Using Advanced Weather Technology Helps Wind Farm Operators Keep Crews Safe
As the global demand for renewable energy continues to rise, a growing number of wind farms are providing electricity for utilities around the world. Since most wind farms are located in open, lightning-prone areas and have turbines reaching many tens of metres into the sky, lightning safety is a major concern for wind farm operators. This article will provide insight into practices that are currently being used by many leading wind farm power companies to enhance operational efficiencies and ensure employee safety.
By Don Leick, Telvent product management director
Wind farms that have on-site maintenance staff, including operators, turbine manufacturers and contract maintenance crews, typically have well-established lightning safety practices. However, it should be pointed out that there are several misguided practices that are not effective and can be very dangerous.
The first mistake wind farm personnel can make is to wait until lightning can be seen or thunder can be heard before reacting. Lightning can strike several kilometres beyond a storm. Relying on your senses to monitor lightning activity is very dangerous because it will not give you adequate time to respond.
Another practice wind farm operators should avoid is monitoring radar on a computer or phone and trying to predict whether or not an incoming storm includes lightning. By using this method, wind farm operators are risking two opposite and undesirable results: false alarms and unidentified lightning in the area.
Lastly, wind farm operators who rely on lightning information from free websites might not realise that the updates provided on these sites are often delayed by 30–60 minutes. Since the average life of a thunderstorm cell is 20 minutes, lightning can be on top of wind farm crews before it shows up on the website. With employee safety on the line, it is worth the price to subscribe to a weather service that provides real-time updates.
The misguided lightning safety approaches listed above force wind farm operators to gamble with people’s lives. Instead, wind farms should rely on a combination of a real-time lightning detection network, with immediate alerting capabilities, and all-clear notifications for an effective method of keeping wind farm personnel safe.
Best Practices
To stay on top of changing weather conditions that can endanger employees and impact operations, wind power professionals need tools that allow them to launch a pre-emptive strike against lightning.
Constantly monitoring approaching thunderstorms and tracking lightning activity can be quite a burden. Instead, to effectively track approaching lightning, wind farm personnel should use a real-time weather service that watches the weather for them, and sends alerts directly to mobile phones. Such notification services allow them to set alerting parameters specifically to meet their needs. Determining the alert radius depends on the amount of time it takes to get down from a tower and at least get to the safety of a truck (with windows closed and your body not in contact with the metal chassis).
There are two alerts that are critical for wind farm crews to receive before lightning moves into the area. A heads-up alert is used by many winds farms to warn crews that lightning is approaching. Most wind farms set the alert to go off when a storm is about 80 to 100 km (50 or 60 miles) away. It notifies crews that thunderstorms are approaching the area and they should not begin work that will take them up to the turbine. When lightning gets closer to the wind farm, usually within 50 km (30 miles), an evacuation alert should be broadcast. When this alert is received, crews suspend work and get to safety before lightning strikes.
Once a storm has entered the area, wind farm operators need to determine when operations can return to normal. Figuring out how to get crews back into the field without putting them in harm’s way is a complicated task. While operators want to resume work as quickly as possible, sending crews back to work too early puts them in danger. Receiving an all-clear alert is an effective way of maximising productivity while ensuring employee safety. A common practice is to send crews back after lightning has not occurred within about 50 km (30 miles) for 15 minutes. Some operators take extra caution and wait until lightning has been absent within a radius of about 100 km (60 miles) for 15 minutes.
In addition to advanced alerting capabilities, wind farm operators benefit greatly from maps that display real-time lightning data. A visualisation of lightning activity combined with radar can provide a good sense of when storms are approaching. This holds especially true when a second line of storms is developing that has not yet entered the warning parameter. This capability is very helpful for maintenance scheduling, as operators can avoid starting activities that will have to be suspended due to bad weather. Pairing these detailed weather maps with animated lightning strike data shows whether lightning is intensifying or subsiding.
While it is best to have the crews, first and foremost, responsible for their own safety, centralised monitoring can act as a backup for field personnel. Personnel at a central facility can monitor weather activity in proximity to wind farms and call crews about impending weather issues.
Viewing current lightning activity is crucial for maintaining safety on a wind farm, but it is also useful to look back at recent lightning activity in the area. Weather services such as Telvent DTN MxVision WeatherSentry Online® Wind Energy Edition provides access to detailed data for the previous 72 hours and the opportunity to archive the data for future reference. Details such as time, latitude and longitude allow users to quickly pinpoint strikes in the wind farm even when it was overnight or over the weekend. This allows operators to document, analyse and report on lightning activity in the area for damage assessment, analysis, planning and insurance claims.
The approach described above is a proven, effective way to keep wind farm maintenance personnel safe. Implementing a complete operational weather solution is also a cost-effective way of managing crew scheduling and reducing maintenance costs. These systems are easy to implement and manage, and allow wind farm operators to mitigate weather disasters.
Biography of the Author
Don Leick is the product management director at Telvent DTN commercial weather services. He is responsible for understanding the needs of customers, including wind farm operators, and delivering solutions.{/access}
As the global demand for renewable energy continues to rise, a growing number of wind farms are providing electricity for utilities around the world. Since most wind farms are located in open, lightning-prone areas and have turbines reaching many tens of metres into the sky, lightning safety is a major concern for wind farm operators. This article will provide insight into practices that are currently being used by many leading wind farm power companies to enhance operational efficiencies and ensure employee safety.By Don Leick, Telvent product management director
{access view=!registered}Only logged in users can view the full text of the article.{/access}{access view=registered}When severe weather hits, the ultimate safety goal for maintenance crews is to get down from the towers and drive away from the wind farms; however, the very height of the turbines and expanse of the properties makes doing so no small effort. Therefore, it becomes critically important for wind farm operators to use a weather system that detects real-time lightning strikes. Furthermore, having the capability to provide alerts to on-site maintenance crews is a proven way to keep wind farm employees safe.
Unsafe PracticesWind farms that have on-site maintenance staff, including operators, turbine manufacturers and contract maintenance crews, typically have well-established lightning safety practices. However, it should be pointed out that there are several misguided practices that are not effective and can be very dangerous.
The first mistake wind farm personnel can make is to wait until lightning can be seen or thunder can be heard before reacting. Lightning can strike several kilometres beyond a storm. Relying on your senses to monitor lightning activity is very dangerous because it will not give you adequate time to respond.
Another practice wind farm operators should avoid is monitoring radar on a computer or phone and trying to predict whether or not an incoming storm includes lightning. By using this method, wind farm operators are risking two opposite and undesirable results: false alarms and unidentified lightning in the area.
Lastly, wind farm operators who rely on lightning information from free websites might not realise that the updates provided on these sites are often delayed by 30–60 minutes. Since the average life of a thunderstorm cell is 20 minutes, lightning can be on top of wind farm crews before it shows up on the website. With employee safety on the line, it is worth the price to subscribe to a weather service that provides real-time updates.
The misguided lightning safety approaches listed above force wind farm operators to gamble with people’s lives. Instead, wind farms should rely on a combination of a real-time lightning detection network, with immediate alerting capabilities, and all-clear notifications for an effective method of keeping wind farm personnel safe.
Best Practices
To stay on top of changing weather conditions that can endanger employees and impact operations, wind power professionals need tools that allow them to launch a pre-emptive strike against lightning.
Constantly monitoring approaching thunderstorms and tracking lightning activity can be quite a burden. Instead, to effectively track approaching lightning, wind farm personnel should use a real-time weather service that watches the weather for them, and sends alerts directly to mobile phones. Such notification services allow them to set alerting parameters specifically to meet their needs. Determining the alert radius depends on the amount of time it takes to get down from a tower and at least get to the safety of a truck (with windows closed and your body not in contact with the metal chassis).
There are two alerts that are critical for wind farm crews to receive before lightning moves into the area. A heads-up alert is used by many winds farms to warn crews that lightning is approaching. Most wind farms set the alert to go off when a storm is about 80 to 100 km (50 or 60 miles) away. It notifies crews that thunderstorms are approaching the area and they should not begin work that will take them up to the turbine. When lightning gets closer to the wind farm, usually within 50 km (30 miles), an evacuation alert should be broadcast. When this alert is received, crews suspend work and get to safety before lightning strikes.
Once a storm has entered the area, wind farm operators need to determine when operations can return to normal. Figuring out how to get crews back into the field without putting them in harm’s way is a complicated task. While operators want to resume work as quickly as possible, sending crews back to work too early puts them in danger. Receiving an all-clear alert is an effective way of maximising productivity while ensuring employee safety. A common practice is to send crews back after lightning has not occurred within about 50 km (30 miles) for 15 minutes. Some operators take extra caution and wait until lightning has been absent within a radius of about 100 km (60 miles) for 15 minutes.
In addition to advanced alerting capabilities, wind farm operators benefit greatly from maps that display real-time lightning data. A visualisation of lightning activity combined with radar can provide a good sense of when storms are approaching. This holds especially true when a second line of storms is developing that has not yet entered the warning parameter. This capability is very helpful for maintenance scheduling, as operators can avoid starting activities that will have to be suspended due to bad weather. Pairing these detailed weather maps with animated lightning strike data shows whether lightning is intensifying or subsiding.
While it is best to have the crews, first and foremost, responsible for their own safety, centralised monitoring can act as a backup for field personnel. Personnel at a central facility can monitor weather activity in proximity to wind farms and call crews about impending weather issues.
Viewing current lightning activity is crucial for maintaining safety on a wind farm, but it is also useful to look back at recent lightning activity in the area. Weather services such as Telvent DTN MxVision WeatherSentry Online® Wind Energy Edition provides access to detailed data for the previous 72 hours and the opportunity to archive the data for future reference. Details such as time, latitude and longitude allow users to quickly pinpoint strikes in the wind farm even when it was overnight or over the weekend. This allows operators to document, analyse and report on lightning activity in the area for damage assessment, analysis, planning and insurance claims.
The approach described above is a proven, effective way to keep wind farm maintenance personnel safe. Implementing a complete operational weather solution is also a cost-effective way of managing crew scheduling and reducing maintenance costs. These systems are easy to implement and manage, and allow wind farm operators to mitigate weather disasters.
Biography of the Author
Don Leick is the product management director at Telvent DTN commercial weather services. He is responsible for understanding the needs of customers, including wind farm operators, and delivering solutions.{/access}
