The farm is owned and operated by ENA’s subsidiary, Canastota Wind Power, LLC. It consists of 20 GE 1.5MW turbines, one of the most reliable and widely used turbines today. There are currently more than 12,000 of these units in operation worldwide.
Responding to a report of an outage, Fenner employees discovered the turbine failure around 5:00am Sunday.
There were no injuries or local property damage resulting from the incident.
The turbine failure was fully contained on property leased by Canastota Wind and well away from public roads and nearby residences.
While local authorities were notified, fire and emergency services were not called to the scene.
As a safety precaution, generation and maintenance activities at the wind farm have been temporarily suspended. Power has been restored to the other 19 turbines for heat and safety lights.
Measures have also been taken to minimize and mitigate any potential impact to the environment as a result of the incident.
The site has been secured and any debris contained. Security has also been posted while the investigation continues.
The on-site team from ENA that responded to the incident included the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, Wind Division Manager and Environmental Health and Safety Manager.
“The safety of our employees and neighbors is our highest priority,” said Toni Volpe, President and CEO of Enel North America. “We’re committed to learning all that we can about this incident and applying it to insure the continued safe operation of our turbines in North America and in the rest of the world.”
Enel has put together a team of internal and external industry experts to assist in the investigation of the incident.
