Enerteck Expands Wind Services Across Canada

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. Sign up now for
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YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the
show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on
Wind. Energy's brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering
tomorrow. 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?