Alex Fournier, General Manager at Enerteck Wind Services, returns to the spotlight to discuss the company's growth from specialized blade repair into a full-service wind maintenance provider. Fournier shares how Enerteck is positioning itself to support Quebec's ambitious wind expansion plans while navigating the unique challenges of Canada's shortened repair seasons.
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Allen Hall: Alex, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much guys for having me. It sounds like we had a busy blade season with Enerteck up in Canada. It's just a different environment up there. What kind of, uh, repairs have you been working on this year?
Alex Fournier: Uh, really busy. Been some, uh, doing some transfer crack, open window and lighting damage, VGs, installation, polytech, erosion, uh, all that kind of stuff from road access on platform.
Um, so we been pretty busy. Yeah. What parts of Canada are you focused on right now? Uh, at the beginning of the season we trying to focus on Quebec 'cause the temperature is getting colder faster. Um, so usually we start with Quebec and then we're making our way up west. So right now our blade season is pretty much done in Quebec, [00:01:00] so now we're focusing in Ontario.
Uh, Ontario have way better, uh, temperature right now in Quebec. It might be around 15 to 20 degrees up north. Versus in Ontario that right now it's around 22, 25 degrees Celsius.
Joel Saxum: Celsius being the big thing there. Right. For our, for our US listeners, it's 25 degrees is really cold to us, but very nice to you.
Yeah. Thanks. It's pretty cold.
Allen Hall: Yeah. I think for a lot of listeners, they don't realize how short the blade repair season is in Canada. How many days do you really have it? It depends where you are, right? There's some
Alex Fournier: site that, there's still some snow in May. Um, but, uh, if, if, if we're in a. Nice area. It can be from, uh, April, may to September, October, November.
You're really pushing it. I think if, if you want to do, uh, blade work in November and que back, you need to have like a 360 platform with the heater and uh, and closed platform. Which we don't have yet,
Joel Saxum: but yet, [00:02:00] yet is an interesting concept there. You say we don't have that platform yet, but that kind of points to the eTech.
Uh, I mean, of course. Congratulations. A new, new role over there I think, clue us in on that. What is the new role?
Alex Fournier: So it's general manager, so right now I'm taking care of the whole company, which is either composite or maintenance. Um, I'm doing boat. Um, so if you have any requests either on composite or maintenance and Quebec or candidate, just let me know.
But yeah, when I first started I was, uh, director of composite operation and then, uh. Climbing at the ladder to turn on Azure. Now
Joel Saxum: what it makes sense is eTech is, uh, expanding, you know, strategically expanding services. Right? So you guys, uh, of course when we were talking with you and you joined the team there, you had a composite.
So we, they just, this is your first big blade season. Sounds like it's gone very well. Um, but the eTech is a company does a lot more than that. You off air, you're clueing us in on some of the really cool things you guys are doing. Some, some stuff we've never actually really dealt with or heard too much of and wind, [00:03:00] but, um.
Yeah, share some of the new things and, uh, areas you guys are expanding into.
Alex Fournier: Yeah, for sure. Well, one of the big thing is Rob access. Um, coming from a Rob access background and as a level three, I really wanted to, uh, break that in, which can help us too with composite, but it can help us with other, uh, maintenance and a turbine like tire cleaning, uh, deck, both removal, all this stuff that you can access in the ladder, we can access by rope.
So. That was a big thing for us. Uh, also we're doing now touring, tensioning, um, constriction as well. Uh, in Quebec there's a lot of constriction sites coming up. Um, so we got our constriction license with inner deck so we can participate to construction. So. Composite is a big thing, but also everything related to maintenance.
Uh, we can do it as well and we're about to do it.
Allen Hall: What is a construction environment in Canada? We've been most recently seeing a lot of good news from Canada regarding [00:04:00] offshore wind, and that is maybe a big push of putting gigawatts out off the coast of Nova Scotia. But what's happening onshore in Canada, Quebec right now is pretty busy,
Alex Fournier: um, from last year to this year and ongoing year.
Um, there's seven new sites coming up. Um, so we're pretty busy. Um, and also the, the views of Quebec is to have 10,000, uh, megawatt by 2035. Hydro Quebec is signing big contracts, um, by operating and developing their own site too. Um, they just announced a site, I think it's a thousand or 2000 megawatt that they wanna build, um, around, uh, second area that, that, that is up north.
So with all that, uh, I think Quebec's gonna be really busy in the next, uh, couple years,
Allen Hall: and Antech is helping those new construction projects. How, because, but so many different phases from scooping the dirt, pouring the concrete. Uh, getting the towers up, getting the cells on, getting the [00:05:00]blades installed, all the pre-inspection, post inspection things that have to happen.
And then all the, uh, ohs that they see as they're putting the towers together. Where are, are you guys focused? At our
Alex Fournier: side, we're focusing on, uh, more quality control, more or less. Um, and pre-inspection and deliveries. Um, so when pieces come to site, inspect them. If there's something wrong with them, we will let engineering know and, uh, they can do some action about it.
Um, receiving tool, uh, component blade, you know, uh, sometimes they get a little bit messy on the train or the boat, so we're there to inspect them and repair them. If, if there's something. Um, air quality control is a big thing, Joel.
Allen Hall: That's what we've been talking about for years. It sounds like Alex is actually doing it.
That's fantastic. How much work is that on a new site right now? What are you seeing as, uh, blades are offloaded from the trains or the trucks? I mean,
Alex Fournier: it's, uh, it's not all the time that the blade get banged up, but when it does, we're at least we're [00:06:00] there to, uh, repair it. But normally it's, it's pretty slow.
Um. It doesn't happen too often, but when it happen, at least they have the manpower to, to repair it. And as of quality control, I mean, uh, in Quebec there's the union too that is taking care of building the sites. Um, so we're just there to help the union, uh, making sure that everything is, is made right.
Joel Saxum: I think that's a good strategic initiative though, because you hear about, or, or Alan, like you said, our conversation we've been having, we should be inspecting these things properly when they arrive at site, da, da dah.
We, we talk about this and, and people will say, oh, we do that. Oh. Um, but for many times, like in the States, what I've seen is, is the person doing the receiving inspection is like what their training is. They're trained to take the straps off, and that's about it. And then they're like, yeah, there's a big white thing here.
Check, like, um, you know, to have an, to have an actual, uh, trained technician, trained subject matter expert, doing those qa QC inspections when they, [00:07:00] when those components arrive on site, is huge. And if I'm an operator, I'm, I want that, that's what I want. I don't want. Uh, a warm body telling me that it arrived.
Yeah, I know that. Um, but to have some, and then having the capabilities of it's say, say it's an Enerteck person, right? And they, and they've been around the, they've been around blades. They may be a blade repair technician, uh, accepting the blades at site and they go, we can fix this. This is how we can do this.
And then you have that continuity there, um, to make sure that these things are done right. They've been accepted. They're good to go up tower, so you're not. Uh, having delays in trying to mobilize a repair crew or, that's a big thing. I know because sometimes people just don't want to, they're like, we're not gonna repair this one because we need to get this thing hung so we're not gonna deal with it.
You run into that stuff,
Alex Fournier: it's not too bad. 'cause since we have experts that know what they're doing, we can tell people like, look, you shall not, let's say crane that blade like this, he should already repair it. Normally, like people, you know, they're not that, uh, outta wrench that they will say, oh, let's just do it anyway.
Um. [00:08:00] So it's, it's not too bad, but definitely having someone that know what they're doing, it's definitely a, an advantage there.
Allen Hall: One of the things we've been talking about also recently, and it seems to be a, a bigger and bigger issue, is, uh, icing systems or de-icing systems. And I'm really curious where Canada is heading in that realm.
Are new turbines arriving on site in Quebec? It seems like they would have to have anti-icing systems. What kind of systems are they? Getting, what are they thinking about?...
