Gamesa and CAF have joined forces to become core shareholders, each with a 50% interest, in the technology player, NEM Solutions. Together they will support this company’s continued development and make it a cornerstone of their operations and maintenance strategies. NEM Solutions specialises in the application of technology in maintenance activities in the wind and rail sectors; specifically, it leverages data mining to optimise equipment (wind turbines, trains) performance by anticipating future incidents.
This transaction is part of Gamesa’s goals for developing services which add significant value for the customer in the predictive maintenance arena, as announced in its 2015-2017 Business Plan, by reinforcing its commitment to state-of-the-art technology in order to enhance turbine performance and streamline maintenance processes and costs.
To structure this transaction, which is subject to anti-trust approval, Gamesa is acquiring a 50% shareholding in NEM Solutions, to which end it is purchasing Tecnalia’s entire 15% interest and 35% of CAF’s shareholding (CAF is reducing its stake to 50%). The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.
“The investment in NEM alongside a partner of the calibre of CAF will accelerate Gamesa’s access to advanced data management know-how in the predictive maintenance field, a powerful technology tool which is not as developed in the wind sector as in the rail industry”, said David Mesonero, Corporate Development Managing Director of Gamesa.
NEM Solutions develops technological applications for the management of predictive maintenance in the wind and rail sectors. Through its technology platform, AURA, the company analyses the millions of data points generated by the equipment under maintenance with a view to creating a model that defines normal operating conditions for each piece of equipment. Based on this benchmark, it predicts the future performance of each machine, diagnosing, precisely and proactively, using artificial intelligence, potential equipment incidents.
In the specific case of Gamesa, the systems developed by NEM will use the 15.5 billion data inputs generated and sent daily by the more than 14,500 turbines under its maintenance (20,600 MW) to the company’s remote control centre in Sarriguren (Navarre, Spain).
“The value added by the technology developed by NEM for the services already offered by Gamesa lies with the ability to extract conclusions about how to fine-tune the predictive maintenance of the turbines under management from the analysis of the data received”, explained Xabier Etxeberria, Gamesa’s Business CEO.
Xabier went on to add, “By being able to anticipate errors, we can plan interventions, reduce the number of turbine stoppages and lengthen the amount of time they are up and running as we can carry out the required repairs during less windy periods”.
“In creating NEM Solutions eight years ago, CAF committed to application of the most advanced technology to the maintenance of its trains, so emerging as a global benchmark in this field. The company’s performance and results in these last years have corroborated the astuteness of this approach. Today, thanks to the alliance with Gamesa, we are renewing our commitment to the project, safe in the knowledge that the company will continue to grow and generate remarkable value-added solutions”, emphasised Eduardo Etxeberria, Director of Corporate Development at CAF.
“It is an honour to boast the two core industrial shareholders which any company would want in order to continue to grow in these sectors. The adventure is proving thrilling. Gamesa and CAF are the ideal partners for embarking on the next stage of our roadmap”, concluded Alberto Conde Mellado, CEO of NEM Solutions.
