30 September 2019

Quartzelec, a leading independent engineering service provider and a globally recognised expert in rotating electrical machines, continues to extend the maintenance and support services it provides to a growing number of energy generation and wind farms operations across the UK and Ireland.

For one global provider of equipment and services for transmission and distribution electrical power systems including the design, installation and commissioning of static-compensation technology, Quartzelec now provides all territory service and maintenance support for its equipment in the field.

“Quartzelec was brought on board in 2016 after a rigorous selection and training regime imposed by the customer, designed to ensure the skills and expertise necessary for us to meet standards for quality were both available and would be maintained,” commented Dave Wilson, Operations Manager at Quartzelec’s Aberdeen operation. “The customer has been delighted with the progress we’ve made and the services they’ve received over recent years; and we have now moved to fully-unsupervised project delivery.”

Much of the support for this global provider is focused on fast-compensating reactive power source technology that is applied on the transmission or distribution system to reduce voltage variations such as sags, surges and flicker along with instability caused by rapidly varying reactive power demand.  The units are each housed in ISO containers and installed at multiple British and Irish wind farms; providing an installed capacity in excess of 500MW.

Quartzelec retains a team of certified electrical engineers that have all the necessary safety and compliance training.  They can be deployed rapidly to any sites across the UK and Ireland, to deliver the required scheduled maintenance and failure / fault response services as well as support many of the offshore installations in the North Sea for other clients. Callouts can typically take between a day to a couple of weeks to resolve, depending on the issue and complexity, but the teams are invariably on-site within 24-hours and have access to all the typical replacement components they may need.   

“The renewables market, specifically wind farms, is an important sector for us, so we’re delighted to be expanding the contracts we hold and now work with many of the leading players in the field,” continued Dave Wilson. “Typically located in some of the wildest and least accessible locations around the country, we always deliver the best electrical and mechanical engineering services possible no matter where in the UK they are needed.  The distributed static compensators deployed by our customer have been proven to be reliable units but still require ongoing support to ensure they retain their reliability without causing any disruption to the energy being generated by the installed turbines passed onto the National Grid.”

Other recent projects in the renewables sector have included: the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 1.2MW generator at 400V stepped up to 11kV for grid export (protection grading study and P28 compliance plus earthing was also included).  Quartzelec also delivers the visual inspections, various static, insulation and resistance tests plus brush gear maintenance for a large 22‑turbine, off-shore site located off the Devon coastline; full 24-7 support including HV maintenance and emergency support for other windfarms delivering 11kV and 33kV networks; providing ongoing technical and commissioning support to around 30 UK based solar farms ranging in size from 630kW to 1.4MW. Quartzelec has also been integral in the newbuild of several hydro stations providing a complete suite of design, installation, compliance, testing, commissioning and ongoing maintenance services plus has delivered overhaul and maintenance services for further hydro stations in the UK as well as overseas.

#UnparalleledInEngineeringServices

Follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn