Autumn 2012

The Round RobinKeeping our community informed

Robin Rigg site round-up

The Round Robin Autumn 2012

Keep in touchIf you’d like more information, you can contact us at:

Robin Rigg Operations Facility

Prince of Wales Dock

Port of Workington

Workington CA14 1BN

Tel: 01900 507 070

Email: robin.rigg@eon-uk.com

E.ON Climate & Renewables UK Robin Rigg East Limited Registered No. 3568724

E.ON Climate & Renewables UK Robin Rigg West Limited Registered No. 4150735

Registered in England and Wales Westwood Way Westwood Business Park Coventry CV4 8LG

Welcome to the latest edition of The Round Robin. As I write this here in Workington, the wind turbines at Robin Rigg are all producing electricity, helping to keep homes warm and businesses running. It makes me feel very proud.

Bringing energy to life We’ve done a lot of work with schools and community

groups this year and have found that young people especially

have real concerns about the future of our environment, both

globally and locally. Because of this, they’re becoming more

and more interested in where and how energy is produced,

which is great.

Protecting the environment Our environmental surveys in and around the Solway Firth

have continued over the summer, and we’ve been working

with experts to review and analyse all the information we’ve

collected over the last six years. Surveys began before any

building work started on Robin Rigg and are carried out

regularly as part of our licence to operate. They’ve helped

us to see if the wind farm has had any impact on wildlife in

the area and have given us a much greater understanding

of the animals we share our environment with, including

marine species living beneath the waves.

Good news What the experts have found so far is that Robin Rigg has actually had a positive effect on wildlife, because we chose the site very carefully. For example, the Solway Firth is an important habitat for the Common Scoter duck, so we built the wind farm away from the areas where the birds gather together and feed. Because of decisions like these, the wind farm has had very little impact on seabirds. Growing numbers of certain types of fish have also been seen. It’s still early days and regular surveys will continue to make sure we’re doing all we can to protect the environment and wildlife. Marine Scotland has also agreed to put environmental information about Robin Rigg on its interactive website, giving everyone the chance to find out how wind farms can live in harmony with the natural world – if they’re put in the right place. You can read more about our environmental surveys in a special feature on the back page of this newsletter.

A big thank you We’ve been making improvements to some of our turbines over the summer, using a giant jack-up barge from Antwerp called Goliath. The impressive barge was here for 23 days and helped us make sure our turbines will carry on working well over the windy winter months – so we can make as much renewable energy as possible. We’ve also finished all the routine maintenance we had planned, thanks to the hard work of our team, contractors and suppliers. Well done and thanks again to everyone involved.

Sally Shenton Robin Rigg Site Manager

Leatherback Turtle Starfish Dogfish

Surveys reveal wealth of wildlife at Robin Rigg We’ve been monitoring the wildlife around Robin Rigg for many years now and have discovered a diverse range of animals including 38 types of fish, more than 150 kinds of invertebrate, 38 species of bird, 2 sorts of marine mammal and even a rare Leatherback Turtle.

Working in partnership

Regular surveys began way back in 2000 as part of our

initial plans for the wind farm and started again in 2007 when

building got underway. We still do them today and work closely

with conservation and government organisations including

Marine Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural England,

the RSPB, Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental

Protection Agency and Galloway Fisheries Trust.

In the air and under the waves

The surveys have gathered an invaluable amount of information

about the diversity and behaviour of wildlife in the area. They’ve

involved studying everything from the coastline to the sediment

on the seabed, in and around the wind farm and along the cable

route. This information has now been analysed by independent

consultants Natural Power, to see if Robin Rigg has had any

affect on local wildlife.

Natural Power are a valued supplier and have worked with the

Robin Rigg team for many years. Based in Dumfries, they’re one

of a number of our Scottish suppliers. The team at Robin Rigg

maintain good links with local companies and there will be a

chance to learn more about this in our next newsletter.

A welcome result Overall, their findings so far show that the wind farm hasn’t

had any significant or long-lasting impact on either marine

or bird life. In fact, the numbers of Cormorants and large

Gull species in the area have increased, with Cormorants

often seen perching on the wind turbines while they’re

fishing. Other species regularly seen include Harbour

Porpoises, Grey Seals and Dogfish.

You can read the full report into wildlife at Robin Rigg on the Marine Scotland website: scotland.gov.uk/topics/marine/science/msinteractive

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The Round Robin Autumn 2012

‘Bring your family to work’ day Our team works very hard to keep Robin Rigg running like clockwork, which can mean long working days and lots of time spent away from home. The Robin Rigg family day in August was a chance for them to bring their families into work and show them around the wind farm. After all, when you work offshore, your loved ones can’t usually just ‘pop into the office’ for a visit!

A fun experience for everyone Our team and their families were taken around the wind

farm in one of Robin Rigg’s vessels, the Solway Spirit, so

families could see it working and get a feel for how big

it is close up.

The day also gave our team the chance to really bring their

working day to life for their loved ones, whilst for families, it

was a unique opportunity to find out more about wind energy.

The event proved to be a big hit with our team and families

alike, with 29 people going offshore during the day.

10 year old Kayce Faye Barry, the granddaughter of Robin

Rigg Engineer Colin Beach, told us:

“The turbines were really big and we got to go on the boat,

which was very good and a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Boat trip for Workington festival raffle winnersAs many of you know, we were proud to sponsor Workington’s ‘Paint the Town Red’ festival in May and donated a prize for the raffle – a trip to see Robin Rigg in action. The lucky winners set off on their prize voyage in August, with the sun shining down on them.

Sightseeing and more They were taken around the wind farm in the Solway Spirit

and were fortunate enough to see Robin Rigg’s huge jack-up

barge Goliath at work, as our team were changing the gearbox

on one of the turbines. The good weather also made for some

great wildlife spotting, with the winners seeing many different

types of birds and fish. Unfortunately, there was no sign of

the dolphin or baby porpoise recently spotted in the area,

but hopefully we’ll see them again soon.

A winning day out Our Office Manager Emma Steele looked after the winners

throughout the day and told us:

“The prize was something E.ON has never offered to members

of the public before, so it was a really special occasion for

everyone involved and a great success.”

The festival helped to raise £12,500 for Hospice at Home West

Cumbria, with over 50,000 people going along to the event.

Emergency training reaches new heights Earlier in the year, we carried out a simulated emergency at Robin Rigg with the National Access and Rescue Centre (NARC) to test our emergency plan. This is a very important document and would give the Emergency Co-ordinator on duty vital guidance in a critical situation.

Even though our team are well trained to deal with

emergencies, there’s nothing like practising ‘for real’

and they didn’t know what they’d have to tackle until

it happened.

A co-ordinated effort The exercise involved colleagues responding to different

simulated incidents, like an electric shock to a technician

working at the top of a wind turbine. The response from

our team was excellent, with technicians, vessel crews

and onshore control room colleagues working together

to evacuate the technician by stretcher, after giving him

emergency first aid involving a defibrillator. The incident

was made even more real with the added twist of the

rescue boat breaking down at the last minute.

Good communication As you can imagine, it’s vital that our onshore control room can

talk to colleagues on the scene in the event of an emergency

and that’s where the Emergency Co-ordinator comes in. The

Duty Engineer in charge of the control room carries out the

role and on the day of the exercise that was Mat Davies.

Mat’s job involved managing all aspects of the emergency,

from talking to the Coastguard in Liverpool, to handling the

local press and reassuring the casualty’s distraught girlfriend.

Bringing training to life The exercise proved just how valuable the emergency

training we give our team is and the importance of putting it

into practice in this way. It’s also helped us to see where things

could be improved. For instance, we’re looking at the best place

to put our defibrillator so it can be used in an emergency as

quickly as possible. The survival rate for a casualty needing

defibrillation goes down by 4% a minute, so every second really

does count. It’s difficult to involve everyone at Robin Rigg in an

exercise of this kind, so we filmed it. That way, the whole team

can see what happened and learn from the experience.

The day was a huge success and we’d like to thank everyone

involved for their time and effort in making sure the event

was both professional and valuable.

Robin Rigg visits the annual Jennings Rivers Ride

In September, we took the Robin Rigg Mobile Visitor Centre to the second annual Jennings Rivers Ride in Keswick, to help local people find out more about the wind farm and renewable energy in general. The event is organised by the Cumbria Community Foundation and involves three bike rides around the area’s spectacular scenery and rivers.

Ride and raise money Lots of people enjoyed the day, which raised money for

the foundation’s work supporting local charities, groups

and people in need, including Copeland Cancer Support

Group, Cumbria Wheelchair Sports Club, the Harbour Youth

Project and Age UK South Lakeland.

The bike rides included routes for families, beginners and

more experienced cyclists. You can find out more about

the event at cumbriafoundation.org/jennings-rivers-ride

Tom Crawley and Amy Barrett

Our winners

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