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Risk Management Techniques for Offshore Wind

Safety Challenges Lessons learnt from Oil and Gas
Sharnie Finnerty, David Fagan
DNV

Abstract

Bow Tie / Barrier Approach

The exponential growth of the wind industry brings with it numerous challenges and risks. These risks can be
attributed to remote locations, working at height, heavy lifting, extreme and changeable weather and sea
conditions, deeper waters, further distance offshore, confined spaces and proximity to electricity. With
relatively limited offshore commercial experience and with technology still evolving best-practice standards for
health and safety are by necessity works in progress.

The Barrier and Bow Tie methodologies were developed by the

nuclear and petrochemical industries, respectively. In essence, a
Bow Tie diagram is a graphical combination of fault tree and event
tree ideas (see Fig. 3):

To date, the wind industry is largely self-regulated with trade bodies such as RenewableUK, the European
Wind Energy Association (EWEA), and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) working alongside
industry to produce a number of guidance documents. Although these documents provide some level of
guidance to the industry a lot more needs to be done.
Numerous synergies and differences exist between the offshore oil and gas industry and the offshore wind
industry. The oil and gas industry has years of experience working in this high risk environment and have
therefore developed techniques to identify and manage the risk associated with working offshore.
Some of the techniques employed by the oil and gas industry may be considered to be too prescriptive and
detailed for the offshore wind industry. However, these techniques provide us with an opportunity to learn from
whats already been developed and tailor the most applicable to specifically address the needs of the offshore
wind industry.
This presentation will discuss the potential synergies that exist between the industries and a selection of risk
management tools and techniques that are equally applicable e.g. hazard identification tools, barrier analysis,
bow tie analysis which can be learned and applied from other energy sectors. The integration of these tools
throughout a projects lifecycle from planning stages to operations and maintenance has proved to be critical
to the effective management of HSE risks.

Left side: List of threats to an event occurring along with

preventive controls/barriers.
Centre: Major event.
Right side: List of potential consequences of the event along with
mitigating controls/barriers.
Controls can be engineering-related, people-related, procedural or
a combination that uses SMS requirements to ensure controls are
healthy (e.g. through regular HAZIDs or inspection).

Safety Management System (SMS)

A Safety Management System takes a systematic approach to

managing health and safety risks. An SMS provides for goal
setting, planning and measurement performance in order to ensure
continual improvement within and organization. It becomes and
integral part of the organization, effecting safety culture and how
people do their jobs.

Figure 3. Bow Tie for a Blade Failure

Figure 1. Continuous Improvement Loop

Continual improvement

Safety
Safety policy
policy

Management
Management review
review

Checking
Checking and
and
corrective
corrective action
action

Planning
Planning

Implementation
Implementation and
and
operation
operation

Hazard Identification (HAZID)

HAZID is a team-based systematic process that is applied to

examine hazards related components, equipment or an operation
making use of brainstorming:
1. IDENTIFY and record activities and hazard scenarios
2. DESCRIBE the consequences of each scenario as well as
existing safeguards to prevent or mitigate a hazard scenario
3. ASSESS severity and frequency to each hazard scenario
based on the risk matrix
4. REDUCE risks which are deemed too high
Figure 2. Offshore Wind Farm

Safety Culture

DNV defines Safety Culture as the common set of behaviors and

norms which are established and maintained by internal and
external motivation forces that affect safe system performance at all
levels in a facility or the wider company.
Human factors should be considered systematically. Proactive
sustainable programs can drive behavioral change to enhance
culture.
The Safety Culture development process has four stages:
IDENTIFY the current culture of an organization
DEVELOP solutions
IMPLEMENT them through training and workshops
MEASURE culture and IMPROVE the process
Safety culture is particularly important in the wind industry, as
construction and maintenance activities involve many hazardous
tasks, such as working at height and with high voltage electricity
under minimum supervision.

EWEA OFFSHORE 2011, 29 November 1 December 2011 , Amsterdam, The Netherlands