Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition: "Urgent Need for a 'Basic Act on Wind Power Safety Management' Amid High Accident Risks"

Operating with Inadequate Safety Regulations
Statement Issued Regarding the Yeongdeok Accident

The Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition declared on March 30 that the recent fire accident at the Yeongdeok wind farm in North Gyeongsang Province is not merely an industrial accident, but a clear case of a man-made disaster resulting from a combination of structural issues and institutional neglect. The organization urged the government to immediately initiate a comprehensive overhaul of the wind power safety management system.

In a statement released the same day, the Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition said, "The Yeongdeok wind farm consists of aging facilities that have been in operation for about 20 years. Just a month ago, a structural collapse occurred, yet operations continued without any fundamental safety measures being implemented." The coalition continued, "It has been confirmed that workers were assigned to high-risk tasks without being sufficiently informed of critical risk factors, such as equipment cracks. This goes beyond mere negligence and exposes the structural limitations of the current system, which fails to guarantee safety."

Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition

The Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition argued, "Currently, wind power facilities are being operated with virtually no standards for life-cycle management or legally mandated safety regulations. There are also cases where operation and maintenance are outsourced to unqualified companies instead of personnel certified through the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) professional qualification program, resulting in gaps in safety management." The coalition further pointed out, "Moreover, wind turbines are classified as structures, not buildings, placing them outside the scope of fire and safety regulations. In this environment of perfunctory inspections and inadequate testing systems, accidents continue to occur even after 'no abnormality' assessments are made."

Across the country, many wind turbines remain in operation beyond their designed lifespans, and various risks—including collapse, fire, and blade damage—are known to persist.

The Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition called for the immediate enactment of a 'Basic Act on Wind Power Safety Management' to oversee the entire lifecycle of wind power facilities—from installation and operation to decommissioning; the legal establishment of stoppage and dismantling standards for equipment exceeding its design lifespan; the preparation of a national standard operating manual that includes risk assessment and safety procedures prior to work; the reinforcement of primary contractor responsibility through improvement of outsourcing structures; the introduction of real-time safety monitoring and automatic shutdown systems to create a management framework focused on accident prevention; and the immediate establishment of fire and disaster response standards for wind power facilities.

The Daegu Safety Citizens' Coalition stated, "The government must not remain limited to post-incident responses and should immediately embark on legal and institutional reforms for the overall safety management of wind power. If a similar accident occurs again, the responsibility will no longer rest with the field, but clearly with the government for neglecting to address the systemic issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.