Vestas Off-shore Wind Belgium - streamlined statutory inspection thanks to Digi-Tags
Vestas Off-shore Wind Belgium decided in 2022 to implement the Vinçotte Digi-Tags solution to streamline the statutory inspection of its wind farm.
The statutory inspection of wind turbines is a complex and time-consuming task. Official government documentation is often unclear and non-transparent. This makes it difficult to determine which components need to be inspected and when. Moreover, it is challenging to maintain consistency in the inspection process, as inspectors work in different locations.
Streamlining the process
Vestas Off-shore Wind Belgium therefore decided in 2022 to implement the Vinçotte Digi-Tags solution to streamline the statutory inspection of its wind farm.
The power of Digi-Tags
°°° Discover more about Digi-Tags and book a demoAll components of a wind turbine were bundled into 1 group with 1 QR code, easily scanned by the inspector at the bottom of the turbine at the entrance door. Thanks to Digi-Tags' digital platform, all relevant component inspection information are now clearly centralised and consulted.
Tagging in groups per wind turbine makes the technician's work much easier:
- at the bottom at the entrance, they can consult a custom report of all assets present in that specific turbine
- that way, the technician is sure they can go up safely. Previously, it happened maintenance teams refused to go up if the report was not available, and so a lot of time was sometimes lost.
- This way, the technician can also take the right equipment with them for maintenance at the top
Thanks to Digi-Tags, Vestas has significantly streamlined the statutory inspection of wind turbines. For Vestas, Digi-Tags means:
- Saving time: The Digi-Tags Dashboard saves Vestas employees a lot of time that they would otherwise waste searching for information and communicating with inspectors.
- Simplification: Vestas finds great added value in easily filtering all comments on turbines in preparation for repairs and inspections.
- Improved consistency: Digi-Tags ensures that all components are inspected in the same way, regardless of location or inspector.
- Better overview: All components belonging to a turbine are now all in one group.
Digi-Tags Features
- Always up-to-date inspection results available at the bottom of the access door, i.e. before the wind turbine is climbed
- All turbine components are combined in one group and can thus be consulted clearly
- PRO-Tools 'TASKS' solution increases safety thanks to the easy follow-up of all to-do's and remarks for both internal employees and external maintenance companies
Besides the Digi-Tags on-site availability, the Digi-Tags solution also includes an interactive dashboard and PRO-Tools.
Among other things, Pro-Tools can be used to automatically convert inspectors' comments into maintenance tasks for technicians.
In this way, following up and repairing the identified safety risks becomes easy and clear.
This ensures the overall safety of the wind farm.
Stijn Van Hoorebeke, Service Manager Northern Offshore Service for Vestas concludes, "The Digi-Tags dashboard works, is easy to use and does what it needs to do. This also fits perfectly with one of Vestas' core values: simplicity."
Vinçotte and Vestas presented this synergy at the Belgian Offshore Cluster Awards in March 2024, where they won the award for Health & Safety for this innovative approach.
