I’m a supervisor – my official title is a WTG Team Leader. I’m in charge of pre-assembly work on the towers at Dunkirk. I share the job with a colleague: we each work two weeks on and two weeks off, so one of us is always on site.
- 37 turbines are in place now, so that leaves 63 left to do. At the harbor we have finished 55 towers, and we’re now working on a further nine bottom sections. We were behind at the start, but we have more than caught up now.”
I start work at 7 am. First we have a short briefing for the supervisors, project engineers, the health and safety manager and the site manager.
Then at 7.15 we split up into two groups for a Toolbox Talk. In my group are the people who work on the towers, plus the crane crew. The nacelle and blade teams meet in a separate room. That takes ten minutes, and we sign the attendance sheet.
Then we go outside and split up into teams. Around 20 people work on the towers. I have a talk with the guys to deal with any specific questions and safety issues. Next I talk to the crane supervisor about the lifts we will be doing that day i.e. what equipment will be used, and how we would evacuate the site in an emergency. Then we go to work! My team carries out the jobs I’ve planned for them the day before. Some people are making up cables. Others are up-ending tower sections and bolting sections together to make a complete tower. Someone else is building the elevators inside.”
At any one time we’re working on 18 towers – that’s two ship loads – plus a further nine bottom sections which are up-ended so that we can start work on them. Each tower takes four or five days, including a switchgear test. At the start, a single team was responsible for each tower from start to finish. But that took too long, so now we have one team up-ending tower sections, another pulling cables, a third installing the lifts and so on. With more specialized tasks it goes a lot faster.
I inspect the towers once they’re complete. There’s a lot of paperwork to fill in. Once the towers go onto the crane vessel, they’re ready to just ‘plug and play. Sometimes we have to think on our feet, when parts arrive damaged. I have a good overall knowledge of the towers, but there’s always something new to learn.
I’ve been with Vestas for 11 years, starting in a factory in Denmark assembling nacelles. Since then I’ve been an installer and a service technician – and CIM supervisor, I was site manager on the Robin Rigg project, which was a very heavy work schedule: two weeks on, two weeks home but always on the phone and E-mail. But I have a family and they don't always understand why we put in so many hours. My position today gives me more time with my family.
It doesn’t matter – working 12 hours a day. As soon as we go through the gate, we are in the Vestas world and it’s a great team. Everyone is cheerful, and we are doing a good job.
