Promill is the co-owner of the De Plaet wind farm. NGup Rotor Blades is carrying out maintenance at the farm this summer. We interviewed David Mol, Managing Director of Promill and also the chief turbine operator at De Plaet. A salient point is that he is closely involved in the Platform of Owners of Vestas Wind Turbines.

Can you tell us something about your background?
From 1990 to 1996 I worked at Lagerwey, a pioneer in the wind turbine field. Many of their turbines can be found in the Flevoland, Wieringermeer and Zeeland regions of the Netherlands. Towards the end of this period I was intensively involved in establishing the DeltaWind Wind Corporation. Many residents of the Goeree-Overflakkee island participate in this successful corporation. The Corporation owns four Lagerweij turbines, six Bonus turbines and one prototype Lagerweij LW750. Promill was established about ten years ago. Together with DeltaWind, the Promill project development company set up the De Plaet wind farm, consisting of 12 Vestas V66 turbines.

How does the farm work?
The farm has a poor series of Vestas machines. Gearboxes, generators and the hydraulic system regularly exhibit serious deficiencies. It's expensive and often takes a long time to repair or replace these parts. So on top of the repair costs you incur a substantial loss of production. Provided that the turbines are in service, we have excellent production, thanks in part to our good waterside location. Maintenance of the turbines has been a weakness of Vestas for some time now. That is why De Plaet has now outsourced the maintenance to a party other than Vestas. The three matters that really count when it comes to maintaining turbines are quality, speed and flexibility. This is what enables us to minimise the number of faults and idle time of the turbines. We engaged NGup because, after more than five years, the turbine rotor blades are beginning to exhibit signs of damage and wear and tear here and there. After receiving positive references about NGup from several parties, the management of the De Plaet wind farm decided to award them the contract to restore the blades of all 12 turbines to perfect condition. Many other wind turbine owners are unhappy with the maintenance provided by Vestas and with the overall quality of the turbines. That was the reason for establishing a Vestas owners pressure group last year. The objective is to exert more pressure on Vestas.

Can you describe what the pressure group does?
The Platform of Owners of Vestas Wind Turbines, or PEVW for short, now has a substantial number of members. Members include agricultural businesses, project developers, wind turbine corporations and an energy company. In all, we represent 200 MW of output. Our membership is growing rapidly. We have also established contacts with similar organisations in other countries. Protecting our interests is the most important task of PEVW, but we are also able to exchange information with each other. We meet a few times each year. And we obviously hold talks with Vestas about maintenance and about the delivery of spares. Ultimately, our goal is to make Vestas perform better. After all, we want to be able to benefit as much as possible from our wind turbines for as long as possible.

Where does Promill go from here?
Through the De Plaet wind farm, Promill plays a role within the platform and of course in the management of De Plaet. But we are also pressing ahead on developing a new wind farm with four large turbines in this region. So Promill has ample challenges in this turbulent but interesting market.

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