Battery storage
Key O&M topics set to dominate the conversations at OMS 2026
Opinion piece
February 09, 2026
5 min read
By Jason Ketchum - Vice President, North America at Opoura.
As Opoura heads to the Operations, Maintenance, and Safety Conference in Orlando in early March, I’m looking forward to conversations with peers across the industry. The onshore renewable energy sector continues to scale rapidly, and that growth brings increasing operational pressure on O&M teams. Across North America, operators keep coming back to three key topics, and I expect they will surface again and again in hallway conversations once we’re in the Sunshine State. Look below and see if you agree with me.
1. Closing the domain expertise gap in a hybrid O&M world
Start with people.
As our asset portfolios grow and become more hybrid, deep expertise within each asset type is harder to find. At the same time, we also see a growing gap in broad, cross-domain knowledge that helps teams connect wind, solar, storage, and grid operations into more coherent operations.
Operations teams are coming to the O&M and Safety Conference with a shared concern: how do we build and retain a workforce that can grow as fast as the industry itself? With experienced technicians and technology specialists in short supply, the old model of hiring only when a gap appears no longer works.
At Opoura, we are seeing a clear shift toward structured training programs and clearer career paths. Operators want practical examples of how others are doing this today. They want to know what works when onboarding new talent, how to upskill existing teams at scale, and how to maintain safety and quality while doing it.
2. Improving reliability and reducing lost production through smarter O&M and analytics
Move next to performance.
Reliability is no longer just about reacting faster when something breaks. It’s about using data to stay ahead of issues before they turn into lost production or safety measures.
I assume discussions at the O&M and Safety Conference will focus on moving beyond theory and evaluating how predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, and analytics perform in real operations. The question is not whether these tools exist – because they do – but how they are being used day-to-day to make better decisions. In other words, how operators can turn operational data into actionable insights.
The goal is actually quite simple: you want to reduce downtime, extend asset life, and help teams focus on the work that truly matters. When analytics are aligned with operational workflows, they become a tool for confidence rather than a source of complexity.
Opoura recently published a Playbook highlighting 5 factors to navigate in the era of data-driven renewable operations. I recommend giving it a read.
3. Managing enterprise risk in an increasingly digital and complex O&M environment
End with risk.
As renewable energy becomes a larger part of our energy mix, the risk landscape grows with it. Operators are balancing physical safety, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, extreme weather, and financial exposure – all at the same time.
Conference conversations are likely to focus on how to manage OT cybersecurity without creating silos between IT and field operations. In my experience, operators want clearer governance models, stronger coordination across teams, and practical ways to protect critical infrastructure while keeping systems available and usable.
I look forward to exploring how organizations at the O&M and Safety Conference are strengthening their risk frameworks to handle both digital threats and real-world disruptions. So, aligning technology, processes, and people so that safety and performance reinforce each other rather than compete. We all know that the most resilient operations are the ones designed to adapt, not just respond.
Meet Opoura at booth #718
Let’s summarize. Growth demands deliberate planning within multiple areas. As portfolios expand, operators must make deliberate choices about how they develop people, use data to improve performance, and manage risk. Workforce capability does not grow automatically with new assets. Performance does not improve without clear processes and the right analytics. Risk does not stay contained without aligned governance across technology, operations, and security.
Let’s start the conversations at booth #718 where you will find me and my other Opoura colleagues. By sharing what works and what doesn’t, we move the industry forward together and build operations ready for the future we are all helping to create.
