enXco Service Corporation (eSC) has signed a multi-year operations and maintenance service agreement with Xcel Energy for Xcel's 100.5 MW Grand Meadow Wind Project located near Austin, Minnesota in Mower County.

enXco Service Corporation (eSC) has signed a multi-year operations and maintenance service agreement with Xcel Energy for Xcel's 100.5 MW Grand Meadow Wind Project located near Austin, Minnesota in Mower County.

enXco, an EDF - Energies Nouvelles Company, will provide operations and all necessary maintenance for the 67 GE 1.5 MW turbines and balance of plant equipment, as well as providing 24*7 remote monitoring and fault resets from their Operations Control Center located in Pipestone, Minnesota.

Grand Meadow Wind Project, under construction by enXco Development Corporation on behalf of Xcel Energy, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2008.

The agreement brings the total number of turbines, under enXco Service Corporation contract, to 3,864 representing 2,043 Megawatts.

On being chosen by Xcel Energy, Larry Barr, Vice President of Operation & Maintenance, enXco said this project puts enXco Service Corp at more than 1,000 turbines currently under Operations & Maintenance contract in the Midwest.

According to a release, Xcel Energy was a pioneer in wind energy development in the Midwest, and the Grand Meadow wind project helps solidify Xcel Energy's position as the nation's number one wind power provider, as ranked by the American Wind Energy Association.

As per the information available, owning the asset is important in ensuring the company's ability to comply with the state of Minnesota's aggressive Renewable Energy Standard, which requires Xcel Energy to add 2,600 megawatts of new wind resources to its system by 2020, over and above the 1,300 megawatts of wind resource planned to be on line by the end of 2008.

If you're responsible for the operation and maintenance of a wind farm and you'd like to know more about how to optimise your O&M strategy for maximum wind power generation visit www.windenergyupdate.com. We're organising the Wind Energy Operations and Maintenance Summit which will give you a complete guide to achieving a cost effective O&M strategy that achieves fast ROI.

It's a massively important event and we've already taken bookings from Allianz Specialist Investments, Siemens, Mitsubishi Power Systems, BP Alternative Energy, SWS Natural Resources, 3i Plc, Ivecom and many more so you simply cannot afford not to be there.

If you'd like to take part or receive more information about this landmark event register your interest now at www.windenergyupdate.com/wind08/info.shtml.


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