Biomass heating training

The North East team are being called upon for specialist training as more schools, hospitals and major businesses move away from traditional fossil-fuelled systems towards biomass.

Whilst there’s a rise in the number of firms installing and running the systems nationally, there are currently few relevant standards to help regulate the industry. Yet despite the lack of standards, employers have an obligation to ensure operators of the specialist equipment are fully trained and understand the risks, benefits and maintenance requirements linked to biomass boilers.

With re:heat co-founder Neil Harrison elected to the board of directors for the Wood Heat Association (WHA) at the start of 2015, the business has increasingly been called upon to develop training packages to ensure operator competency.

Ben Tansey, co-founder of re:heat, said: “We recently completed a successful operator competency review and delivered a bespoke training programme with Robertson Facilities Management who are responsible for the operation of multiple biomass boilers at sites across Newcastle upon Tyne.

“Following one-to-one reviews with each of their operators we were able to identify areas where we could offer support and guidance. We then developed a set of training courses to ensure a consistent standard and compliance with manufacturers’ requirements.”

Allan Dryden, regional manager for Robertson Facilities Management, added: “The team at re:heat has delivered a great package of review, evaluation and subsequent delivery of an operator-friendly training package.”