Wind power fire protection

•WIND POWER SAFETY
created by Salim Solanki

The operating principles are basic.
• Wind blowing though the blades makes them
rotate and turn the shaft of an electric power
generator situated inside an elevated
compartment, called a nacelle (Figures 1, 2).
• Inside the nacelle are other controls such as
brakes, rotor pitch controllers, gearboxes, and
fire protection equipment (Figure 3).
• As the blades rotate, they produce energy,
which turns the gears and reducers, which turn
the generator’s torque shaft.
• The generator produces energy, which is then
transmitted from the tower to transformer
stations through high-tension power lines for
distribution. created by Salim Solanki

Figure 3. Nacelle Interior

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS
• Standard operating procedures/guidelines (SOPs/SOGs) for emergency operations
at wind turbine sites are absolutely necessary.
• The turbine-supporting tower can be as much as 300 feet high with very slim
access shafts (generally no elevators, just vertical ladders) and extremely confined
interiors.
• Although a few towers may be equipped with elevators, they would be very tight
spaces.
• They could be used where available for lifting some rescue personnel and
equipment up to the nacelle, although it would be difficult to lower a victim
unless that person could be evacuated in a standing position.
EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
• Fire and personal injury are the principal emergency situations that could
affect a wind turbine and require emergency service response.
• These two overall categories encompass many variants that require specific
response procedures.
• Added to the high initial costs of engineering and construction, damages to a
wind turbine could well run up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs
and reconstruction, in addition to many months of downtime and
subsequent loss of income.

• The Caithness Windfarm Information
Forum, based in the United Kingdom,
compiled a summary of more than 900
incidents involving wind turbines.
• In a December 2009 incident in Uelzen,
Germany, a fire occurred in a wind
turbine at a height of 130 meters (427
feet). The fire department closed off the
the area and allowed the fire to burn
out because it could not fight the fire at
that height and had no other choice.

• Lightning strikes
• electrical shock
• The interior dimensions of wind turbines vary among manufacturers, but in general they
are all pretty tight. Mounted on the top of the tower, the nacelle contains the electricity-
generating equipment that is connected to the turbine blades. In general, a typical
nacelle is approximately 30 feet long, between 7½ and 8 feet high, and around 9½ to 11
feet wide. An “average” man—six feet tall with a trim build—would have to crouch and
bend himself in pretty much all interior spaces. The largest open area is around the
service hoist and around the drive shaft. Some blade manufacturers claim that their
blades are accessible, but they don’t describe the physical characteristics necessary to
get into the blades. The blades are one of the problematic spaces for possible
entrapment.
• Fires can occur in distinct locations and heights and may involve various fuels and
ignition sources..

• Fuels can include electrical cables, plastics, and even textiles, any and all of
which can also be found at all heights.
• Since the construction materials used in these towers and their components
will invariably include plastics and possibly some combustible metals (e.g.,
titanium and aluminum, among others), as well as relatively easily deformable
metallic structural and enclosure materials, the consequences of a fire in a
wind turbine can be disastrous.
• Also, a fire in a turbine assembly can propagate to surrounding vegetation and
produce a wildland fire risk, and a fire involving surrounding vegetation could
pose a threat to the wind farm.
• The origins of fires in wind generators are numerous and in some instances
almost inevitable. Statistics show that the major cause of fires in
aerogenerators is lightning. Although aerogenerators include lightning
arresters and other elements to reduce the potential of ignition from lightning
strikes, they do not completely eliminate possible lightning damage.
• Another frequent cause of fires is the mechanical friction among the multiple moving
parts of the turbine assembly, gears, shafts, and other moving or rotating metal
components that may provoke sparking. Since the average wind turbine may contain
more than 200 gallons of hydraulic fluid plus variable quantities of other lubricants
and similar combustible liquids, there’s no shortage of fuel.

• Electrical short circuits can occur in numerous locations, anywhere from
the windmill’s top to the base. Fires in wind turbines are known to
contribute to structural failure and collapse.
• The major inconvenience at wind farms in regard to
possible fires is that most of these installations are
unattended.
• The operating companies have technicians available
within reasonable distances, but they are not usually
present, except during periodic inspections or
maintenance operations.
• Fire protection at wind farms and inside the
aerogenerators depends entirely on automatic fire
detection and extinguishment systems, with reliable and
constant supervision at one or more fixed locations.

• Detection is usually multidisciplinary, including early
detection—fast response systems coupled with self-contained
automatic extinguishing systems such as water mist or inert
gases.
• The detection systems, usually networked and requiring
detection/confirmation of a fire, instantaneously communicate
the alarm to the supervision station and simultaneously
activate the extinguishing system. The supervision of the
detection and extinguishing systems must be full-time and be
able to clearly and concisely communicate complete
information to responsible emergency responding agencies.

• Responding fire departments may normally be several miles away and have
to travel over roads that quite often require all-wheel-drive vehicles.
• The primary limiting factors to fire department intervention are the height of
the fire and the extremely limited vertical access inside the tower.
• A fire actively fought, controlled, and extinguished by fire department
personnel would be a rare event.
• The general rule established in SOPs is not to attempt to physically attack a
fire inside the tower and generator assembly but instead to rely on the fixed
installations.
• At the same time, it would be necessary to establish an exterior defensive
attack to protect exposed structures and vegetation near the affected tower.

emergency responders interact with the wind turbine operators to create,
implement, and maintain pre-emergency response planning.
Responders should go to the site to familiarize themselves with the facilities
and develop simulation emergency exercises with the operators
• Emergencies involving physical injury to operational and maintenance
personnel occasionally present in and around the wind generators (mainly
falls and similar accidents) and will inevitably require high-angle rescue
techniques and tactics, since an injured operator may be more than 300
feet above ground and inside very tight confined spaces that have
extremely limited access.

• Basic Hazards: possible falls from great heights, the risk of electrocution, and
entrapment.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) for each responder should include an approved
harness, a dynamic anchoring rope, safety shackles, an adequate helmet, and gloves.
Team PPE should include the following:
• Rucksacks or bags with high-angle equipment (descenders, rope clamps,
carabiners, pulleys, shackles, tape, protectors, and so on).
• Antifall devices for 8-mm steel cable, provided by the owner of the site, or
dynamic rescue rope equipment for fall protection.
• Static and dynamic rope in lengths sufficient to access the height of the
machinery (nacelle and blades).
• Alternately, sufficient lengths of rope that can be tied together, ensuring that the knots
will pass through descenders and pulleys.
• A stretcher (backboard or stokes basket) that can be used horizontally or
vertically. A confined-space stretcher may be necessary in very confined spaces, such as
inside the nacelle or propeller blades.
• Other equipment includes a flashlight and a two-way radio certified for use in confined
spaces that have metallic enclosures.

Overall personnel safety measures include the following:
•Before commencing operations, ensure that machinery is shut down and that no machinery will be started
up during emergency operations.
•Shut off electrical power to the aerogenerator.
•Always maintain antifall equipment connections while working where falls might occur, even inside the
nacelle.
• During any emergency situation involving aerogenerators, a company maintenance operator must be
present.
• Possible emergencies :
• entrapment by mechanical elements in the nacelle,
• electrical shock,
• persons who have collapsed (e.g., fainted, suffered a heart attack or a similar
ailment) or fallen inside the hub or tower,
• fire, and
• falls from the exterior wind turbine structure.

Wind turbine towers range from 120 to more
than 300 feet in height, and even higher towers
are in design. Hence, you must consider the
possibility of evacuation from heights greater
than the lengths of the rescue ropes. If ropes
must be tied together to obtain the needed
length, you must ensure that knots can pass
through eyes.
lengths of the rescue ropes.

Alarm reception. The recipient of the initial and follow-up alarm communications
for emergencies involving wind turbines must obtain the following information and
supplement it as the situation evolves:
• Incident type: Fall, entrapment, fire.
• Incident location: Wind farm site and number of the aerogenerator
involved.
• Number of victims, their locations, and conditions.
• Access to the wind farm and the particular aerogenerator.
• Weather conditions.
• Any additional information.

For fire in an aerogenerator, do the following:
• Confirm disconnection of electrical power
from other machinery or a substation.
• Establish a safety perimeter of 750 feet
around the involved tower for possible falling
components.
• Prevent spread of fire to surrounding
vegetation or other exposures.

CASES:

Conclusion:
SAFE SEPARATION DISTANCES
• The propensity of very large industrial wind turbines to catch
fire, shed blades or bits thereof, throw ice and, occasionally,
to suffer catastrophic, high speed blade failures followed by
a tower collapse leads sensible people to question their
construction close to houses or transport routes.
• As a standard precautionary measure, all Infinis staff vacate
wind farms when wind speeds exceed 55 mph and therefore
no one was present on site at the time of the incident,”

LOCAL PROBLEMS

FARM TURBINE DAMAGED IN HIGH WINDS

FRENCH TURBINE FIRE

GERMAN TURBINE COLLAPSE

PILOT KILLED IN WIND TOWER CRASH (USA)

FRENCH TURBINES CATCH FIRE AFTER BRAKES FAIL

STRIKE A LIGHT! MORE VESTAS SMOKERS. (France)
LIGHTNING DESTROYS TURBINE
BLADE (Germany)

AMERICAN TURBINE COLLAPSE

TURBINE BLADE LANDS ON MAIN ROAD (Holland)

Wind turbine company Nextera destroys Bald Eagle Nest
[Ontario]

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