Good practice guidelines

This document provides practical guidance on vessel management for offshore wind activities and has been developed to support safe, efficient and consistent standards for organisations and individuals who may be new to marine operations. The purpose of this document is to offer clear, accessible guidance on the fundamental principles of vessel management within offshore wind projects. It outlines key concepts, roles, responsibilities, assurance processes and regulatory considerations that apply throughout the offshore wind project life cycle. The guidance is intended to assist users in understanding what ‘fit for purpose’ means in the context of vessel selection, preparation and offshore operational planning.

This publication is designed for new entrants and non-marine professionals working in or supporting offshore wind projects. This includes developers, project managers, HSE professionals, procurement teams, vessel charterers, marine coordinators, technical specialists and contractors whose primary experience may lie outside the maritime industry. It will also be of value to organisations seeking consistent, industry-aligned expectations when procuring or overseeing offshore vessels.

The focus and emphasis of this GPG is on moving, installed WTG blades striking a vessel. The situations considered are those in which hub rotation or nacelle yaw bring a blade into contact with a vessel, posing safety risks to personnel on the vessel, the WTG or the transfer system.

This GPG does not cover vessels colliding with static blades or with other parts of a WTG.

Most of the guidelines relate to safety by design aspects, i.e. ensuring safety in the specification and design or selection of system elements. There are also guidelines relating to on-site or ‘on-the-day’ safety, i.e. implementing the safety arrangements as designed and refining, updating or expanding on them to allow for factors that could not be fully considered in the safety by design process.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common, in regions previously unexposed to such risks. The first edition of these guidelines utilises existing and emerging industry good practice on managing severe weather. It recommends actions before, during and after severe weather events including lightning, extra-tropical storms, tropical cyclones, extreme heat and cold.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

Safe by Design in offshore wind is a proactive, preventative approach that aims to mitigate and, where possible, eliminate health and safety risks during the design, specification and construction stage of an offshore wind farm. It is rooted in the principle that many operational risks can be significantly reduced, or even designed out entirely, through better-informed design decisions that consider how equipment and systems are built, installed, operated and maintained.

The G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation has been applying the philosophy and using it as a foundation for collaborative industry workshops, guidance documents and targeted improvement recommendations. This framework formalises that approach and sets out how it will be further developed, applied and promoted across the offshore wind sector.

This good practice guidance has been developed to support offshore wind developers and other industry stakeholders in understanding and implementing robust Marine Coordination systems. It draws on lessons learned across multiple jurisdictions, input from experienced practitioners, and alignment with recognised health and safety frameworks.

This guidance document provides a framework to assist in undertaking the medical fitness assessment for personnel working in the wind energy sector. It aims to provide a consistent, industry-aligned approach to medical fitness evaluations, processes, terminology, and the interpretation of results. By doing so, it enables contractors and workers to transition seamlessly across providers through a fair and standardised assessment system.

The guidance has been developed by experienced clinicians, working and undertaking regular medical assessments in the onshore and offshore wind industry, and incorporates lessons learned from the wider offshore energy industry.

This guidance document relates to medical fitness assessments and not statutory health surveillance.

This G+ good practice guidance aims to share, advance and encourage good practice for the governance of lifting operations in the offshore wind industry, setting out the collective expectations of G+ members.

Developed in collaboration with IMCA, this GPG builds on and signposts existing good practices and guidance (standards, recommendations, codes of practice etc.) from the wind industry and the wider marine and offshore energy sectors.

The GPG can be used, for example, to:

• Establish consistent, common ground for the project, avoiding conflict between the Systems of different parties (OWCs, contractors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) etc.)
• Incorporate into company standards, procedures and practices
• Incorporate into contract specifications
• Provide prompts for use in gap analyses, audits and reviews
• Provide a resource to use in developing ‘golden rules’ for front-line personnel, such as the right and duty to stop work if there is imminent danger

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

This document presents a set of formal, practical, and relevant good practice guidelines aimed at project developers, to address the major challenges in health and safety (H&S) during steel fabrication for offshore wind.

The objective is to create a common set of guidelines to improve H&S in the industry and reduce the unfortunate rise in fatalities at the time of writing this document.

For clarity, the scope of this study covers:

• Fabrication, which begins from receipt of steel and considers all welding activities up to the inspection and acceptance of welds
• Preparation of steel for coating (e.g. water jetting, blasting and coating)
• Mechanical completion (e.g. assembly and installation of internal platforms, internal ladders and fixings (excludes electrical))
• Loadout, which includes upending of components and may include loading onto the transportation vessel and preparing sea fastenings

It is recognised that many of the hazards identified within the document may be applicable to other scopes, and this guidance will be updated to cover other types of fabrication in future revisions. Fabrication of floating wind foundations may also bring other risks which have not been identified within the scope of the current document.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

G+, the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation, has developed this GPG to share, advance and encourage good health and safety practice when using Unmanned Aircraft Systems in support of offshore wind energy projects. In offshore wind operations, many of the controls present for crewed aviation are absent: the market is

open to new and inexperienced operators, unfamiliar with integrated, structured ways of controlling risk, contract expectations and controls on sub-contracting are more relaxed, and some light UAVs are unregulated. Accordingly, the onus is on offshore wind companies to ensure that UASs are effectively incorporated into the wider safety management system applicable to the whole operation. This G+ GPG explains the steps needed to achieve this.

When it comes to arc flash and shock labeling and accolated signage in the offshore wind industry, issues have been identified surrounding regional differences in approach. The framework in this guidance aims to act as recommended good practice for the performance of arc flash hazard control, by defining timelines and responsibilities to produce arc flash analysis data and, following the production of such data, details on the format, style, and application positioning of the required warning labeling. It has been developed in conjunction with major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and developers operating in the US offshore wind industry to generate agreeable guidance around which developers, OEMs and national safety authorities can coalesce to allow each to successfully meet their obligations under the applicable regulatory or legislative frameworks.

The G+ good practice guidelines aim to support electrical safety and the associated arc flash, arc blast and shock risks more effectively in offshore wind energy projects.

This Good Practice Guideline aims to support the offshore wind industry in implementing a Safe by Design (SBD) philosophy through the lifecycle of projects and ultimately lead to improved health and safety outcomes.

Primarily targeted at organisations who are relatively new to offshore wind and are seeking guidance regarding the implementation of SBD within their systems and processes, this guidance also provides a framework for mature organisations to assess their current practices and identify areas for improvement.

These guidelines is support continuous improvement in managing health and safety risks to and from helicopter operations, enabling safe development of the global offshore wind industry. They aim to help the industry integrate helicopter operations safely into projects, taking an approach appropriate and proportionate to the operational context and its risk profile.

These guidelines are relevant to:

• Organisations with a responsibility for the overall safety of the offshore wind energy project that use, or are considering using, helicopters to support the project.
• Supply chain organisations that contract helicopter services, such as maintenance providers.
• Organisations that are not the helicopter contract owner, but have their employees transported by helicopter.
• Organisations that do not intend to use helicopters in their normal activities, but who may require helicopter assistance in emergencies or to meet a 'one-off' requirement, and so need to facilitate this through appropriate planning, design and operation.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

These guidelines is support continuous improvement in managing health and safety risks to and from helicopter operations, enabling safe development of the global offshore wind industry. They aim to help the industry integrate helicopter operations safely into projects, taking an approach appropriate and proportionate to the operational context and its risk profile.

These guidelines are relevant to:

• Organisations with a responsibility for the overall safety of the offshore wind energy project that use, or are considering using, helicopters to support the project.
• Supply chain organisations that contract helicopter services, such as maintenance providers.
• Organisations that are not the helicopter contract owner, but have their employees transported by helicopter.
• Organisations that do not intend to use helicopters in their normal activities, but who may require helicopter assistance in emergencies or to meet a 'one-off' requirement, and so need to facilitate this through appropriate planning, design and operation.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

This guidance provides a framework of how to execute a safe transfer in an offshore wind farm in order to provide consistency and good practice regarding transfer across the wind industry and to allow operators and vessel owners to produce or to verify their transfer procedure up against a set of industry standard guidelines. It addresses people transfer in an offshore wind farm globally and puts forward a consensus approach, taking account of existing and emerging industry good practice.

This guidance considers:

• Transfer from vessel to offshore structure;
• Transfer between vessels;
• Transfer using walk to work (W2W) gangways;
• Protection against falling, including the use of self-retractable lifeline (SRL);
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements, and
• Protection against drowning, including a risk-based approach to the use of immersion suit.

All alternative transfer procedures, such as sliding access, Pict Offshore – The Get Up Safe system, double hooking or helicopter transfer are out of the scope of this document.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

This document has been produced to share good practice within the offshore renewable energy industry. It aims to provide a structure for accountable organisations to identify offshore renewable risks and the contingency measures that are required to enable an appropriate response. The document sets out an approach that all accountable organisations are encouraged to apply, taking into account the specific risk profile of their projects and their legal and contractual obligations.

This document does not provide templates that can be copied; rather it provides a methodology which, if followed, will provide guidance on how to respond to incidents using own resources, emergency service assets and working together to prepare and respond to adjoining offshore incidents. Finally, it will recommend how to train for incidents and to ensure that lessons identified from real, and simulated events, are acted on and shared with all stakeholders.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

This document is an adaptation of selected DROPS "Reliable securing, Best practice recommendations for the securing of structure and equipment at the worksite" content to provide guidance and functional recommendations specifically for the offshore wind industry. This edition focuses on operations and maintenance activities in offshore wind. For future editions it is envisioned to also cover other lifecycle stages of offshore wind, as well as to address design risk assessment, adequate training and supervision to determine the risk of dropped objects and the measures suitable to prevent them.

It is acknowledged that generic DROPS best practice is applicable across all industry sectors; particularly with regard to hazard identification, risk assessment and hierarchy of control. It is recommended that these practices are considered in addition to the guidance presented in this document.

Safe working depends on a combination of plant, processes, place and people. The G+ Offshore Wind Health & Safety Association (G+) has commissioned the update of this good practice guideline to address aspects of each of these areas, with a focus on work at height (WAH).

This second edition has been informed by more recent G+ incident data. Whilst dropped objects are a significant hazard with respect to WAH and were covered in the first edition guidelines, the G+ has decided to adopt the DROPS guidance in relation to falling objects; dropped objects have therefore been removed from the second edition as the publication refers to separate guidance on this topic. The revised edition also covers wider regulatory requirements, expanding its focus from EU countries to consider China, Japan, Taiwan and the USA.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.

This guideline addresses small service vessels, which for the purposes of this publication are defined as vessels less than 500 GT, operating in offshore wind farms under instructions from site management.

The information given is intended to be applicable to all offshore wind farms globally, but is consistent with national requirements for the UK, Germany, Denmark and the US. It represents the G+ interpretation of good practice, designed to be reflected in the management systems of the G+ member companies. Other operators of offshore wind farms might also find this guide useful when defining their site operating procedures.

The management of service vessels is considered to include the following:

• Functional roles and responsibilities for parties involved in the management of service vessels.
• Audit and inspection regimes for service vessels engaged by the wind farm.
• Operating procedures and guidance for the control and coordination of service vessel activities within the wind farm.
• Operating procedures for routine marine operations and vessel activities in the wind farm.
• Management of vessel traffic within the wind farm and in transit to the wind farm.
• Training and competence of service vessel marine crew, industrial personnel, passengers, and Marine Coordination personnel.
• Vessel safety equipment.

It is recommended that these guidelines be used together with the accompanying self‑assessment sheet which is available through the "self assessment" button below.