IEC/TS 61400-31 Ed. 1.0 en:2023 PDF

This part of IEC 61400, which is a Technical Specifiation, establishes a guideline for the assessment of the risks which a wind turbine may pose to the general public.

Incidents in wind farms causing harm to the general public are very rare events. However, there are requirements to cover this topic in the permitting procedures of several countries. This document aims to facilitate a uniform scope and a uniform use of methods in wind turbine risk assessments.

This document covers harm to the general public. It does not cover occupational exposure, e.g. of personnel involved in the operation and maintenance of the turbine, since occupational risks are usually dealt with in occupational health and safety regulations. The risk of damage to structures or other objects is also not part of this document unless such damage in turn poses a risk to the public.

Harm according to this document can be direct harm or indirect harm via damage to buildings or infrastructure, e.g. gas pipelines, nuclear facilities, dykes, rail infrastructure or roads.

This document covers risk due to internal or external causes, such as technical failures, human errors, extreme wind conditions, turbine icing, lightning strikes, earthquakes, flooding, landslides or fire. However, the specific cause of an incident (e.g. an incident such as a turbine collapse) is irrelevant to the assessment of the consequences. The only relevant factor is the expected probability of occurrence for the incident considered.

In terms of transmission of the hazard to the people affected, this document describes tower collapses, shedding of the nacelle, blade failures, falling or throwing of ice pieces and fire spread.

This document does not cover risks from visual distraction and environmental risk such as noise or shadow flicker.

Wind turbines may pose a hazard to aviation through incidents such as collisions with aircrafts or disturbance of air traffic control radar. These hazards are not covered in this document. In order to mitigate the hazard of aircrafts colliding with wind turbines, aviation lights are installed on wind turbines as covered in IEC 61400-29[1]1.

Risks connected to terrorist attacks and other malicious actions are not covered by this document.