October 31, 2022

GWO Releases Wind Limited Access Standard on November 1st

Standard increases safety around supervised, infrequent WTG visitors.

On November 1st Global Wind Organisation (GWO) releases the Wind Limited Access Standard. This new standard was developed to provide a minimum viable safety training for infrequent visitors to onshore and offshore wind turbine generators (WTG) environments when supervised by at least two GWO Basic Safety Training (BST) qualified persons. The standard consists of two, three-and-a-half hour modules.

The first module, Onshore Limited Access, provides training for entering a WTG and forms the minimum training requirement for visiting onshore WTG environments. Persons wishing to visit offshore WTG environments, must take an additional three-and half-hour Offshore Limited Access Module covering survival at sea and transfers. It is important to note that the Offshore Limited Access Module cannot be taken independently and must be taken in conjunction with Onshore Limited Access Module as a one day training.

Jakob Lau Holst, CEO of GWO said;

“At GWO, our mission is an injury free working environment in the global wind industry. This includes not only wind technicians but also infrequent visitors. We now have a training solution targeted these visitors, that gives them a basic understanding of risks and the elements of the working environment before they visit.”

Bente Gertrud Østerg Boa, Head of Learning and Development, Ørsted said;

“At Ørsted we have had our own one-day Offshore Limited Access course running for a couple of years. With the launch of a GWO global standard, this type of training is now available for all in the wind industry and with a clear understanding of requirements for visiting both on- and off-shore windfarms.”

The Wind Limited Access Standard is intended for infrequent visitors (six or less visits per year) to WTG environments. Importantly it does not provide participants with the knowledge to:

• carry out work on WTGs or enter faulty WTGs.

• independently take responsibility for equipment or to mitigate hazards and risks present in WTG environments.

For activities that fall outside of the Wind Limited Access Standard scope, and for more frequent visitors to WTG environment GWO continues to recommend its Basic Safety Training Standard.

Join the webinar on December 1st for a Q&A session with the project manager.