First-responders performing a technical rescue at the Whitla Wind facility Wednesday. (CHAT News photo).

By Alex McCuaig

Emergency exercise

Technical rescue drill at Whitla Wind facility a success

Aug 26, 2020 | 4:48 PM

CYPRESS COUNTY, AB – With greater wind power generation, comes greater responsibility for safety with Capital Power and turbine manufacturer Vestas teamed up with area first-responders for an emergency drill on Wednesday.

The emergency exercise centred around evacuating an electrocuted worker from the main body of a wind turbine – called a nacelle – through a hatch while repelling down a rope from the height of 105 metres.

An extremely technical but rare rescue scenario said Lyle Poitras, Capital Power site manager at the Whitla Wind facility south of Bow Island.

But with the second and third phase of Whitla Wind being built out, the need for such training is becoming more necessary.

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“The more wind turbines that we get standing, the more personnel to do the maintenance on them. As well, the construction of them. It’s so important to make sure we keep current on all of our safety training and our drills and planning,” said Poitras.

And, as in any emergency rescue, time is of the essence.

Something site manager for turbine manufacturer Vestas, Sam Toohey, said the exercise demonstrated the evacuation drill could be done in less than an hour from the time the initial call went out. All the more impressive when it requires fitting a spine board and then rappelling down to the ground.

“Speaking with the up-tower, they handled it really well. Difficult rescue to do so I’d say 54 minutes is really good,” said Toohey.

Getting an injured worker to the ground is only half the rescue with timely transportation to a critical care facility the other.

With the wind farm 80 kilometres from the nearest major hospital – which includes gravel roads – it’s one of the reasons HALO is critical in such situations, says its CEO Paul Carolan.

“The wind turbines in this area are remote in some version or another. So my driving out here today – it was 45, 50 minutes,” said Carolan. “HALO got here in 16 minutes.”

Carolan thanked Capital Power and Vestas which sponsored HALO’s participation.

As for the future of the helicopter rescue service, Carolan says the recent community fundraising activities has secured continued operation of HALO until the first quarter of 2021.