Adding business value through certification

Frank Ormel
Chief Specialist for Certification Strategy at Vestas
Published on 18th February 2019

Knowing what you get and trusting the level of quality when buying a product is essential to businesses in all sectors. This is also the case in the wind energy industry, which is the reason why Vestas and a large group of industry players are now taking a big step towards a more effective and transparent certification system where everybody is aligned on product quality levels.

Over the past years, Vestas has worked on setting up the system together with some of our customers and other stakeholders in the wind industry, as the previous certification system became obsolete. And now, Vestas is switching all type certificates for our turbine product range to the newly introduced IECRE certification system (International Electrotechnical Committee – Renewable Energy). 

The reason to shift is clear. First of all, we see a very good business value for the entire industry in introducing a certification system where all parties involved have a say in how the system is set up. As it is developed by both the turbine producers, power producers, insurance companies, test laboratories and certifying bodies, the new system for certifying wind turbines will harmonise the process through standardisation and digitalization, making it less costly for everybody involved. This will eventually ensure that one certificate is valid for multiple or even all markets globally, which is what the whole wind community has been working towards for years.

Based on mutual recognition, all stakeholders will have confidence and trust that products are built to international standards and will perform as promised.

Secondly, the new system entails additional quality criteria for certification bodies and test laboratories and an increase in the number of capable certification providers that can make decisions on whether a product should be certified and test laboratories that can correctly test the product. The IECRE system will also create more transparency by separating the standardization and certification process so that the same body that sets the rules isn’t the same body that enforces them.

We now agree on the criteria for certification with our customers and industry peers, but of course, there are still additional local regulations to deal with. Gradually, we will see that governments globally will adapt their local requirements to the standards agreed to by all industry players and end users, ensuring a more effective and transparent certification system for the whole renewable energy sector.