HEALTH & SAFETY - WORKWEAR
PROVIDING SAFETY FOR CREW IS KEY TO GOOD BUSINESS
Wind energy organisations recognise that retaining key staff is important for better operational efficiency and a healthier bottom line. For any business competing to attract and retain talent, a commitment to staff welfare is a priority
Gavan Murphy, Director of Marketing EMEA at Globalstar, explains how technology is making it possible to increase the safety of wind energy workers, however remote their working environment.
CREW SAFETY
Ensuring the welfare of skilled and professional crew is more important than ever. Even today when investment in technology is under ever closer scrutiny, commercial organisations recognise the need to do more to promote crew safety. Critically, these companies have also woken up to the additional business benefits. Whether you are involved in heavy construction, utilities, or developing alternative energy, improving working conditions and promoting welfare for crew is essential. But there is added urgency for safeguarding those wind energy staff who work in potentially hazardous environments.
GOOD FOR BUSINESS
It may have been a long time coming, but today businesses take the view that retaining the most expert, knowledgeable staff is good for business and is an important human resources issue. Highly experienced team members often perform duties more rapidly than more junior employees and they have more know-how to draw upon when faced with challenging situations, including crises. Being able to rely on these highly experienced teams encourages better overall efficiency when carrying out specialist operations or even when providing ongoing maintenance. Introducing reliable, resilient tracking of
remote workers and instant connectivity with colleagues and security teams not only ensures optimum resource allocation, it helps alleviate the risk for workers carrying out complex and/or dangerous tasks.
TRUSTED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
To add to the safety imperative, access by the emergency services in remote,
mountainous areas, in deserts or at sea requires specialist support such as an air ambulance. All told, wherever they are, crew members require a communications system they can trust, rain or shine, 24/7 to keep them in touch with colleagues and when there’s an emergency, lone, remote and at-risk workers need to know they can rapidly summon rescue and that first responders can speedily pinpoint their location.
In these situations a satellite-based tracking and communications solution offers the only viable communications lifeline.
CASE STUDY
Global wind energy developer GE Renewable Energy is internationally recognised as having among the highest standards for health and safety in the alternative energy space. In 2016, GE wanted to identify and deploy a communications solution in order to safeguard its crews in new wind energy development sites across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The solution would need to have the best possible reach and reliability and with the greatest ease-of-use for staff particularly when they are faced with the most challenging situations such as during an emergency. Through a formal Request for Proposals (RFP), the company considered a number of alternative service providers and technologies, including GSM and radio. SPOT Gen3 from Globalstar emerged as the winner in this competitive evaluation, for its reliability, ubiquitous reach and, in particular, the ability for users to summon help with just the touch of a button.
In the event of an emergency, GE wind energy workers only need to press SPOT’s SOS button to alert first responders via the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Centre (IERCC). The user’s GPS co- ordinates are instantly transmitted via the Globalstar network – the only complete next generation satellite constellation in orbit today – thereby accelerating the dispatch of support.
GLOBAL REACH
Following a period of extensive testing, GE determined that Globalstar’s SPOT system, and the GEOS response centre, performed flawlessly. GE recently equipped its wind energy employees in Pakistan and Morocco with SPOT Gen3 devices, while further SPOT deployments in new markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are planned. Supplied by Globalstar’s value added
reseller, Crambo Wireless S.A., GE will provide SPOT units to wind power workers in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and elsewhere in Africa, as well as Central Europe and the Balkans. By mid-2017, GE personnel working at approximately 70 wind farms in EMEA and Asia are expected to have enhanced safety thanks to SPOT.
CONTINUED BUSINESS
The success and effectiveness which GE has already had with Globalstar’s SPOT played a contributing role in the decision to procure further SPOT devices. SPOT is already helping to track and secure staff at GE’s wind energy sites in UK, Ireland, and Spain, among others.
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www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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