CLASS OF 2015
WORLD-GENERATION FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 V.27 #1
9
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE EXPLAINTHE MAY
2014 LAUNCH OF“TRAVELERS RENEWABLE
ENERGY PRACTICE.”
Eileen Kauffman:
Travelers has been
insuring the energy industry for a century
and renewable energy for more than twen-
ty-five years. We created the new Practice
to improve the way six of our businesses
support the rapidly changing and special
needs of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal,
hydro, clean technologies and co-genera-
tion. The enhanced coordination helps us to
provide coverage for the full lifecycle, from
research and development to manufactur-
ing, construction and day-to-day operations.
Renewable energy is one of the four key
segments to Travelers Energy Practice, in
addition to Oil & Natural Gas Exploration
and Production, Power Generation and
Supporting Industries such as manufactur-
ing and construction.
WORLD-GEN:TRAVELERS HAS A FORENSIC
LABORATORY IN WINDSOR, CT, PLEASE
TELL USTHE WORKINGS OF THE GROUP ON
SOLAR AND WIND.
Eileen Kauffman:
Travelers is the
only insurance company with a
40,000-square-foot forensics lab. We employ
engineers and scientists there who study a
number of different topics including solar
and wind components, assemblies and
installations to understand best practices, to
accurately assess risks and, in the case of a
loss, to determine the cause. The lab’s
employees share their research findings
and recommendations with our clients, as
well as with our risk control and underwrit-
ing experts, who use the insights to assess
the risks of other sites. Our forensics lab is
the closest thing the insurance industry has
to CSI crime lab and is a great example of
the sophistication, knowledge and experi-
ence Travelers brings to the renewable
energy sector.
WORLD-GEN: ISTRAVELERS ALSO LOOKING
AT BATTERY STORAGE AND BIOMASS?
Eileen Kauffman:
Absolutely. We rec-
ognize battery storage as a tremendous
opportunity and an emerging market.
Travelers has the capabilities to write the
full life-cycle of a battery storage system,
from R&D, to manufacturing, to a fully
operational system. Travelers also writes
components of biomass, including the
R&D, technology and construction phases.
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE LISTTHE SERVICES
OFFERED BYTRAVELERS RELATINGTO
PRODUCT LIABILITY,WORKERS COMPENSA-
TION AND CONSTRUCTION CLAIMS.
Eileen Kauffman:
Regarding product
liability, we have specially trained claim pro-
fessionals with intimate knowledge of the
manufacturing, installation and technology
processes associated with wind and solar
energy.
Regarding workers’ compensation, we
are number one in the nation and have a
number of patented innovations to control
medical costs. We also have catastrophic
case managers who can ensure appropriate
and timely treatment for the most serious
cases, including a fall from a wind turbine
tower.”
Regarding construction, we offer con-
struction-related general liability and con-
struction defect expertise as part of our
national claim organization, which has 50
locations across the country. This is anoth-
er example of claim specialization that dif-
ferentiates us from the competition. It may
be hard to believe, but Travelers has
approximately 12,000 claim professionals.
So we don’t just have general adjusters han-
dling construction claims, we have a nation-
al claim organization to handle construction
losses, and staff attorneys and forensic
engineers with expertise in solar and wind.
Finally, we have specialized resources
worth noting, from a mass tort team; over
500 on-staff nurses; staff counsel; an engi-
neering lab; investigative services; more
than 700 risk control professionals; and
Claim University in Windsor, CT, that pro-
vides in-depth training to enable our claim
professionals to provide knowledgeable,
empathetic, and efficient claim service to
our customers.
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE MENTION SOME OF
THE PROJECTSTRAVELERS HAS WORKED
ON.
Eileen Kauffman:
We insure a wide
array of projects, from 100Kwh wind tur-
bines to 150Mwh wind farms with 100 GE
turbines. In addition, we write many sizes
of solar projects, from single-panel installa-
tions to large commercial rooftop and
ground-mounted systems up to 5MW.
We are the second-largest writer of
commercial U.S. property casualty insur-
ance and have written coverage for various
rooftop installations used by colleges and
universities, and public and private K-12
schools to commercial real estate and to
big-box retail operations.
It is worth noting that access to both
capital and insurance have played a critical
role in the ability of the renewable energy
industry to grow over the years and that this
access is equally important today, especially
as the size of the investments increase.
WORLD-GEN: PLEASE DISCUSSTRAVELERS
INVOLVEMENT WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
RELATINGTO SAFETY ISSUES ON COMMER-
CIAL SOLAR PANELS.
Eileen Kauffman:
We encourage our
customers to meet with their local fire
Vice President
Leads Travelers Renewable Energy Practice
EILEEN KAUFFMAN
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