We have received verification for our Wind Turbine Safety Rules (WTSR) from major OEM Vestas.
Developed by industry body SafetyOn, led by wind farm owners and operators, WTSR is an industry standard to check and test the competence of technicians in relation to safety systems which is conducted prior to their mobilisation to site.
As SafetyOn members, we have developed its WTSR procedures in line with the SafetyOn guidance. Individuals nominated as Competent Technicians (CTs) or Authorised Technicians (ATs) are interviewed by a panel to test their knowledge against a range of scenarios on turbine safety.
René Damgaard commented: “The audit process carried out by Vestas has verified our WTSR procedures and confirmed that we can take on this responsibility directly. This is positive news as it removes the need for the OEM to undertake the candidate assessments and reduces management burden on the client. With our own WTSR in place, we can speed up the process of assigning technicians to site.
“Although WTSR has primarily been implemented for onshore wind farms in the UK, we have had requests for compliance from clients outside the region and see the potential for it to expand both internationally and for offshore.
“The UK and Ireland region is a key growth area for FairWind, and gaining this verification reinforces our ambitions to expand in this market. We see strong opportunities for our offshore preassembly and service capabilities and have recently created our UK & Ireland (UKIE) region to develop this further, as well as providing enhanced support to our customers in the region.
“Many utility clients will also look to contractors such as us to run their own panels as well. This means that we have now removed a barrier to trade with a large group of customers in the region. There will also be smaller competitor who operate on a labour only model that will not have the capability to run their own WTSR procedures. As Vestas start to insist all contractors have their own roles, this will reduce competition from smaller low-cost players.”
