Surveillance cameras on wind turbines in Realmonte for fire prevention
In Sicily, serious fires occur every summer, destroying vegetation and often causing loss of human lives. In the future, a new prevention measure should help to identify the source of fires as quickly as possible: as part of a pilot project in collaboration with the Sicilian authorities, Alpiq Energia Italia intends to install special fire detection cameras on some turbines of its wind farm at Monte Mele, after repowering, which will serve as an early warning system and signal the outbreak of fires in an initial phase.
With the signing of a collaboration agreement, Alpiq Energia Italia and the authorities responsible for Sicily are adopting a new approach to combating fires and environmental crimes on the island. As part of the pilot project called “Torri sentinelle del territorio,” Alpiq Energia Italia will be the first operator to install fire cameras in a wind farm in Sicily. Thanks to this agreement, shared and supported by the regional Energy department, the Swiss company, which has been operating in the Italian market for years with 14 plants totaling about 770 MW, has developed a plan that will involve Sicilian wind farms engaged in repowering operations.
“We decided to gather an indication from the Technical and Specialized Commission (CTS) – explains Massimiliano Bignami, Alpiq’s country manager – by starting a dialogue with all the relevant bodies to establish guidelines that will then be extended to all other operators. Our presence in Sicily is now rooted, we have been operating on the island for about fifteen years and we have learned to align ourselves with the territory and listen to the requests to understand what we can do to improve the environment in which we operate. The issue of fires is a huge problem in Sicily and even a small contribution like this can be crucial in terms of prevention. Having been the first to gather this sensitivity and develop a pilot project is a source of great pride for the company.”
For several months, the Cts has decided to accompany the opinions issued also with a prescription that obliges wind energy producers to equip the plants with cameras. But at the moment, there are no guidelines on the type of tools to be used and on the interface with the Region itself. “Alpiq has decided to anticipate everyone and start, thanks to the project “Torri sentinelle del territorio,” a dialogue with the bodies involved to create a model applicable to other operators,” adds Massimiliano Bignami.
“The Alpiq wind farm at Monte Mele in Sicily as a pilot project”
The experimentation will involve the Monte Mele wind farm, already operational with 10 turbines, which will be subjected to repowering. In the repowering project, Alpiq has decided to provide a number of cameras compatible with the new layout and capable of monitoring a large portion of the territory. After sharing the idea with regional Energy assessor Roberto Di Mauro and general director Calogero Giuseppe Burgio, Alpiq participated in a technical meeting convened by the Energy Department, which was also attended by regional heads of Civil Protection, firefighters, forestry corps, and officials from Sicilia Digitale, who will follow the project from a technical perspective by identifying, together with the company, the specific specifications related to the cameras to be used, the necessary equipment to interface with the bodies responsible for control, and the areas most affected by illegal activities.
In this way, in the intentions of the Sicilian Region, an extensive network of cameras powered and wired would be created, which would be connected to the regional Civil Protection and regional Forestry Corps operation centers. In each wind farm, the installation of a number of cameras compatible with the distance between the towers of the plant is planned to ensure, on the one hand, the absence of overlaps and interferences and, on the other hand, to cover an area compatible with control needs (on average about 5 km from each turbine).
“This is a concrete action to provide an additional response to the territory – says regional Energy assessor Roberto Di Mauro – transforming a renewable energy plant into a sentinel against a phenomenon, such as fires, that has devastated our land. If the initiative were extended to the more than 1500 wind farms present on our island, we could provide Sicily with hundreds of fire towers. And this is a way to create healthy forms of collaboration between public and private sectors, at no cost to the Region’s coffers and with enormous benefits in terms of prevention.”
The cameras to be installed will be purchased, installed, networked, and maintained by Alpiq, at no cost to the Region, with which the technical specifications, installation methods, and maintenance activities will be agreed upon in advance, also in a way to avoid any interference with the proper functioning of the plant. The images and any type of data recorded by the cameras will be owned by the Sicilian Region, which in addition to assessing and establishing which criminal phenomena it intends to detect, will assume exclusive responsibility for the correct treatment of personal data, including sensitive data, confidentiality, copyright, and intellectual property rights of any kind. The Sicilian Region, therefore, will be the only entity responsible for ensuring compliance with the rules regarding the protection of privacy and intellectual property, including obtaining all necessary authorizations for this purpose, with no liability for Alpiq.
Telecamere sulle turbine del parco eolico a Realmonte per la prevenzione degli incendi
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