the grid, and their own operations. The first talk will help illuminate this side of operations. The second talk will discuss some specific elements and methods for reducing the impacts of wind variability on project operational decisions – from the use of forecasting to help with O&M planning and scheduling, to reconciling budgets, and evaluating and understanding project performance.

Session Chair:
Rolf Miller, Technical Consulting Services Manager,
WindLogics Inc.

Speakers:
Jim Blatchford, Senior Policy Issues Rep, CAISO
Forecasting: An ISO User Perspective

Michael Brower, Principal, AWS Truewind
Accounting for Wind in Project Operations
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4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Major Component Maintenance and Reliability
Major component reliability considerations can drive operations and maintenance costs and repair times, in turn having significant impacts on project bottom line performance. There are both very visible contributors – blades and gearboxes, for instance, but generators and overall lubrication system health can also play significant roles in turbine maintenance, especially over time. This session will review these critical areas, and discuss maintenance, repair and replacement considerations and how they contribute to maximizing overall project returns.

Session Chair:
Sandy Butterfield, CEO, Boulder Wind Power

Speakers:
Gary Kanaby, VP of Sales, Knight & Carver Wind Group
Blade Maintenance and Repair

Michelle Graf, Product Manager, Hydraulic, Industrial Gear Oil, and Grease,
The Lubrizol Corporation
Lubrication Systems: The life blood of your system

Eckart Bodenbach, P.E.,Winergy Drive Systems Corporation
Gearbox repair, replacement and rebuilds—understanding options

Jonathan Glessner, Wind Division Manager, H&N Electric
Generator maintenance and reliability: lessons learned
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5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Networking Reception

TOP

	Wednesday, January 20

7:00 am
Registration Opens

7:30 am – 8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
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8:00 am – 9:15 am
Learning from Equipment and Data:
Condition Monitoring and Data Analysis
Numerous industries have shown that increasing levels of system and equipment health awareness improves project yields. Using available data, and in some cases adding systems and sensors, can lead to strong returns on investment and improved overall operations and bottomline performance. This session will discuss examples from other relevant industries which the wind industry can learn from; review a case study in wind from an owner-operator on the implementation and of condition monitoring and analysis package, how it was justified and the benefits they see; and explore the information, data, trends and insights users can gain from understanding output from typical scada systems already available to them.

Session Chair:
Dave Roberts, Director of Business Development, OSIsoft, Inc.

Speakers:
John Lindberg, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Lessons learned from other industries – An outside perspective on CM

Kevin Schroeder, Operations Engineer, Invenergy LLC
James Rafferty, Asset Manager – Texas, Invenergy LLC
Justifying CM system expense: a practical example

Robert Poore, Head of Department, DNV Global Energy Concepts - DNV-GEC
Studying your SCADA data: Understanding your project
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9:15 am – 9:30 am
Industry Updates
Updates on industry wide activities relevant to the O&M community will be shared. First an overview of the AWEA O&M Working Group will be provided, including brief discussion of topics to be covered at a meeting to be held in concert with the workshop. Then, AWEA will provide updates on their policy activities relevant to the operations community.

Speakers:
Michele Graf, Project Manager, The Lubrizol Corporation,
and AWEA O&M Working Group Chair
O&M Working Group Update

Bree Raum, Director, Grassroots Advocacy and WindPAC, AWEA
AWEA O&M Policy Update
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9:30 am – 10:00 am
Break
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10:00 am – 11:30 pm
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)
Perspectives on O&M
Arguably the largest service providers in the US wind industry, Original Equipment Manufacturers will discuss their perspectives on successful O&M of wind projects, different approaches to plant operations and what owner/operators should consider to improve project profitability and reliability. Through a series of short presentations and then an actively moderated dialogue among a group of OEMs, the session will explore various aspects of operations, and aspects critical to success and improved project returns.

Session Chair:
Ed Zaelke, Partner, Chadbourne & Parke

Panelists:
Larry Willey, VP, Operation Maintenance Service and Warranty,
Clipper Windpower, Inc.
Sudhir Nunes, O&M Customer Service Manager,
Gamesa Technology Corporation
Jeff Wiener, Global Sales & Commercial Manager - GE Wind Services,
General Electric Power Systems
Oliver Kijas, Technical Support - Head of Department, REpower USA Corp.
Terry B. Callahan, Vice President, Operations, Maintenance and Service,
Suzlon Wind Energy Corp

Others panelists TBA
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11:30 am – 12:15 pm
End of the Warranty Service Alternatives
While many projects operate with OEM support during the warranty period, an increasing number of projects will face the end of warranty point, and will want to understand the service and operations options available to them. Independent service providers will give their perspective on plant operations and maintenance, and keys to project success. Speakers will discuss their perspective on plant performance, successful project operations, pitfalls to avoid, and best methods to increase bottom line performance.

Speakers:
Glenn McCombs, Business Development Manager, Renewable Energy,
O&M, NAES Corporation

Mike Kelly, VP Operations, Spinnaker Energy, Inc.
Equipment inspections: Understanding what you are getting
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12:15 pm – 1:45 pm
Lunch
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1:45 pm – 2:45 pm
Sharing Data and Metrics for Everyone’s Benefit
Numerous industries have demonstrated that sharing of information across industry participants can help elevate the entire industry, increasing returns across the board. As the wind industry grows, various efforts are underway to share insights and learning. In this session some specific active projects will be discussed to update participants on activities and findings from such important efforts - ranging from a first of a kind survey of North American wind project availability, to development of in-depth reliability reporting databases similar to other power generation sectors, and joint efforts exploring and understanding critical issues relevant to gearboxes.

Moderator:
Phil Stiles, Director, Operations & Maintenance,
Acciona Energy North America

Speakers:
Alicia Cushman, Energy Assessment Manager, enXco
A Survey of North American Wind Plant Availability: Results

Paul Veers, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff,
Sandia National Laboratories
An Update on Plant Reliability Reporting – Reliability databases, NERC/GADS

Francisco Oyague, Research Engineer,
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Gearbox Collaborative
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2:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Break
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3:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Owner Operator Panel:
Getting the Most out of a Project
The workshop will culminate in a panel discussion among experienced owner operators who will offer their perspectives on issues and approaches to plant operations and improving project profitability and reliability. The moderator will structure the discussion by teeing up topics and issues across typical project operations life cycle – from early startup considerations to ongoing operations—and ask the owner operator panelists for their perspectives. Topics from previous workshop sessions will also be explored. With multiple perspectives on specific issues resulting from the panel discussion format, attendees will gain unique insights and alternative views on issues they face, as well as best practices to consider and pitfalls to avoid. Overall, this session will bring the earlier sessions into focus with a practical approach, giving attendees the chance to consider what they can do to improve their own project’s profitability and reliability.

Session Chair:
Phil Dutton, Senior Project Manager, Garrad Hassan America, Inc.

Panelists:
David Barnes, CEO, Bluarc Management Group
Ross Newlin, Vice President, Asset Management, enXco, Inc.
Terry Oswald, Director, Operations, Horizon Wind Energy
Kevin Devlin, Vice President of Operations, Iberdrola Renewables
Scott McBride, Regional Operations Manager, NRG Energy Inc.
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Wrap-Up

Program Chair:
Eric White, Vice President, Consulting Services, AWS Truewind, LLC

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