The EEA's Public Safety – Electrical Accidents Report 1998-2015 presents high-level public safety trends and analysis for the general public and non-electrical workers over the past two decades. Under the Electricity Act 1992, electricity suppliers have a responsibility to implement and maintain safety management systems to prevent works from presenting a significant risk of serious harm to any member of the public or significant damage to property. As part of this requirement, the report provides electricity supply industry asset owners with a better understanding of our industry public safety performance, and information on key areas of public risk safety and education campaigns.
Project context and scope
The ESI, through the joint ENA/EEA Public Safety Working Group, has agreed a high-level five-year Public Safety Strategy from 2015 to 2020 with the objective of analysing public safety data and trends, sharing findings and facilitating, where appropriate, consistent nation-wide public safety information and campaigns. The Group are progressing work in support of the strategy and have reviewed the report, which covers notifiable electrical accidents over 1998-2015 among members of the public and non-electrical workers. Please note that unfortunately there are data gaps due to changes in data collection policies at Energy Safety in 2009, so safety data for non-ESI worker is not available post-2008. We are working closely with WorkSafe to access the missing notifications and will provide an up-to-date non-ESI worker benchmark to the industry as soon as possible.
Key findings
The notifiable electrical accidents involving electricity supply industry assets and the public are rare but twenty years of data provides a useful sample to identify risk groups and target audiences.
Recommendations
Based on the report’s findings, the EEA recommends the industry continue to monitor:
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Safety issues related to LV accidents affecting the general public (e.g. broken neutral).
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The protection of both LV (e.g. pillar boxes) and HV assets (e.g. substations) against trespass.
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Campaigns targeted at educating non-electrical contractors (e.g. equipment operators, farmers, construction workers, arborists) on safety around overhead lines and underground services.