Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | APRIL 2022 | 33 Health & Safety awareness and safety communication about working in such challenging conditions and the risks associated with high winds and fallen objects." How utilities are safeguarding the public Most injuries and deaths of members of the public come from interactions with over- head power lines and underground cables andpipes. However, for National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) the main area of risk stems from having large above ground assets in busy built-up environments. Its monetised risk model looks at three key areas – safety, environment, and reliabil- ity – and analyses the likelihood of assets failing against a number of failure rates. Condition data about assets is vital to understanding that likelihood, but of equal importance is the need for NGET to under- stand the consequence of any failure, for which location is a signiƒ cant factor. "Condition data about our assets is vital to our understanding of the likelihood, but then the location data and where the asset is and whether third parties could interact with the asset is important in understanding that consequence or criticality," says Perry. While National Grid is able to keep the public physically separate from its assets, the same is not true for electricity and gas distribution companies, because many of their assets run over or underneath land owned by others. David Spillett, head of safety, health and environment at the ENA, says a lot of work has gone into creating underground and overhead data maps of assets. Collisions and strikes in the agricul- ture, haulage and construction sectors are a long-standing issue, but new risk areas are emerging all the time as a result of new tech- nologies such as drones, explains Spillett. "The domestic member of the public is just as important as someone working in the farming or construction industry now, we see them now having a similar risk because we saw a signiƒ cant increase over the two years of the pandemic of damaged cables and gas pipes in domestic properties and gardens due to an increase in DIY activities," says Spillett. Lucinda Dann, features editor in association with Download the report Download the report Protect and Support: Responding to New Health And Safety Risks free at: https://utilityweek.co.uk/ Comment Chris Tagg Head of OS Connects I t is always encouraging to see the development of start-up organisations, such as those mentioned in this report, apply their ingenuity and technology to improve necessary health and safety processes. Though some may view these methods of data recording as a new means of monitoring employee eŒ ciency, our interpretation focuses on an employer's duty of care. Rather than monitoring their employee's behaviour, they are supporting workers in a variety of situations which, before proper risk assessments can be completed, are unknown and therefore deemed "high-risk". By implementing these technologies, employers signiƒ cantly enhance their approach to addressing health and safety protocols. A" er all, a relaxed attitude to health and safety regulations poses signiƒ cant increase in risk, as well as endangering worker wellbeing and an organisation's reputation. Fortunately, better geospatial data is helping to streamline and inform that process of preplanning for workers onsite. It is true that current datasets vary in depth and accuracy; put simply, some areas are more detailed than others. Improving access to datasets such as gas, water, and electricity supply lines in a secure way provides a signiƒ cant advantage in surveying and risk assessment, that can only be further improved by even more data; thus reducing risks and helping to improve safety onsite. The development of the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), for example, improves access to even more information, which better informs decision-making processes about planning works. But data can always evolve. New datasets that harness available satellite imagery could be made available from a variety of sources, providing details on surface types, for example (such as hard pavements, so" verges, etc), which can help excavators decide on tooling before they head out to site. Similarly, access to environmental data like — oodplains or engineering diŒ culties can be used to quickly assess the risk of working in a particular area. It is only through combining datasets where you see real insight being generated. Sourcing di˜ erent datasets, ensuring data interoperability, and combining them into a single, uniƒ ed truth, creates a beneƒ cial decision support system. One that can help utilities plan for multiple eventualities, provide their workers with the best possible information, and optimise works during the planning stage, through the operation stage, and a" er the job too. Which, in turn, helps to minimise risk, unnecessary e˜ ort and expenditure, further down the line. It's a cyclical process, which can provide more insight if feedback loops are included. As more people use data, feedback further improves the quality of it. User feedback greatly beneƒ ts the wider community, which we listen to, to improve our products and services. Under our "Tell OS", programme, we act on data improvement and feedback from actual users, to drive even more value from data and technology and therefore provide even greater insight to our customers. And improved data means better insight, reducing the risk of incident and improving the overall safety of projects the next time workers head out to site. "Accurate, up-to-date data can help assess and minimise risk" "Accurate, up-to-date "Keeping our people safe is our top priority at all times" GARETH PEARSON, NORTHERN POWERGRID

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