Training Needs for Wind Turbine Service Technicians

 

 I want to outline my understanding of the sort of training needed to develop a wind turbine service technician. This is important because while there are service technician courses and apprenticeships around the globe, there are no service technician courses in Australia. The technical and further education sector is getting interested, but does not yet have the teaching staff or the knowledge of the industry to do it. I don’t think this will take long though, as there are a few people working on this.

But anyway, if you wanted to be a wind technician in Australia, what kinds of qualifications would you need. To start with, it is going to be easier if you have a trade, and those preferred are electrical and mechanical trades. A trade shows you have some good skills, but it also shows application, and the ability to see things through. This might be a stereotype to a certain degree, but I am afraid that is the opinion that holds sway in the Australian industry – trade qualified workers are more likely to offer good general work skills as well as bringing their licences and specializations. It’s not over if you don’t have a trade though, there is still space for you to get in, but you must be able to show application to the tasks, and good general mechanical skills. Wind farm managers will tell you that the profile they often look for is a local farmer who has worked extensively on farm machinery, and is pretty self sufficient and hardworking. If someone is local, and good with machines, they have a good base of skills, and are not likely to leave for another wind farm job after you have trained them, so they are a good bet for training up well.

So, some of the basic stuff that will appeal to hiring managers in wind farms is

1.     First Aid – senior or level 2 with an up to date CPR – this is pretty standard, all wind technicians need to have this, and if you don’t have it and you get a job as a wind technician, you can expect to be sent to do it very quickly.

2.     Working at Heights – obviously having a working at heights certificate is going to be an advantage, but most wind companies will now demand their technicians attend their specific training covering emergency equipment and evacuation from the particular turbines to be climbed. Nonetheless, it is useful to have a basic work at heights qualification before you start, to allow you to climb on your first day if your hirer’s procedures allow. Those wanting to go further could get certificates in vertical rescue and ladder rescue.

3.     National Construction Induction – while wind farms are not construction sites, wind technicians will often be asked to visit sites that are under construction to assist with commissioning, initial servicing, and just generally filling in if extra needs to be done and the service site is running well, so you should be ready with a construction induction card.

4.     Current Driver’s licence – don’t turn up with an expired one.

5.     Confined Space – some windfarms have confined spaces, some don’t, but it would definitely be valuable to have if you were looking for wind farm tech work.

6.     Hazardous Substances – There are various hazardous substances on wind farms, and techs generally need to be trained to use the Material Safety Data Sheets, and be aware around these chemicals.

7.     Fire Extinguisher Service – all turbines have fire extinguishers in them, and you need to know how to use and service them.

8.     Methods of Release / Electrical Safety – if you are not electrically trained, then electrical safety and rescue is an important competency – largely because if you are not electrical, likely that the other guy up the turbine with you, will be working on the circuits, and if there is an accident, you will be the only one there to help for some time.

This would be a good set of qualifications to bring to the table if you are looking for a job as a wind technician, combine them with a trade and you are sought after. But there will still be more training in your first year, some of the things you will likely get are

9.     Respond to Site Emergencies – all sites have emergency plans, and most wind farms will want you to do more than just sit through the 45minute induction pointing to where the muster points are – they want you to know what to do if you are 80 metres in the air and a grass fire starts in 40 degree heat just upwind of you on the farm.

10.  Job Safety Analysis – The construction induction course will give you a sense of JSAs, and how they are used, but wind companies will want to train you in theirs, and tick you off as being capable of assessing the risks you will be dealing with.

11.  Manual Handling – every employer wants to be covered here, and will probably want to ensure new staff are across the particular manual handling risks of a windfarm. It probably wouldn’t hurt to turn up with it though.

12.  Disconnect / Reconnect – if you are not an electrician, expect to be put through this certificate, see my most recent post for more details.

13.  Turbine training – finally we get to learning about the actual gear, and while much of this will be learned on the job, it is likely that you will need at least a week’s formal training inside your first year on the job. You need to learn the electrics, the mechanics, the hydraulics, and the software and controls. You will need to learn to read the schematics, and understand the key functionality and components (pitch, yaw, gearbox). Further turbine training would likely follow each year either to deepen knowledge or keep up with the technology updates.

This is a pretty good list, but it doesn’t end there, because I have probably forgotten a few things. Further additions in time can be things like High Voltage Operation, Customer Service (clients like visiting windfarms), things to help out the crane guys such as dogging and rigging, and anything else your wind farm manager feels like getting you qualified in. As you can see though, becoming a wind technician does involve a significant amount of training, most of which is taken care of by the employer, because it is not easily locatable as a certificate or all provided by the one company or institution. But maybe this is only temporary. Please let me know in the comments if you think I have missed anything in particular

These views are personal and not necessarily those of my employer.

The Restricted Electrical Licence and why the wind industry needs it.

The restricted electrical licence is comprised of a couple of competencies around disconnect and reconnect of low voltage circuits, and the troubleshooting of problems with low voltage circuits. It is used by the wind industry to allow technicians without A-grade electrical licences to find and replace faulty parts in wind turbines, working only on disconnected circuits.

The licence, or atleast allowing this low level electrical work to be done by those without a full electrical licence is important for a few reasons. Firstly it gives a wider pool or possible recruits in the often rural and regional areas where wind farms are located. Secondly, it allows someone without an electrical licence to be still a useful member of the service team, able to do about 90% of the work required. And lastly, it gives a greater stability to your workforce, because it is not a qualification that opens up a lot of other opportunities for work the way an A-grade electrical licence does.

The important point here is that only 10 percent or less of the work done in the turbines, currently requires an electrical licence. That is because particularly the scheduled servicing for turbines requires almost no electrical work, and this is the staple work of the service technician. The servicing is mostly checking and tensioning bolts, checking key components like the generator coupling, yaw and pitch brakes and motors, gearbox insides, and then lots of cleaning. The cleaning, and the seemingly endless numbers of bolts to be checked and tensioned, tends to get pretty boring for electricians pretty quickly, when they could be wiring houses and doing physically easier work that doesn’t require 80 metre ladder climbs. Electricians therefor, don’t last as wind technicians, turning over pretty rapidly, and after a while there are no more in the district.  

The only work that currently requires an A-grade licence, is the live troubleshooting of issues with the turbine, and any upgrade work that changes wiring. And as the turbine monitoring software systems steadily improve, and they are moving ahead very fast, the need for live troubleshooting in the turbines will decline, leaving even less to keep an electrician interested and occupied.

It is true that the electrical systems in turbines are also likely to advance, and may well increase in complexity in the years to come, and this will be something that needs to be watched. It is also incumbent on the industry to ensure that the current regulations are not abused, meaning rules are not stretched and non-licenced technicians don’t push the boundaries of their licences. Clearly, any accidents involving work done by someone with a restricted licence will result in a tighter licensing and regulatory framework for the industry. But these two points are about the future, the current position does not support tighter controls on electrical work in wind turbines, and even if there is a push to tighten control on electrical work, it should be through a wind technician qualification rather than demanding an A-grade licence for removing and replacing components.

Licensed electricians probably make up about 40% of the wind service technician workforce in Australia right now, and as argued, they turn over faster than most jobs, and are often hard to find locally when your windfarm is as isolated as many in Australia are. If the licensing authorities wish to raise this percentage, it will clearly be strongly resisted by the industry, due to the significant staffing problems that such a move would create. There are just not the electricians living around wind farms who could be persuaded to do the work required.