Obstruction light runs on 2W
October 6, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Maintenance, Wind Safety
A medium-intensity obstruction light flashes red to mark structures at night that present a hazard to aviation. The L450-864-G has benefits of advanced LED and controls, as well as an effective intensity of 2,000 cd red, 20 fpm night flashing operating mode, horizontal beam coverage of 360°, vertical beam profile of 3° min., and stabilized intensity control over operation temp range. The light operates on 110 to 230 Vac nominal at 50 or 60 Hz, and weighs 39 lb. Its operating temperature range is -40 to 55°C, while it draws less than 2 W at <25°C.
TWR Lighting Inc.
www.twrlighting.com
WPE
Turbine training center comes with a tower
September 28, 2011 by Paul Dvorak
Filed under Training, Wind Power News, Wind Safety
Capital Safety’s training structure will provide a variety of rescue and climbing training scenarios for the wind energy industry, and others that need to protect workers at height.
Capital Safety, home of the DBI-Sala, Uniline, and Protecta brands of fall protection equipment, today announces the opening of a new wind turbine training structure center at its North American headquarters in Red Wing, Minnesota. The new training structure will be used to provide a variety of rescue and climbing training scenarios for the wind energy industry, and a variety of others that need to protect workers at height.
“Construction and maintenance of wind turbines is accelerating throughout the world, and safety training must keep pace. We’ve made a significant investment in building a one-of-a-kind site where workers can learn the proper fall protection procedures before they go on the job,” says Jerry Falk, Global Product Director. “Now people and organizations from around the world can gather in a single, training location, complete with a wind tower, and learn from our experts and each other, which enhance the effectiveness of the training.”
The 70-foot structure was finished in June 2011 and has seen dozens of students complete training in four modules. It features multiple training areas to simulate actual wind turbine work, including the tower, nacelle and hub.
Capital Safety, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fall protection, confined space and rescue equipment, with 12 operating sites worldwide and a passionate commitment to quality, innovation and safety. All of Capital Safety’s fall protection and rescue systems are backed by extensive training, knowledgeable technical assistance, and professional customer service.
Capital Safety
http://www.capitalsafety.com/
Shock-absorbing lanyards can let you down
September 19, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Maintenance, Wind Safety
Hugh Smith Regional product line marketing manager Miller Fall Protection / Honeywell Franklin, PA www.millerfallprotection.com
A quick-acting braking system that arrests falls within inches, not feet, has safety managers retiring conventional shock-absorbing lanyards. Instead, they favor compact, lightweight, personal fall limiters (PFLs), also known as self-retracting lifelines. As manufacturers introduce PFLs with 100% tie-off fall protection (dual or twin legs), workers can move safely anywhere on a job site without ever being disconnected and at risk of a fall. Whether on a construction site, building scaffolding, or maintaining a wind farm, it’s good to know someone has your back.
The 6-ft shock-absorbing lanyard has been a dominant tool in personal fall protection for years. These lanyards allow for up to 6 ft of free-fall distance before activating, and another 3.5 ft of deceleration distance before arresting a fall. However, a personal fall limiter requires less than 2 ft to arrest free falls. If you have 15 ft of fall clearance or less, you’d better have a retractable on or you’re going to hit the ground.
Safety managers say the primary driver of their decision to swap out lanyards for PFLs is fall-arrest clearance, which is critical to worker safety. Personal fall limiters have evolved into more compact, lightweight, and affordable devices developed in response to workers’ needs for quick stopping action at low fall clearances, and for greater mobility around barriers. Today’s high-strength, high-impact materials let product engineers build smaller units that can withstand required fall forces. Some models accommodate workers up to 400 lbs including tool weight. Advanced designs incorporate a built-in swivel mechanism, and D-ring connectors that easily adapt two lightweight PFLs for continuous 100% tie-off fall protection. This eliminates a need for double-legged shock-absorbing lanyards. With the reduction in size and weight comes a reduced price, making PFLs more affordable than ever.
The latest advancement is the ANSI Z359.1 compliant line of Miller brand retractable lifelines by Honeywell Safety Products–the TurboLite and TwinTurbo personal fall limiters, and the Turbo T-BAK and Twin Turbo T-BAK tie-back personal fall limiters.
Recently one of the nation’s largest manufacturers made a concerted effort to reduce fall hazards, 150 personal fall limiters were added to their arsenal of fall protection equipment in a move that will eventually outlaw lanyards on their job site. All employees, contractors and sub-contractors will be required to comply with the new policy, which incorporates rigorous, hands-on training and inspection, and encourages those working at height to take personal responsibility for their own safety.
Wondering if it’s time to transition from lanyards to PFLs? Think of it this way: for years cars were not equipped with seat belts, then came lap belts, and after that lap-belts plus shoulder harnesses. Then both were incorporated together with quick-acting pretensioners. Seat belts eventually moved around passengers when the car door closed. We complained about the changes, but got used to them. Now we buckle up without even thinking whenever we get in our cars.
Advances in personal fall protection have taken us from the safety belt, to the 6-ft shock absorbing lanyard, to personal fall limiters. You may think you’ll never be in a car accident, and you may think you’ll never actually fall. But if a person does, it could lead to an incapacitating injury or worse. However, with the right fall arrest equipment, a person can go home safe after work. Isn’t that worth it?
WPE
Climb assists completed in Australia
August 8, 2011 by Kathleen Zipp
Filed under Wind Safety
IBEX climb assist
Manufacturer of climb assists Power Climber Wind, a division of SafeWorks, LLC, has completed installation of the IBEX 1000 climb assist systems in 21 turbines at Challicum Hills wind plant located near Victoria, Australia.
The Challicum Hills’ project generates 53 MW of electricity making it enough renewable clean electricity to power 23,000 homes in the area, eliminating 141,000 tons of greenhouse gas each year. The climb assist systems have also been installed in multiple locations in Australia, generating over 350 MW of electricity.
The manufacturer says the IBEX is designed to retrofit and puts complete control over the climbing effort and experience into the hands of the climber. It allows user-adjustable support settings at 50, 75, 100, and 125 lbs (23, 34, 45, and 57 kgs), and provides constant load support in both the up and down directions, regardless of climbing speed. It can be installed in any new or existing wind tower with straight-run ladders, whether tubular steel or lattice construction.
Power Climber Wind www.powerclimberwind.com
Planning on Fires and Falling
July 21, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Editorial, Maintenance, Wind Safety
Oliver Hirschfelder
Global Wind Energy Director
Capital Safety
Red Wind. Minn.
www.capitalsafety.us
The World Wind Energy Association forecasts that the wind energy industry will employ one million people by 2012. This means wind power is becoming one of the largest sources of new electricity generation. As the market grows with more turbines on towers, so does the need for thorough fall-protection training programs and planning.
A thumbnail sketch for a safety program at any wind company should include a detailed rescue plan, especially in the event of a fire or a total mechanical failure. As obvious as this sounds, it must be said: The rescue plan must be developed before working up any tower. The plan should outline all possible scenarios and hazards that could occur during turbine installation and maintenance. Most importantly, all rescue and evacuation equipment should be easy to use and quick to deploy.
Technicians in a tower prepare to decend using a rescue device. Manufacturers of safety equipment often update their designs to meet changing work conditions.
In addition to solid planning, workers must be thoroughly familiar with rescue tactics and trained to execute details of the plan. The ideal training program consists of classroom time and hands-on participation. Any training must include identifying hazards, detailing fall protection programs, and choosing the proper equipment to handle a rescue situation.
Major topics to cover in training include:
• Fall protection and rescue system assessments
• Applicable industry standards related to fall protection and rescue
• Fall-hazard elimination and control methods
• Fall-hazard surveys and procedures
• Development and implementation of fall protection and rescue plans and programs
• Proper selection, inspection, use, and maintenance of fall protection and rescue equipment
• Rescue procedures, and more
Equally important is an annual program re-evaluation. Keep in mind, even the most comprehensive plan is useless if workers aren’t trained to execute it properly and quickly. So although there is no wind industry training standard, ideally, wind turbine workers should be certified as competent persons, or competent rescuers, or both.
The technician secures a safety latch to an anchor point on top of a hub. One wind organization predicts the wind industry will employ one million people by next year. Hence, safety and training programs must be active, ongoing, and frequently modified to accommodate changes.
In a rapidly growing and changing industry, ensuring a rescue plan is in place and workers receive proper training is a paramount concern for wind companies. With the sector showing enormous growth and potential, more workers will soon be scaling towers, making the need for fall protection planning and training more important than ever. Every wind company should “get with the program” and periodically re-evaluate its safety program.
WPE
Rescue Assist Rated for Two Workers, Multiple Descents
July 14, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Maintenance, Wind Safety
A proper safety at height program includes the necessary steps for safe and quick rescue in an emergency. The SafEscape Elite RDD is the next generation global solution for rescue and descent that meets applicable safety standards throughout the world. It also lowers cost of ownership, enhances safety, and is easy to use. Companies operating internationally can be assured the SafEscape Elite RDD meets all applicable safety standards throughout the world. It is the only rescue and descent device that meets European EN341/2008 Standard. Furthermore, it needs no annual factory recertification. Seven years may elapse before an unused unit requires recertification. And it is rated for up to two workers.
Miller Fall Protection
www.millerfallprotection.com
Composites distributor presented safety award
July 12, 2011 by Kathleen Zipp
Filed under Mechanical Components, Wind Safety
As a distributor of composite materials for the wind industry, Composites One LLC was presented a Platinum award by Great West Casualty Company as a part of the 2010 National Safety Awards Program. This is the ninth consecutive year that Composites One LLC has been named an award recipient.
The National Safety Awards Program recognizes carriers in similar operations (truckload and less than truckload) with awards based on their year-end preventable accident results. Carriers are eligible to receive a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Participatory award. This past year, the program drew over 800 participants from across the country.
“Composites One is committed to a culture that promotes accident prevention allowing for the safe delivery of its materials year after year,” says Bill Rudersdorf, Director of HS&E for Composites One. “Maintaining safe operations in all aspects of our day-to-day operations is a core value and is part of the company-wide value statement that guides our business.”
Great West Casualty Company is the nation’s leading provider of property and casualty insurance for the trucking industry. With over 50 years of experience, Great West offers risk management, underwriting claims and loss control services exclusively to the trucking industry. Great West is headquartered in South Sioux City, Nebraska, and has regional offices in Meridian, Idaho; Bloomington, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Arlington, Texas.
Composites One is the nation’s leading distributor of composite materials serving customers from over 30 locations in North America. Composites One offers composites fabricators and molders thousands of products from over 400 of the industry’s top suppliers through a technical sales and customer service force that is the most knowledgeable in the industry. The company offers a variety of value added services that include closed mold technologies, technical applications reviews, and unmatched regulatory compliance assistance.
Composites One www.compositesone.com
What are the safety precautions for wind turbine workers?
May 20, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Wind Basics, Wind Safety
Safety in wind turbines is prompted by hazardous weather, working at heights, a potential for fires in the nacelle, and working around high voltages.
From lightning: Wind turbine towers are a natural target for lightning strikes. A main lightning discharge is characterized by rapidly rising current that peaks at about 200,000 Amps and averages about 30,000A over its duration. Even though the event is over in milliseconds, there is great potential for harm to personnel and damage to equipment. Personnel working around such a hazard that often strikes wind turbines want to know that they are safe when entering a tower. Electrical grounding is the foundation for an expected level of safety and that begins with a properly designed and installed electrical grounding system.
A good grounding system plays a critical role guarding against catastrophic damage to blades, electronics, transformers, nacelles, and collector systems out to substations.
Another way to protect workers against lightning is to spot it before it gets to the wind farm. Advanced warning of real-time lightning strikes from real-time lightning data is safer than predictions that lead to false alarms or delayed reporting after lightning has struck.
For example, the Great Plains are susceptible to extreme weather conditions. Summer brings the threat of lightning strikes to the 300-ft turbines, and brutally cold temperatures are commonplace in winter.
To ensure turbines operate at peak-efficiency, most facilities have technical teams on-call around the clock to perform maintenance duties. However, standard practice is not to send team out when temperatures dip below -30°C. To know when hazardous weather approaches, maintenance managers often subscribe to services that warn of impending lightning strikes. The internet-based services let managers stay abreast of changing weather conditions that endanger operations.
For a wider view of approaching severe weather, managers can monitor radar and track storms, wind, and lightning at online weather services. Weather services often feature weather maps in layers that let personnel look at weather information most important to its operations. This includes national Weather Service warnings, watches, and advisories. Another layer includes custom areas of maximum impact based on parameters set by the forecaster to reflect how weather is affecting a turbine location.
Weather services also provide mobile alerts to current and future conditions. Subscribers receive weather information on their mobile phones. What’s more, personalized alerts can be sent to technicians’ phones when severe weather nears user-defined alerting parameters. This is useful to field technicians on maintenance tasks. For instance, they can be notified when lightning has been detected within 50 miles.
From working at height: even short towers are a long way up, 150 ft on the low side and soon 300 ft. Climbing up such heights challenges a tech’s knees and physical stamina. Climb-assists and service lifts are solutions. Climb assists are devices that connect a technician’s harness to an endless belt that runs on pulleys mounted over a tower ladder. Then a motor keeps a steady upward user-selected pull (from 50 to 125 lb) on the individual, thereby lightening his load.
Other hazards exist once a technology reaches the nacelle. According to Liberty Mutual’s 2009 Safety index, for instance, accidents from falling objects cost U.S. industry some $4.3 billion that year, the fifth leading cost of industrial accidents. This type of accident is almost completely preventable by using simple tethering devices. So when technicians reach a nacelle, they often attach retractable tethers and lanyards to tools and instruments. Such tethers come in many configurations that can be used for almost any industrial tool or application.
For more specialized applications, several manufacturers say they can produce custom devices. Safety engineers are often charged with ensuring adherence to OSHA regulation 1926.759(a), which requires “that all materials, equipment, and tools, which are not in use while aloft, must be secured against accidental displacement.” Tethers allow complying with this safety regulation.
Safety clothing for welders
April 11, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Maintenance, Wind Safety
The Red Line of welding safety products includes gloves, jackets, caps, and safety glasses. Red Line includes five types of welding gloves–premium leather MIG/stick, traditional MIG/stick, leather TIG, heat-resistant, and full leather Steel Worker gloves. Four jacket options protect arms and the upper body with flame-retardant cloth panels to keep welders cool, as well as heavy-duty leather panels in high-spatter exposure, and high wear areas. Choose from cloth, heavy duty leather or hybrid cloth-and-leather jackets.
Lincoln Electric’s Red Line Welding Apparel
Windpower 2011 Booth 3001
www.lincolnelectric.com
Minimizing Severe Weather Risks on Wind Farms
March 3, 2011 by Windpower Engineering
Filed under Maintenance, Wind Safety
The white triangles show storm corridors that tell wind-farm operators the likely direction of storm activity in their area. These corridors are also color coded to the severity of storm activity, with red being the most severe, yellow severe, and white the least threatening
Don Leick, Telvent, www.telvent.com
When severe weather hits a wind farm, the ultimate safety goal for maintenance crews is to get down from the towers and drive away from the storms. However the height of the turbines and expanse of the properties makes doing so no small task. Therefore, it becomes critically important for wind farm operators to have access to a weather forecast that indicates lightning strikes in real time. Furthermore, the capability to provide alerts to on-site maintenance crews is an effective way to keep wind-farm employees safe. Insight into the practices used by top wind farm power companies can increase operational efficiencies and keep employees safe.
Misguided lightning-safety practices
Wind farms that have on-site maintenance staffs, along with operators, representatives from turbine manufacturers, and contract maintenance crews, typically also have well-established lightning safety practices. Despite the knowledgeable group, they may be laboring under several misguided practices that are not effective and, in fact, can be dangerous.
The first mistake wind-farm personnel can make is reacting only after they see lightning or hear thunder. Lightning can strike miles outside of a storm. Only using one’s senses to monitor lightning activity is dangerous because it will not provide adequate time to respond.
Another practice wind-farm operators should avoid is monitoring radar on a computer or phone and trying to predict whether or not an incoming storm includes lightning. This exposes wind farm operators to two opposite and undesirable risks: false alarms and unidentified lightning in the area.
Lastly, operators who rely on lightning information from free Web sites might not realize that updates from these sites are delayed 30 to 60 minutes. The average life of a thunderstorm cell is 20 minutes, so lightning can be on top of wind farm crews before it shows up on the Web site. With employee safety on the line, it’s worth the price to subscribe to a weather service that provides real-time updates. Wind farm operators who use these unreliable lightning safety practices are gambling with people’s lives. It makes more sense to rely on a real-time lightning detection network combined with immediate alerting capabilities and all-clear notifications as a better way to keep wind farm personnel safe.
Better ways to keep workers safe
To stay on top of changing weather conditions that can endanger employees and impact operations, wind-power professionals need tools to help them launch a preemptive strike against lightning.
Constantly monitoring approaching thunderstorms and tracking lightning activity can be quite a burden to a manufacturing crew. Instead, to effectively track approaching lightning, wind farm personnel should use a real-time weather service that watches the weather for them, and sends alerts directly to mobile phones. Such notification services let them set alerting parameters to meet their particular needs. Determining an alert radius depends on the time it takes to get down from a tower and at least get to the safety of a truck (with windows closed and no one in contact with the metal chassis).
Crews should receive critical alerts before lightning moves into an area. Many wind farms use a heads-up alert to warn crews of approaching lightning. Most wind farms set their alerts to go off when a storm is 50 to 60 miles away. It notifies crews that thunderstorms are approaching the area and they should not begin work that will take them up to the turbine. As lightning gets closer to the wind farm, usually within 30 miles, an evacuation alert should be broadcast. When crews receive this alert, they can suspend work and get to safety before lightning strikes.
Once a storm enters the area, wind-farm operators must determine when operations can return to normal. Figuring out how to get crews back to the field without putting them in harm’s way is a complicated task. While operators want to resume work as quickly as possible, sending crews back to work too early puts them in danger.
A solution is an all-clear alert. It is an effective way of maximizing productivity while ensuring employee safety. A common practice is to send crews back after lightning has not struck within 30 miles for 15 minutes. A few operators take extra caution and wait until lightning has been absent within a radius of 60 miles for 15 minutes.
Operators typically set two zones on their site maps: a 30-mi watch zone (yellow circle) and an 8-mi warning zone (red circle). When a storm enters the watch zone, operators must lookout for severe weather. Once a storm enters the warning zone, operators clear the field to ensure crew safety.
In addition to advanced alerting capabilities, wind-farm operators greatly benefit from maps that display real-time lightning data. A visualization of lightning activity combined with radar can provide a good sense of when storms are approaching. This especially holds true when a second line of storms is developing that hasn’t yet entered the warning perimeter. This capability is helpful for maintenance scheduling because operators can avoid starting tasks that will have to be suspended again. Pairing these detailed weather maps with animated lightning strike data shows whether lightning is intensifying or subsiding.
While it is best to have crews responsible for their own safety, centralized monitoring can act as a backup for field personnel who may be preoccupied with maintenance tasks. Personnel at a central facility monitoring weather activity in proximity to wind farms can alert crews about impending weather issues.
Monitoring lightning activity is crucial for maintaining safety on a wind farm, but there is also value in looking back at recent lightning activity in the area. Weather services, such as Telvent DTN MxVision WeatherSentry Online Wind Energy Edition, provides access to detailed data for the previous 72 hours and the opportunity to archive such data for future reference. Details such as time, latitude, and longitude let users quickly pinpoint strikes in the wind farm even when it was overnight or over a weekend. This lets operators document, analyze, and report on lightning activity in the area for damage assessment, analysis, planning, and insurance claims.
This approach is an effective way to keep wind farm maintenance personnel safe. Implementing a complete system of detailed weather is also a cost-effective way to manage crew scheduling and reduce maintenance costs. These systems let wind farm operators mitigate weather disasters, and, better yet, are easy to implement and manage.
How a North Dakota wind farm handles lightning safety
The Omaha area has a tornado alert. Weather for Page County appears in the bulletin feature on MxVision WeatherSentry, which provides NWS warnings. Wind-farm operators can opt to recieve notification of approaching storms on their computer or mobile device.
North Dakota’s flat plains and strong, steady winds make it ideal for a wind farm. But this part of the country is especially susceptible to extreme weather conditions. Summer brings the threat of lightning strikes to the 300-ft tall turbines and brutally cold temperatures are commonplace in winter.
The Langdon Wind Energy Center operates a 40-acre, 133-turbine wind farm in North Dakota. The facility, owned by NextEra Energy Resources, is capable of producing 199.5 MW. To ensure the turbines operate at peak-efficiency, a team of 12 technicians perform routine maintenance duties and are on-call 24/7 in case of an emergency.
“In addition to lightning risks, we don’t send out crews if it’s colder than -28°C,” says Bill Campbell, plant leader for Langdon Wind Energy Center. “In cases of extreme cold, we only send out crews when absolutely necessary.”
To help navigate its weather challenges, the center subscribes to MxVision WeatherSentry Online Wind Energy Edition professional package. By accessing an internet-based platform, the center stays on top of changing weather conditions that endanger operations.
For a complete view of approaching severe weather, the center monitors radar and tracks storms, wind, and lightning on one centralized online dashboard. It features a layered weather map that lets personnel look at the specific weather information most important to its operations. This includes National Weather Service (NWS) warnings, watches, and advisories. Another layer includes custom areas of maximum impact based on parameters set by the center to reflect how weather is affecting the exact location of its turbines.
In addition to the online dashboard, the Center uses a mobile alerting system to view current and future conditions. To stay one step ahead of the weather, employees also have access to all of the online dashboard’s weather information on their mobile phone. Personalized alerts are sent instantly to employees’ phones when severe weather nears user-defined alerting parameters. This is especially important for field technicians performing maintenance tasks.
“We let the technicians know when lightning has been detected within 60 miles,” says Campbell. “When lightning is detected within 30 miles, we require our crews to evacuate the turbines.”
The mobile alerts are fed from an alert manager that provides instant notification of significant weather changes within their coverage area. When weather conditions such as wind-speed change or when the NWS issues a watch, warning, or advisory, an audible alarm is triggered through the online dashboard. “The system alerts us by sounding a siren that lets us know we need to either monitor weather conditions more closely or evacuate crews,” says Campbell.
Red areas are counties under a National Weather Service severe weather warning. Yellow indicates a watch area. The map lets users zoom in on weather conditions to find exact location or out to monitor storms heading towards their operations.
The most critical weather component for the center is the Lightning Manager. Receiving advanced warning of real-time lightning strikes from real-time lightning data is much safer than predictions that can lead to false alarms or delayed reporting after lightning has already struck.
Five Langdon crew members use the system. They can access weather data in the office, on the wind farm, and at their homes. “If my guys get called in over a weekend, I can log on from home to find out what’s going on with the weather and ensure their safety,” says Campbell.
In addition to watching storms as they pass through the area, Campbell and his technicians use hourly and 10-day forecasts to schedule routine maintenance. This allows for more efficient planning. For example, a wind turbine should not be slated for cleaning with a rain storm impending.
Although this type of renewable energy relies on the wind to generate electricity, too much wind can also impact operations and safety. If winds are too strong, crews cannot work on the turbine’s hub. Although each turbine has a wind speed indicator, Langdon Wind Energy Center also ensures safety by relying on monitoring systems for wind speed and direction.
As a result of implementing an advanced weather information service, Campbell and his technicians have been able to improve operational efficiencies while securing a high level of safety. “Safety is a shared value at our company,” says Campbell. “We rely heavily on real-time weather information to keep our technicians safe and operations running efficiently.”
