Rosendin Electric has completed 45 wind farm projects totaling 5,900 megawatts, including more than 3,400 wind turbines.

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Although the construction market is a cyclical industry, electrical contractor Rosendin Electric always finds itself on top. The ever-changing industry doesn’t intimidate the firm, notes Steve Scates, regional vice president. Rather, the company finds more reasons to get out of its comfort zone.

“I’ve been here for about 20 years, and I know in that time we’ve had good processes and procedures,” Scates says. “We’ve always had very competent field supervision and leadership and strong management in place. These allow us to have the confidence to go out there and do different things, which led to our diversification throughout the various sectors of the industry. This diversification, both geographical and the types of work we pursue, has carried us through the down cycles.”

An example of seizing industry opportunities came along in 2002, when Rosendin Electric was awarded its first wind farm job. The project consisted of erecting 90 V80 turbines on approximately 175 acres of land in Sacramento, Calif. The $11 million electrical portion of the project included engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the substation, underground collection system and tower wiring. “We self-performed all major aspects of this project except for the engineering,” Scates says.

“We completed over 300,000 feet of trench, cable installation, splicing and terminating, the substation and tower wiring within a very tight schedule. This was one of the first U.S. installations of this turbine, which presented some additional challenges. Our success on this project led to additional opportunities with these customers, whom we have worked with ever since.”

Rosendin Electric had no wind farm experience before tackling the project, according to Scates. “We saw it as an opportunity, and we had the backing of our upper management,” he recalls. “It was a leap to do that first job, but we found a place where we excelled. We didn’t have any history at all in that sector, but we went ahead and pursued the project, learned a lot on the first job, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”

To date, the company has completed 45 wind farm projects totaling approximately 5,900 megawatts, including more than 3,400 wind turbines, 6.7 million circuit feet of direct buried cable, more than 2,500 splices, and 28,000 35KV terminations with a failure rate of .06 percent. “The strength of our team, both in capacity and financially, and the reliability of our installation makes us one of, if not the, premier electrical contractors in the wind industry.”

Lessons Learned
Venturing into a project for the first time is never easy, and Scates admits Rosendin Electric began its first wind farm job with a little trepidation. “We wanted to do something to ensure our installation was of the highest quality and wanted to avoid any failures that may cause us to go back and do extensive rework later on,” he explains. 

“So, we instituted a quality controls program and it has been very well received. This program included inspections and testing of all materials and equipment prior to installation, documenting our splicers were trained by the manufacturer, and checklists for virtually every task we performed on the project. All this documentation, along with the test reports, and our as-built drawings were then rolled up and presented to our client in the form of binders.”

Over the years, the quality control initiative developed into a robust quality assurance program that now sets Rosendin Electric apart in the industry. “[The quality controls program] became mandatory – it had to be in place and presented to owners before starting a project,” Scates says. “We take a lot of pride in our quality and safety programs, as well as a commitment to performance and meeting the demanding schedules that our customers need.”

In addition, Rosendin Electric has learned to value the importance of maintaining excellent partnerships. “Wind farm projects are fast-paced,” Scates states. “We have established a number of relationships with key subcontractors who have made us more competitive and are able to travel with us anywhere the job may be located. We have done the same thing with manufacturers and vendors that supply materials and equipment we need to do a job,” he says.

“At the time, materials were scarce because of the boom in wind-related projects. We decided we needed to have a secure, steady supply, so we reached out to our manufacturers and developed a direct relationship with them to ensure best prices and best delivery window to reduce lead times,” Scates continues. “That foresight has given us a competitive edge in the industry and we know we can get our materials in a shorter span and we can supply our jobs and serve our customers on time.”

Market Expansions
As the industry continues to evolve, Rosendin Electric has made some internal changes, as well. Rosendin Electric became an ESOP firm in 1992, which brought many changes into the company, including geographic diversification. “Even before that happened, we were already beginning to spread out geographically, but it was in the mid ’90s when we really branched out, opening offices in New Mexico, Arizona and Oregon,” Scates says.

As the company expands into other states, it also continues to pursue opportunities in different sectors. “As we grow, we take on new challenges in different areas of the industry,” Scates notes. For example, the company started working for a large microprocessor manufacturer in the early ’80s in Silicon Valley.

“We became one of their preferred suppliers,” Scates says. “As they started to build new plants in Oregon, Arizona and Mexico, they urged us to come out there and work for them. The key factor in our geographical expansion is having customers who want us to be there. This recently led us to open an office in Las Vegas. We’ve been there for three years.”  

Rosendin Electric plans to continue doing what it does best, Scates says. “We are a leader already; we just need to maintain that and expand upon that,” Scates emphasizes.  

The company is pursuing the Canadian wind sector market. “We want to maintain a leadership position in the wind and electrical sector in general,” Scates adds.