Company fined after worker seriously injured by electrical flashover on Inverness wind farm

A wind farm management company has been fined £80,000 after a worker suffered life-changing injuries at a location in Inverness.

The 38-year-old man was sent to carry out maintenance work in an electrical substation within the Tom Nan Clach Wind Farm by Natural Power Services Limited on June 23, 2022.

While work was being carried out on one of the two electrical cabinets, the other remained live.

This allowed part of the electrical system to be energised, and an electrical flashover, an accidental discharge of electricity that jumps across an air gap between conductors or from a conductor to an earthed surface, to take place.

The employee received life-changing injuries and required numerous surgeries.

The Health and Safety Executive deemed that, had the initial switching programme prepared by Natural Power Services Limited been followed correctly, the incident would not have occurred.

It was found that there was no suitable system or process in place to check or review switching programmes to ensure that the procedures were correctly observed at all times, or to approve any changes to the initial switching programmes.

Natural Power Services Limited pled guilty at Inverness Sheriff Court to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

A fine of £80,000 was issued.

An HSE spokesperson said: “This was a wholly avoidable incident caused by the failure of the company to implement a safe system of work.

“The company should have ensured there was a suitably rigorous process for checking and reviewing the work. This would have ensured those doing the work were adhering to switching programmes in a manner that was suitable and safe.

“This would have been a reasonably practicable measure to address the risks arising from the subsequent introduction of additional parallel works that might interfere with the previously planned switching programme.”