The world’s leading wind OEMs and wind farm developers are actively implementing Global Wind Organisation (GWO) safety and training standards at their facilities. A webinar, held by RAWI together with GWO, Vestas and BOTC Training (a RAWI member) on 18 January 2022, was dedicated to discussing this topic concerning Russia.
GWO Director of Global Development and Stakeholder Relations Ralph Savage, Vestas Chief H&S Specialist Paul Robbins and BOTC Training Board Member Mikhail Kuzmich spoke about the measures that wind energy companies are applying to reduce workplace injuries and the GWO standards that enable the training and certification of safety knowledge and skills.
Today there are 440 certified training centres in 50 countries that train professionals to the uniform GWO standards. The number of professionals trained has already exceeded 125,000.
According to Ralph Savage, GWO has contributed to the creation of a modern safety culture, which is confirmed by the industry’s recognition of training standards on a global basis. The certification ensures that GWO-trained professionals can get to work faster with their results being verified through WINDA, a global database of wind energy training, so there is no duplication or falsification of training results. In addition, training can be organised and carried out at the site of installation and assembly of a wind turbine.
Mikhail Kuzmich spoke about the work of BOTC Training.
Since 2014, BOTC Training has been GWO-certified and has started to offer GWO-standard training to the market. Today, BOTC Training is one of the largest GWO training centres in Europe. Each year, BOTC Training issues over 2,600 certificates of successful completion of GWO training. BOTC Training operates in 4 countries worldwide, including Russia. In the last year of work in Russia, BOTC Training has issued more than 100 attendance certificates according to GWO standards. Training is conducted at training centres in St Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don. Practical training takes place on the specially equipped polygons and is carried out by certified instructors. Theoretical training is delivered remotely, interactively or in classrooms depending on the client’s requirements.
If required, training can be organised at the site of the construction of a wind power plant. The modules included in the training programme are combined in different variations and cover all phases of wind turbine construction and operation, and their selection depends on the tasks that the certified person is going to perform. For example, for a crane operator working on a wind power plant construction project, four basic modules will need to be completed to obtain the relevant qualifications: first aid, working at height, working with heavy loads (manual handling), and fire awareness. Personnel working in wind power plants, transformer substations, etc. will also be recommended to complete GWO Basic Technical Training (BTT) courses specific to their jobs, e.g. an installation technician will have to add modules with strapper and signaller skills as well as BTT electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and installation modules.
Although there is no GWO training requirement for wind personnel in Russia, there are also internal rules and standards for wind power plant operators and manufacturers of wind power equipment. Globally, GWO standards have become a requirement and this trend is likely to continue. Without proper certification to GWO standards, professionals will not be allowed to work in most wind energy projects and most modern wind farms.
You can find out how the various professions in Russia can be trained and certified under GWO standards by watching the webinar recording.
The webinar will be available in the Webinars section of the RAWI website shortly.