Located in southeast San Diego County is Kumeyaay Wind, a 25-turbine wind project managed by Leeward Renewable Energy. Developed in 2005, the site continues to be operated and maintained by Leeward along with its 30 other wind, solar and energy storage facilities across the country.

Maintenance at Leewards Kumeyaay Wind Site

At Leeward’s Kumeyaay site, there are a number of maintenance and contract workers regularly on the site repairing turbines and electrical components in order to keep the site running properly. Since the success of the site is closely tied to the health of each of the turbines, the team is careful to take into account various environmental factors that could affect the maintenance schedule and turbine uptime.

Leeward adopts Perry Weather to increase worker safety

Senior EH&S Manager at Leeward, Juan Marquez sees three weather factors as a concern in San Diego County: lightning, heat and wind speed. Each significantly affects not only the work schedules of the maintenance team but their safety as well.

In order to accurately detect and measure these conditions, Leeward has chosen to implement Perry Weather. After the implementation, Leeward now gets an accurate account of the weather conditions on site and also receives alerts when the conditions onsite may be unsafe.

Mitigating Lightning Risk at Leeward’s Kumeyaay Wind Project

“We’re concerned about all personnel that comes on-site, especially the employees that go inside turbines. There’s an inherent danger, particularly if there are lightning strikes. When we know there’s a risk of lightning then we can better plan for how we are to perform maintenance throughout that day.”

Juan Marquez, Senior EH&S Manager, Leeward Renewable Energy

In California, lightning is a significant safety risk during the summer months, when strikes are most frequent, and wind turbine maintenance can be especially risky due to the height of the turbines. These risks make having an accurate system in place to not only detect lightning but also warn the workers of its presence a valuable tool.

Other systems vs. Perry Weather

Many free lightning apps like WeatherBug send notifications in 30-minute intervals, and this can put everyone at risk. Perry Weather instead alerts Leeward when lightning is detected in their area just moments after the strike in several different ways:

• Text & push notifications – Users will receive a message letting them know when lightning is detected in the area and when it is safe to resume activities
• Outdoor warning system (OWS) – Loud audible sirens sound to warn workers when lightning strikes in the area and a visible strobe warns workers are performing tasks that require hearing protection 

“I have two lightning apps, and I really don’t need them. I’m just meticulous. Perry Weather gives me the alert before my lightning apps go off, and I have a lightning app just geared to lightning.”

Donald Dennis, EH&S Manager, Leeward Renewable Energy

Perry Weather’s lightning stand-down timer

Lightning stand-downs are a necessity to keep maintenance workers safe, however, in any delay the question remains of how long the thunderstorm will last. 

Perry Weather reduces the uncertainty with its lightning stand-down timer. 

The timer begins counting down once the first lightning strike is detected so that anyone can see from their phone how long is left in the stand-down. Anytime a new strike is detected in the area, the timer resets ensuring that no one continues work prematurely.

Scheduling operations and maintenance tasks around wind speeds

“When we know what wind conditions we are facing for the day, we can better schedule maintenance activities. When wind is high we can maximize power output, and when wind is low we can perform maintenance on the turbines.”

Juan Marquez, Senior EH&S Manager, Leeward Renewable Energy

Perry Weather gives an accurate account of the wind conditions on site, which is essential to not only the production of power but also the scheduling of maintenance.

• In-app wind forecasts – Perry Weather forecasts when wind speeds are expected to be high, helping in the scheduling of maintenance and production times.
• Accurate real-time wind speeds – Other apps use data from public weather stations often miles away from the turbines, Perry Weather uses wind speed data pulled directly from an onsite weather station.
• Advance risk alerts – Perry Weather alerts you when wind speeds are too high for certain maintenance tasks like installing new turbine blades so that work can be halted until conditions are safe.

Preventing heat illness while performing high-heat maintenance tasks

When operating and maintaining wind turbines, another risk factor Leeward takes into account is extreme heat. Airflow is limited inside the turbines and the heat gets trapped making work during hotter days a dangerous task. 

With Perry Weather’s on-site weather station, Leeward can get an accurate account of heat index, wet bulb globe temperature, and air temperature at each site and can schedule work around the times with the highest heat. 

“With Perry Weather, I’m able to get accurate information because it’s coming from our station on site. It’s not coming from somewhere else 15-20 miles off.”

Donald Dennis, EH&S Manager, Leeward Renewable Energy

High heat alerts based on OSHA Recommendations

The Kumeyaay Wind site is based in California, however, since the site is located on a Native American reservation, Kumeyaay bases its heat illness prevention policies on federal OSHA recommendations. With Perry Weather, Leeward can integrate federal OSHA policies into the system.

Perry Weather then provides alerts when the weather conditions breach or are expected to breach the policies like:

• Policy-based alerts – When the temperature rises above the OSHA-recommended thresholds, Perry Weather sends a notification with reminders to take a cooling or hydration break.
• Heat stress forecasts – The system also forecasts when the heat will rise above the threshold in advance so that your team can wear the proper clothing to the work site.

This ensures that everyone on the site is informed and able to do their job with peace of mind that Perry Weather will alert them when weather conditions are unsafe.

At Leeward Renewable Energy’s Kumeyaay Wind project, safety and efficiency go hand in hand, and Perry Weather plays a big part in both. With real-time weather alerts for lightning, wind, and heat, the team can easily adjust their work schedules to ensure everyone stays safe and continues to keep operations on track. Safety managers Donald Dennis and Juan Marquez are able to do their jobs more effectively knowing that Perry Weather will help them stay ahead of the many risks caused by the weather.