Alejandro Cabrera Muñoz, co-founder and CEO of Green Eagle Solutions, returns to discuss automating 70 GW of renewable assets and why operators are self-operating their fleets. Reach out to [email protected] to learn more!
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Allen Hall: Alejandro, welcome back to the program.
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Thank you so much, Allen. It's a pleasure to be here.
Allen Hall: Well, so last time we talked, you had so much happening at Green Eagle, and it is, uh, amazing to watch the progress there. You've been around for quite a while now. You started, what, in 2011 working on SCADA systems.
Uh, uh, there's been a lot of evolution since then. Walk me through, like, the process where you thought, "Hey, there's a business here."
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Of course. Uh, we actually started officially back in 2012. It's been a, quite a, of a long journey to, to get here. Uh, yeah, we started, uh, back, back then. We say it's a whole new world, right?
If we look backwards, like, almost 15 years. Makes me, makes me feel, like, extremely [00:01:00] old. Uh, but ne- nevertheless, um, yeah, back then we were trying to, to cover, like, a lot of issues that were based on OEM SCADAs, which by the way, we still are dealing with. But, but that, that was starting point. It was, um- It was, uh, based on understanding that the, the renewable energy industry is so complex.
Every wind farm, every solar plant has different issues, different systems. Even, even the same models from the same manufacturer sometimes have complete different systems, which complicates everything. So it was very exciting to, to start our careers in a, in an industry where nothing is standard and where everyone is looking for something that is standard.
So that's, that's where we fit in. Um, yeah, and in these years, we, we started basically creating the f- the foundations, uh, uh, on top of, uh, SCADA systems. [00:02:00] But as soon as we had that, those foundations, we realized that this sector is not gonna evolve, uh, it's gonna cope up with the complexity, uh, of the technical complexity, market volatility, regulatory compliance.
That's not gonna be solved by just having more SCADAs. So we created a layer of automation in place, which is basically what we've been, um, evolving in the last 10 years now, um, with the, with the mindset and with the goal that every wind turbine should be running autonomously without having to have people behind it, uh, supervising and taking control of it.
Allen Hall: Yeah, and that's a great founding idea, but that has grown from an idea to you're automating, what, 40 gigawatts of renewable assets right now?
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Oh, we're actually now connected to over 70 gigawatts.
Allen Hall: That's amazing. Alejandro, that's incredible.
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: And all of them are different.
Allen Hall: Sure. So that, that's a combination-- 70 gigawatts is a combination of wind and solar and anything else?
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Yes. [00:03:00] Well, actually, one of the, one of the main, um, needs that we try to cover from day one is to be able to connect to all, um, asset classes. So we understand that, um, the challenge of operating a large portfolio for our customers, um, can only be solved if we have the ability to connect to all type of asset classes.
So we can have to connect to wind turbines, inverters, trackers, substations, um, energy meters, you name it. You-- we have to connect to every single asset class, um, because what's important is how you manage that data on top of that and how you react on the anomalies.
Allen Hall: Right. Because I think a lot of operators are now considering taking your model, the Green Eagle model of s-self-operating, but they need that help, they need that insight into the operation of a solar farm or a wind farm or, or any of those assets, renewable assets, ensure those inverter-driven assets.
You're, you're seeing-- I, I think we're seeing the same thing, which is a lot of operators decide to [00:04:00] leave full service agreements globally, and what do you think is driving that now? Uh, is it a financial decision? Is it a performance decision, or is it both?
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: I think there are many factors, but I think the main driver is the financial aspects of it.
I think when you, when you delegate the operations to a third-party, uh, entity They are gonna optimize their services to whatever service level agreement or availability they are committed to. And for that reason, you're never gonna get-- effectively, you're never gonna get the extra mile. You're never gonna get any extra from there.
Um, and that's okay when the market is-- has great conditions and everything w- is going well. But we are seeing how in the last years we have, uh, a lot of market volatility, negative pricing. Everything is becoming more and more complex, so many projects are actually under stake financially. And I think that's, um, that's pressuring everyone to look for opportunities to squeeze their assets a little bit more or a little bit better, I would say.[00:05:00]
Um, and part of that is to take operations in-house so you at least you have the opportunity to, to do, um, a better job, uh, let's say.
Allen Hall: Yeah, and part of what we're seeing is, at least in the United States and, and globally now, I think it's, there's more action globally than there has been on mergers and acquisitions.
So an operator that has historically had a particular OEM in wind, you know, say it's Vestas or Siemens or GE, whoever, Nordex, it could be any of them. Uh, when they acquire another competitor or another farm, they're bringing in a f- a wind turbine they probably don't know much about. And, and that's a huge problem.
And, and there's not a lot of resources for them to grab hold of. Uh, that's one of the marketplaces you're trying to fill right now, right?
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: Of course. Uh, as I mentioned before, if something describes our sector is that nothing is standard, despite everyone is seeking standardization of everything, right? Uh, but nothing is standard for, [00:06:00] for-- and that, that's the reality.
So the first thing when, when you have a portfolio and you are incorporating new assets into it, you need, um, a solution that is able to connect to all type of assets, right? Um, w-we call our solution a three-in-one solution because first of all, it acts as a second level SCADA, so you can connect everything there, uh, everything there, and you have access to all the data across all your assets.
Then we have the SCADA automation layer, and then we have the data analysis layer on top of that. Okay. But let's focus on the operations, which was, uh, your question, right? So you have a new bunch of assets. Sometimes you don't have any documentation whatsoever, but these are Gamesas, Nordex, a bunch of them from different years.
Um, the first thing that we provide is a second level SCADA, so you can connect to all of those. But We have, uh, something that we believe is very unique. So what we provide to our [00:07:00] customers is ability to automate all these assets autonomously. And what that gives you, it's, um, set of data that can be analyzed, and we can learn from what's working, what's not working, beyond what the manufacturer's gonna tell you to do, right?
So we have thousands of General Electric turbines connected to our software, for instance. Um, we know what works, what doesn't works, uh, what are the faults that can be resetted remotely, what are the ones that are not, what is the success ratio of those resets, 'cause that's a metric that nobody else has unless you have automation in place.
Uh, but we can actually understand, is it working? Is it not working? Is it creating fatigue for no reason to these turbines? So what-- we have all this, this, uh, un- this knowledge and this, um, knowhow, uh, for all these models. Um- I believe one of the main, um, value that we provide to our customers is, is not only the, the solution itself, but it's also the [00:08:00] ability to be somehow prescriptive.
It's, it's not that we're gonna know more about how to operate the assets than our customers, but, uh, we have a sense of what's the benchmark, right? So I, I-- And that benchmark is very, very useful for them as well.
Allen Hall: So th- that's part of getting to scale, and 70 gigawatts is a, a lot of scale, where you have seen a number of turbines in different places operating in different environments and performing at different levels.
That's unique, right? That gives you insight into really what's happening to a turbine or a solar asset globally and also locally. For a lot of operators that just happen to acquire or, or, or take on a- an older wind farm, uh, they tend to get stuck, right? They, they, they, they don't tend to be able to, to find their way through those little nuances.
That's a huge financial impact to them eventually, right?
Alejandro Cabrera Muños: It is. And I, and I believe that for many years this was something that in a way got, um-- [00:09:00] didn't get a lot of visibility. I think people were not fully aware of how much revenue, how much production they were losing just because they were not operating their assets at the best capacity.
Um, now we have the data to prove what,...
