Power and Energy Solutions magazine asked Emerson’s Jecky Li Gang, International Sales Manager of Wind Power Products, about the company’s products and commitment to the sector.
PES: Welcome to PES magazine. Firstly, can you explain a little about your company’s structure and its role within the wind power energy industry?
JLG: St. Louis-based US Emerson Electric Co. was established in 1890 and is a world-renowned company. Its innovative solutions have been applied in more than 150 countries. Emerson has been ranked as the largest company in the electronics and electrical equipment category on the Fortune 500 and recorded USD$24.8 billion sales in FY2008.
Several divisions from Emerson have supplied power converters, generators, couplings, SCADA systems and low voltage switches to top wind turbine manufacturers globally.
PES: Looking to the future, how important is the wind energy industry to your company as a whole?
JLG: Globally-installed wind power is expected to grow 20% a year over the next five years. Emerson, which is always responsible for energy security and environmental protection, will continue to invest in a wide range of technology platforms and products in the renewable energy industry. We are committed to continuous research and development investment, and we are also acquiring new customers and significantly improving sales from this sector. Wind energy industry will be one of our core businesses in the future.
PES: Can you explain a little about the features of the WinTrust Wind Turbine Converter?
JLG: The main function of the converter is to convert the variable frequency AC power to the fixed frequency AC power which can be connected to the power grid directly. As for the Emerson WinTrust wind turbine converter, we focus on product quality, reliability and customer-oriented service which will generate more electricity and result in better financial performance for direct customers and end-users.
PES: How important is after-sales service to your operation?
JLG: We have a customer-oriented service organization and are seriously committed to first class service standard in wind power industry. Emerson has multiple reps and service centres around the world, which secure quick engineering support and service response to any customer requests.
PES: Your products are all about maximizing the performance of hardware. Do you offer training to ensure that human input is also maximised?
JLG: Our products are not only about maximizing the performance of hardware; we also focus on the reliability and availability of the systems which will benefit our customers technically and financially. We offer comprehensive training programs to customers either at customer side or in our office upon request.
PES: What’s the very latest development in your sector? And how does it benefit the end-user?
JLG: We are offering series converters for top wind turbine manufacturers, and developing higher capacity wind converter models which will match with our customers’ steps to develop offshore wind farms.
PES: What particular parts of the world are your prime markets? Do you have plans for expansion into other geographic areas?
JLG: Right now, Europe and China are our prime market; we are also preparing to penetrate into the US and Asia Pacific markets.
PES: The wind industry is growing at an astounding rate – what measures are
you putting in place to ensure that your company capitalizes upon this?
JLG: To capitalize upon the astounding wind power market, we continuously improve investments in research and development and we keep recruiting more talented people to work in wind group. We will also involve ourselves more in marketing promotional activities.
For instance, we will participate in the Hannover wind exhibition and the Chicago wind exhibition in 2009, and commit a fair advertisement budget to the target market. We are expecting to develop more business opportunities with top wind turbine manufacturers there. Furthermore, we are going to open a new plant soon, which is mainly for the manufacture of wind power products
PES: In this issue of PES we’re focusing on the recruitment and retention of ‘green collar’ workers – what’s your policy?
JLG: Emerson has more than 140,000 employees around the world. In our wind power group,
we are recruiting marketing representatives and research and development consultants and everyone’s welcome to join the Emerson family!
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