Members of the local coastguard and fire and rescue service joined a wind turbine training exercise in North Argyll this week, where Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) technicians supported by local wind farm developer and operator GreenPower carried out a mock rescue from the top of a wind turbine tower, 70 metres off the ground. This training is conducted every year to keep technicians training up to date and their skills fresh.
GreenPower invited local fire brigade and coast guard along so that however unlikely, they could see how somebody is rescued and learn what to expect if they ever got called out to an emergency.
Rutger Simons, GreenPower Site Operations and Maintenance Manager said: “There was a lot of great discussion between the rescue services and SGRE and it was a great learning experience for all parties. This included simple things such as how technicians could communicate to the rescue services in low/no reception areas, timings of the rescue of a casualty and taking notes of important locations. The exercise itself went well and the technicians showed great practical skills and knowledge during the exercise. It was a very successful day.”
The Fire and Rescue Service is adding learnings from the experience to the fire brigades “Operational Intelligence System” – a document that will give the fire brigade crews and incident response plan that will detail exact locations, contact number and site specific details. Robert Taylor, Argyll and Bute Station Commander Fire and Rescue Service, said: “The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service observed Siemens crews carrying out a rescue from height and took the opportunity to exchange learning between ourselves, GreenPower International and Siemens. As a result of the operational intelligence shared the we will develop a Incident Response Plan for the site so that operational crews have access to the risk information and procedures on site. As always, it has been a pleasure to work with partners across our communities.”
The training exercise took place at the Carraig Gheal Wind Farm near Kilchrenan in North Argyll, developed and operated by GreenPower, one of Scotland’s leading independent renewable energy companies. The 20 turbine wind farm has been in operation for over ten years. Carraig Gheal Wind Farm has generated well over a million megawatt hours of green electricity over the last decade – enough to boil a kettle 12 billion times, or enough to drive a Tesla Model 3 to the moon and back over 12,000 times.