The energy company has upgraded from a digital voice system using standard non-keypad Motorola DP4400s to Motorola DP4801s. The new system also features a GPS telephone interconnect system, enabling personnel to be tracked and featuring a display. SFL carried out a full site survey to gauge the Alltwalis Wind Farm's specific requirements and to ensure that the system would operate effectively.
A Motorola SLR5500 repeater was also installed as the signal for the two way radios needed to be boosted throughout the site and inside the turbines. This had led to “improved operations, security and safety”, reported SFL Mobile Radio.
A total of 12 turbine servicing engineers are able to set up their own network on the radios to make and receive outgoing and incoming calls and keep in contact with one another and the substation, which is located a mile away from the site. The system has also addressed the logistical problem of deliveries as engineers can be contacted once these are received at the substation. The DP4801 portable radios have a special pre-programmed emergency channel that can open on every radio across the wind farm, displaying incoming caller ID and indicating the opening of an emergency channel so workers know immediately when a call is potentially serious.
Radios are also equipped with a lone worker timer that automatically activates a pre-alarm every 30 minutes. If the worker does not react to the alarm, an alert is sent to the substation and a channel is opened to the radio. Engineers also have lapel mics for additional safety when climbing the ladders inside the turbines.
