Boards of directors in the wind industry are taking an increasingly close look at the value that standardisation of basic safety training can offer.
In 2012 the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) released its first ‘basic safety training’ standard to ensure that ‘wind turbine specific’ safety training was available for technicians anywhere in the world, and that manufacturers, operators and sub-contractors could rely and validate the quality of this training to meet ever growing demand.
We’ve followed this with the ‘basic technical training standard’, and an expanding body of work aimed at helping the sector strive towards an injury-free working environment.
Manufacturers representing more than 68% of global installed capacity already recognise GWO as the benchmark for basic safety and technical training for wind turbine technicians.
These companies are committed to GWO, because it makes safety sense, and because the collaboration is supported by a solid business case. Our belief is that as the wind turbine industry grows and economies of scale are increasingly deployed, worker safety and standardised training will play an even greater strategic role for leading manufacturers and owners.
Since GWO launched WINDA, a global database ofwind techniciantraining records in October 2016, the organisation has been able to verify GWO training digitally and online. No more paper certificates of training, much less hassle in verification, and less room for falsification of training certificates.
The numbers speak volumes. We are making progress, as demonstrated by our recently issued annual WINDA report. It shows how more wind turbine technicians than ever are completing or refreshing the GWO basic safety training standard. In 2017, more than 44,000 technicians across the world were trained according to our standards, and received more than 120,000 courses at 233 certified training centres operated by Falck, Maesk, Siemens and others, worldwide.
Our membership frequently reports that by adopting GWO standards they can make considerable improvements in the overall efficiency of their training programmes. Anecdotal evidence from wind turbine manufacturers in GWO membership suggests this could be roughly equivalent to the time spent by technicians on their previous basic safety and technical programs. For global sub-contractors, the frequency of avoided duplication is reportedly much higher, as they tend to have more mobility across installation and service sites.
Assuming an average of one annual avoided training day per GWO certified training day, GWO certified technicians have potentially been available for an additional 120,000-plus days of work during 2017. Add to this the value of a day's work, the cost and administrative savings of avoided duplication of training, the value of being able to source training closer to sites, and the cost saving coming from purchasing a standard product and a rough guestimate puts the value of industry collaboration on standardisation in the order of €200-300m ($244-366m).
However, the potential value of standardisation to industry goes much further. We look to older industries, such as oil and gas under the guidance of standards bodies like OPITO, where 250,000 workers annually are trained to the same basic level of safety competence regardless of where or for whom they work.
We maintain that our training standards will be relevant to an increasing number of technicians. This, we believe, is illustrated by the fact that our membership of health, safety and training leaders from many of the world’s largest OEMs are instructed at board level to engage in the development of standards, driving forward an agenda which will see further training added to the portfolio in 2018 and beyond.
Jakob Lau Holst is chief executive of the Global Wind Organisation, a non-profit organisation of wind OEMs promoting standardised safety training and emergency procedures
