Wind farm management covers the operation and maintenance and administration of wind farm

Wind farm

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...

s.

Wind power managing owners

Over the past few years the global trend is toward public utilities and large Independent Power Producer

Independent Power Producer

An Independent Power Producer is an entity, which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users...

s (IPPs) developing and owning large scale (normally about 20 to 500 MW) wind farms. Wind power managing owners, along with other financing parties and equity partners, typically sell the electricity generated from wind farms to other public utilities under long-term (typically 20 years) Power Purchase Agreement

Power Purchase Agreement

Power Purchase Agreements are contracts between two parties, one who generates electricity for the purpose of sale and one who is looking to purchase electricity . There are various forms of Power Purchase Agreements; these are differentiated by the source of energy harnessed...

s (PPAs) where they receive a fixed or annually adjusted price for the electricity. Renewable energy incentives (which vary by country) also play a role in the revenue stream

Revenue stream

A revenue stream is a form of revenue. Revenue streams refer specifically to the individual methods by which money comes into a company. Revenue streams may be characterized...

 of a managing owner.

Largest managing owners in the world

According to the April 2008 press release from Emerging Energy Research, Spain-based Iberdrola

Iberdrola

Iberdrola , headquartered in Bilbao, is a private utility with a global footprint and over 150 years of experience...

 (with its acquisition of Scottish Power

Scottish Power

ScottishPower Ltd. is a vertically integrated energy company with its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but in 2006 it became a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola...

 and its 2nd-ranking U.S. developer PPM Energy) surpassed U.S.-based FPL Energy to become the world's largest wind owner with over 6,900 MW of capacity. After Iberdrola and FPL, the largest wind owners in the world are Energias de Portugal

Energias de Portugal

EDP - Energias de Portugal ranks among Europe's major electricity operators, as well as being one of Portugal's largest business groups....

 (EDP), Spain-based Acciona

Acciona

Acciona, S.A., is a Spanish conglomerate group dedicated to civil engineering, construction and infrastructure.The company was founded in 1997 through the merger of Entrecanales y Tavora and Cubiertas y MZOV. The company's headquarters is in Alcobendas, Community of Madrid, Spain. The company's U.S...

, Australian investment bank Babcock & Brown, Longyuan, German utility E.ON

E.ON

E.ON AG, marketed with an interpunct as E•ON, is the holding company of the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity....

, Spanish utility Endesa

Endesa (Spain)

Endesa, S.A. is the largest electric utility company in Spain. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, has 10 million customers in Spain, with domestic annual generation of over 97,600 GWh from nuclear, fossil-fueled, hydroelectric, and renewable resource power...

, U.K.-based IPP

Independent Power Producer

An Independent Power Producer is an entity, which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users...

 International Power

International Power

International Power PLC is an international electricity generator formed in 2000 by the demerger of National Power. It is headquartered at Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria Street in the City of London...

, and EDF Energies Nouvelles

EDF Energies Nouvelles

EDF Energies Nouvelles is a French renewable energy corporation, half owned by French electric utility Électricité de France. It was formed in 2004 from its predecessor SIIF Energies and was floated on the Paris stock exchange in 2006....

.

Largest managing owners in the U.S.

The largest wind power managing owners in the United States as of May 2008 are given in the table below:

Managing Owner	MW under managing ownership
FPL Energy	5076.5
Iberdrola Iberdrola Iberdrola , headquartered in Bilbao, is a private utility with a global footprint and over 150 years of experience...	1644.5
Horizon-EdP	1142.2
Babcock & Brown	1120
MidAmerican MidAmerican Energy Company MidAmerican Energy Company is an energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. Its service area includes almost two-thirds of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Its territory is wholly encompassed by the territory of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator...	933
AES AES Corporation AES Corporation is a Fortune 500 company that generates and distributes electrical power. The company was founded on January 28, 1981, as Applied Energy Services by Roger Sant from the US Federal Energy Administration and Dennis Bakke from the Office of Management and Budget. AES Corporation is...	716.1
Edison Mission Group	562.9
enXco	511.7
Invenergy Invenergy Invenergy, LLC develops, builds and operates energy generation projects in North America and Europe. Its portfolio includes wind turbine facilities, natural gas burning plants, and thermal generators using various fuels...	448.5
Puget Sound Energy Puget Sound Energy Puget Sound Energy is Washington state's oldest local energy utility providing electrical power and natural gas in the Puget Sound region of the northwest United States...	378
Caithness Caithness Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...	346
Shell Shell Oil Company Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...	317
AEP American Electric Power American Electric Power is a major investor-owner electric utility in various parts of the United States. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S...	310.5
Catamount Energy	283.1
E.On E.ON E.ON AG, marketed with an interpunct as E•ON, is the holding company of the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity....  (formerly Airtricity Airtricity Airtricity was founded in 1997 in the Republic of Ireland and now is a renewable energy company owned by Scottish and Southern Energy... )	1420
Last Mile Electric Coop	204.7