Operational Safety and Risk Management

The Offshore Wind-Industry is a new emerging and fast developing industry. Due to the dimension of the machinery (Windturbine) itself, and the also challenging conditions of the Offshore environment, the technicians working in such an environment are facing special risks that needs to be addressed properly to ensure that they come home safely without any harm.

From the regulatory perspective the offshore wind sector is widely seen as a grey area, and only some general guidelines, even diverse by country, are in place. So, it becomes highly important for each company working for this emerging industry and working across countries to make themselves comfortable with the requirements and to define the rules based on the principles of operational risk and safety management, to be legally compliant and to ensure workers health and safety. Due to the extraordinary financial impact of any delays caused by rule breaking and accidents, good health and safety becomes a major contributor for the success of each Offshore Wind project, during installation and service.

• Risk assessment to obtain occupational health and safety in offshore wind farms (working system, measures, introduction in case study, case work, presenting results)
• Risk assessment to obtain business continuity in offshore wind farms (security events, tools and methods (e. g. HAZOP, ETA), case work, discussing results)
• Emergency management in offshore wind farms (theory related to emergency and crisis, management, case work)
• Legal issues – directive 2006/42 EC, directive 2009/104/EC, directive Council; Directive 89/391/EEC, ISO 12100, ISO 31000)
• to access the occupational health & safety risks for the Offshore Industry, to apply the principles of health & safety based on the European regulatory framework, to enable to search for good practices across borders and industries, and to translate all of this into internal rules for the company

• This interactive lecture is split into two phases:
• The first phase addresses the operational risks for the workers going Offshore, based on a generic Offshore wind-farm located in the North sea 100nm from shore. The course provides methods and tools that could be applied to defined internal rules and guidelines based on the current legal framework.
• The second phase will focus on emergency preparedness. Due to the environmental conditions and the long distance to shore, any small accident could lead to a very severe accident in case the appropriated measures have not been implemented.

Lecturers: