Thomas Kent
Lead Offshore Operations and Maintenance Engineer (Asset Integrity), ScottishPower
Tom is a Mechanical engineer who has been working in the wind industry for 20+ years. He started in a company designing portable and online oil and grease analysis equipment for equipment such as Gearboxes, pitch systems and Blade bearings. After getting a taste for the industry he moved to Vestas where he worked in the repair department for various components including gearboxes and generators. After global reshuffles he moved to Centrica as the Senior Wind Turbine Engineer looking after their both on and mainly offshore wind farms. There he led the end of warranty campaign for (at that point) largest offshore campaign ever attempted. This highlighted many blade issues including particularly large quantities of leading edge erosion. These finding were the origins for the infamous BLEEP project.
Once Centrica started to sell off its wind assets, Tom moved to Scottish Power where he initially helped with the installation of both the Wikinger and EA1 offshore wind farms. Once the farms were handed over he then moved to asset integrity as lead O&M Engineer looking after the long term health of these and other wind farms. He brings many years of experience in wind farms with particular knowledge of the complexities trying to run them offshore, and what issues/failures have happened in the past, and how the same issues seem to be repeated by OEMs.