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The European Commission has issued a tender seeking a contractor to undertake an analysis of the potential for harmonization and alignment of health and safety standards in the onshore and offshore wind industries.
Chris Streatfield. a former director of health and safety at RenewableUK. whose company Forge Risk provides risk management services. told OWJ that the scope the contract is to analyse the potential for harmonization and alignment of health and safety standards in the operation. maintenance. and decommissioning of windfarms. and their construction.
“I would encourage the wind sector to fully and actively engagement with this project.“ Mr Streatfield said. “The industry has a positive story tell. Taking account of its relatively short history. the speed. quality and quantity of ‘standards’ that the wind industry has developed is impressive and compares highly favourably with other sectors. However. the expectation to apply good and best practice standards has never been greater.“
On a geopolitical level the risks posed by Brexit. protectionism and polarization are having an effect such that the accepted value and role of standards and rules set by what Mr Streatfield described as “so called experts“ have “never been under such an existential theat.“
Mr Streatfield continued. “While leaving the politics aside. the increased complexity and connectivity of business and technology. means there has never been a more crucial time to champion the positive safety and economic benefits standards can provide.
“The wind sector has a fantastic opportunity to become a beacon of excellence in the development and dissemination of standards. All stakeholders working across the wind supply chain and related sectors should take every opportunity to support the development and maintenance of relevant standards that add value and reduce the risk burden on the sector.“
Mr Streatfield is due to present a paper on standardization at the WindEurope 2018 Conference at the Global Wind Summit. which takes place 25-28 September 2018 in Hamburg.
In it he will say. “As a responsible industry. the drive for efficiency gains and cost reductions should never be at the expense of compromising health and safety performance. The legal. contractual. economic and reputational implications are too great to even imply corners are being cut.
“However. what is becoming clearer as the offshore wind sector moves to the next stage of growth and onshore wind looks at turbine life extension – standards and harmonization can and must play an increasingly key role going forward.
“At their worst. poor standards can stifle innovation. create narrow and defensive compliance cultures and add cost and complexity throughout the supply chain.
“At their best. good standards stimulate innovation. drive down costs. reduce risks. enhance resilience and instil a learning culture that delivers continual improvement across the whole lifecycle of project delivery.
“While there is no doubt of the strong contractual and reputational drivers that encourage enforce ‘compliance.’ it is important to recognize that that in effect all standards are ‘voluntary’ with only constitutional requirements and legislation being mandatory.
“Of relevance to the wind sector is that by promoting the concept of interoperability. standardization can provide a competitive edge in the market place which is essential if we are to deliver effective worldwide trading of products and services in the wind sector industry.
“Development. adoption and recognition of standards by the wind industry should stimulate product innovation. drive continual improvement and create a more open culture with the end game of driving down costs and increasing efficiencies across the supply chain.“
The European tender. ‘ENER C1 2018-499 – Technical support for RES policy development and implementation: Potential for harmonization and alignment of health and safety standards for wind power plants at onshore as well as offshore sites.’ can be found here:
Mr Streatfield is due to present in a session at the conference entitled ‘How standardization is creating a safer and more productive workforce.’ on 27 September 2018. WindEurope said. “As the cost of energy continues to reduce. owner operators. OEMs and other primary contractors are looking towards standards that can deliver a best practice safety and technical training to deliver quality and efficiency. These sessions will explain how standards are influencing health and safety in our industry. from the key opportunity areas for standardization. to research demonstrating the values that OEMs and operators feel they achieve by working with standardized training.“
