The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently turned its attention to the wind industry. As it stands, there are no national metrics for comparing the wind industry against other businesses, but with developments in the pipeline, this could change quicker than expected, and would be of major benefit to the industry.
When such laws do come into play, they will have direct relevance on Operations and Maintenance (O&M) technicians in the wind energy sector, and if not observed and incorporated into training programs, businesses could face huge financial implications.
Operations & Maintenance (O&M) is already set to become a $5 billion sector within the wind industry, and as such leading wind industry companies are now looking to invest millions of dollars in becoming fully compliant with federal OSHA laws.
Mike Fisher, VP Operations at Wood Group GTS – Renewables explains “the wind industry in the US is coming under increasing scrutiny from OSHA and other regulatory bodies, and now is the time to ensure that HSE is engrained within your operation thereby increasing staff retention, morale and productivity”. He stresses that “a wind project with a poor safety program will show poor financial productivity”.
Wood Group’s past experiences in the Oil and Gas sector have enabled them to identify such HSE consequences, be them large or small, and Wood Group have now transferred this specialist knowledge to address the needs of the wind industry.
