RWE and the Hamburg fire brigade have carried out a rescue exercise at the Grauen wind farm southwest of Hamburg, Germany. The exercise focused on the rescue of an injured service technician from a nacelle at a height of 65 metres. The exercise involved 11 people and covered the alarm and mobilisation of emergency services to a remote wind farm, communication between responders, initial medical treatment and the rescue and handover of the injured person to emergency personnel on the ground.
RWE and the Hamburg fire brigade prepared the exercise over several months to test emergency procedures under realistic conditions. The training also allowed firefighters to familiarise themselves with the technical characteristics of wind turbines, access routes and available rescue options.
RWE has emergency and rescue procedures in place for its wind turbines, including first aid, defined rescue processes, crisis management and communication with external emergency services. The exercise was intended to identify opportunities to improve these procedures and coordination between RWE personnel and emergency responders.
The Hamburg fire brigade gained experience of the specific requirements associated with rescuing people from wind turbines, while RWE benefited from the fire brigade’s experience in high-altitude rescue operations. The findings from the exercise will be used to further refine the companies’ emergency procedures.
