GWO Members collaborate on blade repair risk review

GWO’s Blade Repair Working Group (pictured) has completed the latest stage of its training standard development, compiling a comprehensive risk analysis to inform learning objectives.

The GWO Steering Committee and Training Committee approved the latest ‘Gate Review’ on April 18th 2018 and the Blade Repair Working Group is now authorized to move forward with its next stage to conduct a ‘DIF analysis’ in which risks are reviewed and scored according to their ‘Difficulty, Importance and Frequency’.

Why does blade repair need a training standard?

The new standard is one of four currently in development by GWO working Groups. It is being created with the support of GWO members to meet the safety training needs of an increasing number of technicians conducting blade repair activities.

Wind turbine blade repair typically involves using specialist tools and there are some unique risks relating to materials contained within blades.

As the Blade Repair Working Group works through its DIF Analysis, each of the risks identified will be systematically reviewed and scored. Following this, learning objectives will be designed and written into the new standard, to ensure safety for technicians.

What is the Blade Repair Working Group doing?

Two intense days of work during April 2018 saw safety and training professionals from GWO member companies combine hundreds of pages of risk analyses into a single, shorter document numbering 25 pages only.

“GWO standards are always created using shared risk information and safety data,” explains Jakob Bjørn Nielsen,” Senior Training Advisor at Global Wind Organisation (pictured second left). “The objective of this stage in the process has been to review the risk analyses of Blade Repair Working Group members side by side, to identify duplication or repetition and ensure the GWO standard will consist of learning objectives that train technicians in a repeatable, uniform way.

“The DIF Analysis process will take place next and helps us to inform the learning objectives of the standard,” adds Jakob Bjørn. “Higher scores in the DIF categories may result in a greater amount of time devoted to that learning objective.”

Jakob Bjørn reserved thanks to members of the GWO Blade Repair Working Group, who gave up considerable time from their busy schedules to contribute. “I’d like to thank the members of the Blade Repair Working Group for bringing with them such a comprehensive portfolio of information so that we could move forward knowing no stone has been unturned. Everyone who commits to GWO understands our values of collaboration, evidence, standardization and compliance. Their professionalism is the key to developing a framework that will become a robust training standard for years to come.”