Moventas today announced a contract with GDF SUEZ Energy Generation NA* (GDF SUEZ) to install Moventas’ wind turbine condition management system (CMaS) at each of GDF SUEZ’s wind facilities in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada. Moventas believes this contract represents one of the largest wind turbine retrofit installations in the world.

GDF SUEZ has three wind farms with 91 turbines in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick totaling 207 MW of generation capacity.

Moventas’ CMaS is a unique condition management system for wind turbines developed in Finland. It detects possible operational issues in gears and other mechanical components before they start to affect turbines’ activities. With preventive monitoring the CMaS decreases and shortens maintenance downtime, which can be expensive for companies operating the generation facilities and disruptive for their power customers.
 
”We chose Moventas and its CMaS because we wanted a reliable partner to help us maximize service to our customers while lowering maintenance costs with the help of preventive monitoring,” says Mark Gilmore , Director of Wind Operations for GDF SUEZ Energy Generation NA. 

Moventas’ Global Product Manager Antti Turunen is very pleased with the new customer: “Our agreement with GDF SUEZ is proof of what we have believed for a long time. The emphasis on wind turbine maintenance work shifts even more from reactive correction to prevention and long-term monitoring of the mechanisms in wind turbines.” In addition to the installation and assembly work, the contract includes a remote service agreement. 

Moventas invests strongly in the services and development of CMaS. In the coming years, Moventas anticipates that the service markets in Europe and North America will expand: the warranty contracts of wind turbines built earlier will end and the service functions will be open for competition.

The advantage of Moventas’ CMaS is that it can also be initially assembled into wind turbines afterwards, as retrofit. Furthermore, the system is not only operational with Moventas’ own gears, it can monitor gears from other manufacturers as well. The system can also easily be extended to monitor the whole power transmission chain of the turbines.

For more information:

Antti Turunen , Global Product Manager, Moventas Corporation
Mobile: +358 46 876 2078
Email: antti.turunen@moventas.com

Jukka Jäämaa , President & CEO, Moventas Corporation
Mobile: +358 50 526 7665,
Email: jukka.jaamaa@moventas.com

Moventas is one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbine gears in the world. The company also manufactures power transmission solutions for industry use and provides services for their overhaul and maintenance. Majority of the products' end use is connected with renewable energy. In 2009 Moventas generated net sales of EUR 237 million. The company has approximately 1,200 employees in nine countries globally with a world-wide partner network. European private equity investor IK Investment Partners holds the majority of the shares in Moventas.

*GDF SUEZ Energy Generation NA recently became a part of International Power plc following the combination of International Power and GDF SUEZ Energy International on February 3, 2011.