The standards work that has been performed by the established European offshore wind industry over more than a decade is creating a valuable HSE platform not only for North Europe, but also for less experienced markets such as Southern Europe, Asia and the USA.

Take a look at almost any mature industry and you’ll see a similar story: the gradual development and acceptance of standards that drive progress, open the supply chain to new entrants and play a crucial role in stimulating innovation, health competition and lowering costs.

EMERGING STANDARDS

In offshore wind HSE, there’s currently no EU standards framework although, for example, EWEA and its members are working toward defining and agreeing upon industry best practices that may form the basis for a wider set of standards. Another prominent force for standardisation is the recently formed G9 Offshore Wind Health & Safety Association – or G9 for short – which aims to share valuable HSE data among companies and develop a range of industry good practice guidelines. And yet another important player is the Global Wind Organization (GWO), an association of wind turbine owners and manufacturers formed to support an injury-free work environment in
the wind industry.

According to Hasse A. Andreasen, Regional Head of Offshore EHS at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division, the seminal work being performed by such groups is of prime importance: “While there is still much to be done, there’s no doubt about the need for such standards – particularly as wind farms and their turbines grow in size, and move into increasingly hostile environments.”

Although it’s still early days, the Northern European offshore wind industry leads the world in the drive toward formalised standards. One of the most successful of these efforts is the International Jack Up Barge Operators Association (IJUBOA) Safety Guidelines, created in consultation with supply chain players and currently the gold standard for offshore wind jack-up safety. It’s emerging standards like these that comprise an opportunity for export to regions of the world where offshore wind energy is struggling to develop a responsible HSE environment.

COMING TO AMERICA

“Siemens was the first major offshore wind company to seriously address the US market,” says Hasse A. Andreasen. “As an example, we began working on the Cape Wind project more than a decade ago and even though final contract closure has not been realized at this stage, the process has been very educative.”

The US, as well as a number of Southern European countries, has a well-developed market for onshore wind farms – and appropriate HSE regulations in place. It does not, however, have a similarly developed offshore wind farm infrastructure capable of securing the safety of offshore wind personnel to an appropriate standard. The task now, for Siemens Division Wind Power and Renewables and other offshore wind players, is to build a strong safety culture in the market, preferably even before the first commercial offshore wind farms are built.

EXPORTING EXPERIENCE

Siemens Wind Power’s Offshore Environment, Health and Safety department is charged with developing the US and other emerging offshore wind markets to align with commonly adopted industry standards such as the GWO training framework and G9 guidelines, as well as transferring robust parts of the safety culture and best practices from the company’s own existing projects in North Europe to its future sites further abroad.

“While a straight ‘cookie-cutter’ approach of applying North European-born practices to new emerging markets like the US is best avoided, the lessons learned in existing markets will, of course, define the basic HSE requirements and safety culture strategy for the emerging markets sector,” says Hasse A. Andreasen. “Experience will systematically be derived and shared from lessons learned in incident investigation, implementation of procedures and instructions, and legal considerations related to environment, health and safety standards and training.”

LEADING THE WAY IN SAFETY

Siemens Wind Power has decided to make GWO training mandatory for personnel on new market projects. The package comprises five courses: 16 hours First Aid training, Manual Handling, Fire Awareness, Working at Height, and Sea Survival. The key is to find and approve suitable local training providers before a project is commissioned.

The same goes for training personnel aboard crew transfer vessels. Overall then, Siemens Wind Power expects to become the driving force in offshore wind HSE in these regions, setting the benchmark and ensuring multiple offshore projects can be implemented safely and successfully for many years to come.

SHARING OUR KNOWHOW

A2SEA regularly contributes its knowhow to the development of crew training standards. At EWEA Offshore 2015, for example, we were asked to contribute to an inter-company exchange of views, drawing upon the experience won from installing more than 1,200 turbines, foundations turbines, foundations and cabling throughout Europe.

ABOUT HASSE ANDREASEN

Hasse Andreasen is currently the Regional Head of Offshore EHS at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division, where he is responsible for operational and strategic EHS management. Prior to joining the company, he held a variety of quality and EHS functions at a major offshore wind foundations contractor. Beginning his career in the maritime sector, Hasse has lengthy experience with offshore operations and vessel HSEQ management.

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