RES has secured a five-year operations and maintenance contract with ScottishPower Renewables – covering 15 onshore wind farms across the UK.
The agreement will be delivered by the independent renewable energy company from its new Bellshill logistics hub and creates 32 new roles – 16 of them being technicians.
RES will carry out all planned preventative and corrective maintenance – including minor component replacement across ScottishPower Renewables’ sites which total 588 MW, enough to power approximately 412,000 homes a year.
The contract covers some of ScottishPower Renewables’ largest wind sites, including Harestanes (136 MW) in Dumfries and Galloway, alongside other sites in Scotland and England.
UK Government minister for energy in the department for energy security and net zero, Michael Shanks and Frank McNally, MP for Coatbridge and Bellshill joined RES and ScottishPower Renewables at the official opening of the Bellshill hub to see the facility and its refurbishment and logistics capabilities, which support wind farm maintenance across the UK.
The Bellshill hub will act as the operational base for the contract, providing logistics support, component refurbishment capability and specialist technical resource across the full portfolio. The contract creates 32 new roles based at and supported from the hub, including 16 technicians, taking RES’ total headcount supporting ScottishPower Renewables to close to 100 across the contract.
Simon Deacon, regional O&M director, Northern Europe, at RES, said, “This agreement reflects exactly the kind of long-term, technically complex partnership where RES adds real value. ScottishPower Renewables has a portfolio that demands consistency, precision and the ability to work across multiple turbine platforms, and our growing team at Bellshill has delivered that from the moment we went live.”
Joe Mitchell, operations director at ScottishPower Renewables, added, “It’s always exciting to watch a company grow and seeing RES expand with the support of our contracts has been particularly enjoyable. RES has been a trusted partner for us for a number of years and this contract will help ensure the continued efficient and safe generation of our renewable energy. We have a real commitment to providing opportunities for supply chain companies in the UK and the opening of the latest RES site is a perfect example of the wider benefits of this partnership working in the clean energy sector.”
UK Government energy minister, Michael Shanks, commented, “RES and ScottishPower Renewables working together is exactly what the clean power mission is all about, creating jobs in communities like Bellshill while driving forward the delivery of clean, homegrown energy. Moving further and faster to strengthen our energy security is the best way to protect households from rising bills and at the same time deliver industrial opportunity and jobs across the UK.”
