Deutsche WindGuard has passed one gigawatt of renewable capacity under technical operations management, the Varel-based services company said. Its 24/7 control room now monitors wind, solar, hybrid and storage assets with a combined capacity of more than 1 GW across Germany and the Netherlands.
The company said the milestone reflects how the operations role has changed. Owners of renewable assets have to keep plants running economically while meeting a growing set of regulatory, organisational and safety requirements, which has pushed technical operations management from monitoring towards a central coordination function.
“Our aim is to take as much of the day-to-day burden off operators as possible,” said Nicolas Kluth, Head of Technical Management at Deutsche WindGuard. “Short response times, clear processes and well-founded technical decisions secure high effective availability and optimal performance. The control room is the pivot: we identify faults in real time, initiate countermeasures immediately and minimise downtime.”
Dr Dennis Kruse, Managing Director of Deutsche WindGuard, said each client works with a fixed point of contact and that the company’s in-house wind farm management system, WONDER, consolidates operating data, documentation and workflows. That, he said, allows the firm to coordinate service partners, direct marketers and grid operators from a single record.
The control room also carries a security credential that is becoming more relevant across the Baltic region. In 2022 Deutsche WindGuard was among the first technical operations providers for wind farms to demonstrate to Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) that its 24/7 facility met the requirements placed on operators of critical infrastructure under Section 8a of the BSI Act. Tobias Künne, Head of Government, Compliance & Risk, said the standards have been developed further since through process optimisation, regular audits and recurring evidence, in future under Section 39 of the act.
Founded in 2000, Deutsche WindGuard offers more than 60 services across the wind energy value chain, including consulting, site assessment, environmental services, turbine measurement, wind tunnel testing, technical inspections, offshore consulting and training. The group, which includes WindGuard Certification, employs more than 220 people and has sites in Germany, the United States, China and India.
