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Virtual Reality is Becoming a Reality for Avangrid Renewables Employees

Avangrid Renewables Uncategorized

Virtual Reality is Becoming a Reality for Avangrid Renewables Employees

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As a leading sustainable energy company, AVANGRID invests in the latest technologies not only to generate and deliver clean energy, but to ensure that our workforce is ready for any challenge. Avangrid Renewables was recognized earlier this year by the Brandon Hall Group for a new mobile learning platform that will facilitate employee training and improve employees’ ability to track their professional progress. Now, the company is preparing to roll out a cutting edge virtual reality (VR) training program that will transform how employees learn critical tasks and improve operational safety and performance across the company’s fleet.

Avangrid Renewables has a diverse fleet of wind farms – stretching from New Hampshire to California – with turbines and equipment of various ages and sizes from numerous manufacturers. Our vast footprint and varied equipment portfolio creates challenges to training new technicians who may be geographically distant from those who provide training.

Currently, employees (or trainers) need to travel long distances and meet in person for extended periods to train on critical wind turbine repair and maintenance procedures. This incurs significant time, expense and is even more challenging during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and associated safety restrictions on travel and meetings.

Now, innovative use of virtual reality (VR) technology can address many of these challenges. Over the past year, Sam Akey, Manager of Renewables Training and Innovation, has led the development of a VR training program for technicians so that they will be able to study and practice new procedures from the comfort and safety of an operations and maintenance building anywhere in the country at any time.

“Virtual reality is a huge step forward for our already best in class training program,” said Akey. “We expect that by enabling employees to get ‘hands-on’ training from the safety of a virtual environment we will see improved safety and operational performance.”

Avangrid Renewables’ new training program will provide many benefits. Not only can technicians train on a flexible schedule, they will be able to repeat an operation as many times as necessary for mastery. In addition, real hazards such as electrocution or injury can be safely simulated in the virtual environment, helping the learner develop muscle memory to better avoid risks once on site. Uncommon and more difficult procedures can be practiced multiple times and as needed, preventing potentially long intervals between available training sessions and actual implementation. All of this adds up to safer, more effective maintenance and operations.

Avangrid Renewables’ VR training program will launch in early 2021. When rolled out, the program will use the recently released Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets, providing a state of the art training experience to the Avangrid Renewables team. To learn more about the development of this exciting new program, check out this case study developed with VR vendor Oculus for Business.

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