E.ON Energy Services, the service arm of energy giant E.ON, has named the leadership team for its newly launched venture, which aims to provide U.S. renewable energy customers with tailored asset management, maintenance, and repair services to drive more efficient and profitable performance. The new venture will be headed by Keith Day who joins the company as president. Day most recently has been a regional vice president of Operations for E.ON. Prior to joining E.ON in 2010, Day had stints at General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and Magnom Corporation.
"This venture is a great opportunity to turn E.ON's global experience and credibility to U.S. customers' advantage, and will allow to us to offer service, value, and efficiencies from the perspective of an owner," Day said. "We call it service with an ‘Owner's Eye.' Adding value by increasing a customer's bottom line will be our main focus. We will provide full asset management, major correctives, and long-term maintenance, and work with each client to satisfy their needs. We are selling a philosophy-driven series of products. There will always be a balance between costs and the long-term health of the equipment and we are here to bring an owner's view to that process," Day added.
E.ON's ability to customize asset management services will be key to serving the North American wind and solar markets, which are seeing rapid expansion but are supported by relatively few nationally active service providers. E.ON brings strong assets to bear, including more than $5 billion invested in the market, 1,800 wind turbines, and 3,000 MWs of generating capacity it owns, operates, or maintains. E.ON has a 24/7 scheduling and dispatch center, and can help project owners and investors save costs, protect equipment, innovate technology, and improve safety.
The following will join Day on the new E.ON Energy Services leadership team:
- Guy Dees will be vice president of Operations. Dees is one of the most experienced operations leaders in the business. Before E.ON, Dees spent several years establishing operating businesses, working for General Electric, Upwind, and Clipper. "We pride ourselves on the quality of our employees and we expect the customer experience to be second to none in terms of safety, professionalism, speed, and cost," Dees said.
- Michael Cossentine will head Sales and Marketing. Cossentine has more than 30 years in technical sales and previously worked for a subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth. "While we have a ton of experience, we also understand every customer will have their own preferences, approaches, and demands and we will listen to each customer to figure out what works best for them," Cossentine said.
- John Franklin, current head of E.ON North America Operations, will be a senior advisor. Franklin has more than 30 years in operating conventional and renewable energy power plants. He established E.ON's North American business and he was a key planner for the new venture. Prior to E.ON, he worked for Nextera Energy. "E.ON operates more than 1,800 turbines. We have extensive experience in NERC compliance, dispatch, scheduling, and EMA services and have worked providing detail and reports to partners and tax equity investors," he said.
"Our entire organization is committed to making this venture work and I am excited about the team we have put together," said Patrick Woodson, chairman, E.ON North America. "We took experience both internally and externally to form this team because we want to take our best, pair that with other strong contributors, and offer a new approach to the market," he added.
