NEM Solutions will be attending the Offshore Wind Conference next week where we will be able to present our range of asset management and maintenance services to the UK renewable energy sector.

It is expected that all types of industry organisations will be represented, including OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), wind farm owners, engineering consultancies, EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) firms, specialist equipment providers and O&M (operation and maintenance) companies.

The theme of the conference is to lower energy costs, in order that offshore wind energy remains competitive with other renewable sources.  Operation and maintenance costs are considered to be more than three times higher for offshore developments than onshore, thus it is crucial that O&M activities are as cost-effective as possible, and that wind energy production is maximised throughout the operation life (up to 20 years) of wind turbines.

The conference will take place in London on Wednesday 7^th March.

Over the past four years we’ve been working with industry leaders to bring together research and investigation into sustainable and ecological technologies.  Through the ecoTRANS project (subsidised by the Ministry of Industry, Spain) NEM Solutions has worked in collaboration with network operators (Metro Madrid, Metro/Bus Barcelona TMB), vehicle integrators (CAF, Castrosúa) and equipment suppliers (Hispacold, Trainelec, Traintic, Hynergreen, GreenPower, Ariño Duglass, Elytt Energies, Acener).  Developments range from energy capture in inertial systems to hydrogen power, ultracapacitors and ecological auxiliary equipment.

NEM Solutions has lead the work in RAMS (Reliability, Availiability, Maintainability and Safety), designing and developing products to ensure future low life cycle cost of sustainable urban transport systems.

The principal objective of the ecoTRANS Project was to develop necessary Technologies to make available in the near future solutions for urban public transport which are more attractive to the passenger (comfort, punctuality, speed, safety, reliability) and of lower environmental impact (low energy consumption, low visual and noise impact).

The objective has only been achieved through the cooperation of different organizations of the public and private sector, each one with significant knowledge in their discipline.  Thanks to the collaborative work developed, a significant achievement has been made for the public transport economy and society.

Trains operating during freezing conditions, UK, Winter 2010-11

Heavy snowfall, ice and freezing temperatures are common place at this time of year in many countries, and trains are designed specifically to operate in such conditions.  However, where sub-zero temperatures only occur a few weeks of the year, often rolling stock is not so well equipped and special measures are taken to ensure that operational reliability remains as high as possible.

Preventive actions for cold weather can include:

-          Applying grease to door seals to prevent ice formation

-          Checking watertight seals on compartments and electrical connections to ensure no ingress of water (which later freezes causing problems)

-          Attaching snowploughs and snow deflectors

-          Renew carbon strips on pantographs (ice on overhead line can cause major problems)

-          Provide low-pressure warm-water facilities for de-icing bogies and underframe

-          House vehicles indoors or under polytunnels where temperatures can be maintained above freezing point.

-          Increasing spares stock

-          Turn off regenerative braking and switch to rheostatic braking (to generate heat in brake resistors)

Typical faults arise from (a) frozen mechanical equipment not working as expected such as doors, valves, horn, brakes, air intakes, (b) electrical earth faults due to ice creating shorts, and (c) external interactions such as ice and snow from OLE and trackside damaging windows and train equipment.

Other factors also need to be considered: Diesel trains require fuel, drivers have to be able to get to work, and maintenance crews may have to start earlier shifts due to the extra work required.

The ability to continuously monitor train equipment performance through indicators such as temperature, power demand, brake demand, timings, and minor to major alarms, greatly enhances the maintainer’s knowledge of rolling stock condition and can make plans to avoid potential failures and delays.  Through NEM Solutions’ integral maintenance products and services, this is completely possible and viable, and maintenance teams rely continuously on this information that it can provide.

Applying our knowledge and experience in maintenance in rail sector, in 2009 we diversified into the renewable energy market, in particular wind, photovoltaic and marine energies.

We have pioneered new ways of predicting equipment failures and planning optimum maintenance strategies. We already have in operation a model-based online monitoring software, AURA Energy.

AURAEnergy integrates functional modules adapted to overcome the specific challenges of the energy sector.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Firstly, AURADiagnostic. It provides you with a reliable prediction of equipment failures to carry out the appropriate maintenance before the failure occurs.

AURAMaint runs an online and dynamic optimization to help you to identify the resource windows in order to minimize risk and the energy losses.

Lastly, AURAForecast which predicts the energy production of the plant, combining the real performance of each asset, the foreseen availability and the energy resource forecast.

Our group counts with plants in Spain and Argentina offering both preventive and corrective maintenance services of principal components such as gearboxes, generators and hydraulic units.

In Energy Division, we will help you to drive down the cost of energy of your plants.

NEM Solutions is centralising Euskotren’s wheel wear management thanks to AURA wheel, which helps manage in a holistic and coordinated manner, all their wheel maintenance activities regardless of the depot where they are performed.

In this initial stage Euskotren will work with NEM Solution’s hand-held Laser Profiler for measuring  critical wheel wear  parameters as well as for capturing their complete profile. The use of this precise and reliable tool guarantees a standardised and reliable data acquisition and data transfer throughout Euskotren’s organisation.

Other parallel projects include the remote transmission and management, in real time, of onboard train alarms generated during commercial operation. Thanks to this solution Euskotren will know the condition of all their onboard systems prior to the train’s arrival to the depot.

These projects fall under the modernisation process for Euskotren fleet, that involves the acquisition of new trains, emphasising the technological approach for their future.

NEM Solutions provides an alternative perspective on rolling stock maintenance thanks to which more and more operators and maintainers put faith in us to satisfy their needs and meet their challenges.

The schemes announced include:

• £290m to electrify the TransPennine Express between Manchester and Leeds,

Electrification is expected to shave 15 minutes off the hour-long journey between Manchester and Leeds, with work probably starting next year.

• £270m for an east-west rail link between Oxford and Bedford

The new Oxford to Bedford rail link is part of a long-cherished plan to revive the “varsity link” with Cambridge, which will run east-west avoiding the need to travel via central London.

• “Support” for the extension of the Northern underground line to Battersea.

The Northern line extensions will involve two new tube stops, Battersea and Nine Elms, which will link to the rest of the Northern line at Kennington

It is encouraging to know that although the euro-crisis takes a strong grip on EU governments, investment in UK rail is not completely stalled and that can only be good news for the rail industry, including companies like NEM Solutions.

Other rail improvements announced include:

• £4m upgrade to the Tyne and Wear Metro
• £45m on extending the Oyster scheme in London;
• £80m on 130 new carriages for trains in South London; and
• £25m for bus companies to buy low-carbon vehicles.

Meanwhile, the government is still in a consultation phase with regards the investment in High Speed 2 scheme, a proposed high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham which could then extend further in future major infrastructure projects to North England and Scotland.