The overall aim of SafetyOn is to improve health and safety in the onshore wind industry. SafetyOn primarily does this through its work programme which is delivered by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), a group consisting of members’ health and safety experts. TAC meet on a bi-monthly basis to share learnings, review the incident data collection and develop the work programme.

The work programme includes incident data reporting, good practice guidelines, safe by design workshops and sharing learnings from incidents.

All SafetyOn publications are freely available on www.safetyon.com/work-programme

 

SafetyOn Workstreams


Workstream

  

Overview

Onshore Emergency Response

  

SafetyOn released its first good practice guideline for developing emergency response procedures for the onshore wind industry. The document has been developed through industry collaboration and adopts a risk-based approach to managing emergency situations. The aim is to provide a process that if followed should allow the duty holder to develop plans and procedures to mitigate the consequence of incidents and help protect casualties until they can be delivered to an ultimate place of safety.

Download SafetyOn Onshore Emergency Response

Transformer switchgear

  

SafetyOn published a research report on the root cause of fires on wind turbines. The research was conducted with input from UK HSE, SafetyOn and industry data. SafetyOn will continue using internal reporting to maintain a running, in-depth analysis of the risk of fires in wind turbines. It is believed that this will augment the data available via authority reporting with a greater level of detail on root causes of fire in wind turbines.

Download SafetyOn Research Report: An investigation into the root causes of fires in MW scale wind turbines

Communications plan

  

We have developed a communications strategy which forms the fundamental communication objectives of the group. This includes elements such as regular activity updates, announcement of and information on events, (for example the annual stakeholder day and workshops), the development of communication material, and the set-up of an internal communication platform for members.. All public information is made available via the SafetyOn website and updates are communicated via LinkedIn and Twitter.

Data , collection and analysis  

Developing incident data reporting protocols/standards for SafetyOn from its early beginnings will smooth the process of analysing industry wide incidents and guide onshore wind H&S workstreams.

The main objective of this workstream is to help SafetyOn members to collect and submit incident data within the onshore wind operations in a unified format, which will produce a cohesive SafetyOn database. These guidelines will feed on the expertise developed by SafetyOn for the coming years as well as consider the diversity of current member companies.

SafetyOn member companies will submit incident data and the number of worked hours based on the agreed data reporting template. The template is updated based on experience and information gathered year after year to reflect identified reporting and incident issues.

The first annual incident data report (2020) is expected to be released in June 2021.

Working under suspended loads  

SafetyOn held its first Safe by Design workshop in November 2019. The workshop format was developed to explore, challenge and improve the controls in place to prevent a dropped load during major component exchanges. It also covered the recovery mitigations in the event of a dropped load.

Download SafetyOn Safe by Design Workshop report: Workshop report: Working under  suspended loads – major component exchange

Wind Turbine Safety Rules (WTSR)

  

Wind Turbine Safety Rules (WTSR) represent industry good practice for safeguarding employees from the inherent dangers that exist from installed electrical and mechanical equipment in wind turbines. SafetyOn and G+ jointly sit on the WTSR steering committee.

For more information visit the WTSR page

Tier2 Participant engagement

  

SafetyOn setup a workstream to engage with Tier 2 members, allowing integration, with their knowledge and experience, in the work programme. This workstream aims to give Tier 2 members a voice in SafetyOn operations and provide the best possible benefits of their membership.

For more information on membership criteria visit our membership page

Traffic management

  

SafetyOn identified several incidents involving the overturning of vehicles, falls from vehicles, unstable loads, vehicle movements. A workstream has been developed to examine traffic management for onshore windfarm sites and develop a good practice guidance to assist the industry design, planning, implementation and maintenance of traffic management systems for the full life cycle of a wind farm.

A workshop was held in January 2021 bringing together health and safety experts, industry stakeholders and front-line workers to engage in an open discussion and share learnings and experiences of traffic management on windfarm sites. The feedback and input received during this workshop has been invaluable in the development of the workstream.

Human factors

  

SafetyOn examine how human and organisational factors can impact on occupational and process safety performance in the onshore wind industry. Under this workstream SafetyOn will examine the effects of emotional wellbeing, fatigue, and an increase in ageing workforce with the aim of developing a human factors essentials kit.

Planned and unplanned decommissioning of turbines

  

SafetyOn are developing guidance for the planned and emergency decommissioning of onshore windfarms. The guidance will be separated into two parts, planned and emergency, and will cover all aspects of decommissioning at site.

Electrical Safety: Hierarchy of control and competence

  

Following the publication of the SafetyOn Research report: “An investigation into the root causes of fires in MW scale wind turbines” which focuses on the root cause of fires” SafetyOn held a workshop with the Health and Safety Executive and recognised that there are still concerns with HV electrical systems and also that there is significant work being undertaken by SafetyOn and its members on these topics. SafetyOn are developing a workstream which addresses the risks associated with:
1. Positioning of HV equipment
2. Controlling access to HV equipment
3. Competence level of personnel who have access to HV equipment
4. Non-electrical work near HV equipment

Good practice guidance for working in confined spaces in onshore WTG

  

SafetyOn are developing good practise guidance for working in confined spaces in onshore WTG, including adequate advance planning, and procedures to be in place to comply with the Confined Space Regulations requirements.

Construction Onshore Civils

  

SafetyOn are collaborating with colleagues from the offshore wind industry through the G+ Global offshore wind health and safety organisation, to address the risks associated with onshore civil construction works. This is an issue that effects both onshore and offshore and has been highlighted as a risk in the G+ 2019 incident data report.