The outcome of the testing is now being incorporated in the course material and the Basic Safety Training Program is expected to launch in the first half of 2011.
Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is teaming up with competitors and costumers to create a standard for basic safety training. This is done in the framework of the Global Wind Organization (GWO), which Vestas started up in November 2009 together with competitors like Siemens and Suzlon and with several key accounts including SSE Renewables, Vattenfall, and RWE Innogy.
“The renewables industry is progressing fast and, with offshore wind in particular, we enter a new and challenging business,” says Thomas Schuchart, safety engineer at RWE Innogy and member of the GWO Steering Committee. “Now is the right time for joint approaches like this and we expect that it will be highly beneficial to all of us within the industry.”
Today, customers must support the cost of training technicians in multiple different safety courses if they own turbines made by different manufacturers, the organization explains. In the future they only have to participate in one course if their manufacturers are members of the GWO. The same goes for subcontractors.
While safety is already a priority, Vestas benefits from the new standards. “The course content is quite similar to what Vestas already has in place, but it will be more comprehensive,” says Safety Specialist Lars Odby, also a member of the GWO Steering Committee. “Today, in some areas of Vestas, documentation, when it comes to the skills of our external course providers, is not good enough. With the new standard, we set clear expectations to the providers.”
The Basic Safety Training Program is now finalized, and a test trial of the different modules has just been conducted. “We are aiming to make the best basic training, incorporating already known standards,” says Philip Hill, HSE & Education coordinator in Vestas Offshore. “We are getting a lot of great, constructive feedback, and it has just been a major team effort.”
Vestas www.vestas.com
Filed Under: Safety
