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iPi Monthly Forum for Utility Professionals
The iPi monthly forum is where you can get answers to questions you have from subject matter experts like David McPeak, Jim Vaughn, Danny Raines and other utility safety and ops professionals like yourself. Forums will include industry specific topics, challenges, trends, and solutions along with best practices in leadership, operations, and safety.
PPG is equally as important today as it was a century ago, providing lineworkers with a critical safeguard against electrical hazards.
The Evolution of Personal Protective Grounding: Part 1
Personal protective grounding, or PPG, is arguably the most critical safety procedure affecting contemporary lineworkers. Over time, it has evolved to include numerous significant elements that contribute to the success of today’s comprehensive methods and procedures.
To adequately address these elements, this article will be presented in two parts. Part one, which you are now reading, covers PPG…
Variabilities in Electrical Arc Flash Protection
Accuracies are synonymous with safety and science. While many perceive that electrical safety needs to be highly exact, this article aims at creating awareness of why sticking to the basics is effective.
But before we delve into variability in electrical engineering, safe electrical work practices and electrical PPE, here is a brief story my second-year engineering physics professor shared when I…
Accuracy Above All: Authoring Articles for iP Magazine
For over 17 years, I have had the distinct privilege of writing for Incident Prevention magazine. I am genuinely honored that iP continues to publish my articles. My first column was about the four principles of distribution cover-up. At last count, I had written and submitted more than 100 article…
October-November 2025 Q&A
Q: We hear lots of opinions about whether a lineworker can lift a hot-line clamp that has a load on it. There is a rule that says disconnects must be rated for the load they are to break. We’ve been doing it forever. Are we breaking an OSHA rule or not?
A: We have answered this question before…
Safety By Design: Implementation and Operation
The first four articles in this six-part series outlined the significance of an organizational safety management system (SMS) that involves all employees. They emphasized effective risk mitigation through a well-developed plan for continuous improvement, with a focus on human and organizational per…
Addressing the Elephant in the Room
There is an elephant in the room that plays a role in the safety culture of our industry. That elephant needs to be exposed, even though it’s going to be tough to do.
Based on a less-than-official count, 12 to 14 lineworkers have lost their lives on the job over the past six months. The estimate…
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Safety Management
‘Avoid Contact’: Correctly Understanding the MAD Without a Distance
For decades, air has been used to effectively and inexpensively maintain phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground clearances of overhead distribution and transmission power lines and electrical equipment. Air’s extremely high resistance offers excellent protection against the passage of current. The grea…
Rethinking Arc Flash Labels for PV Projects
Arc flash labels are a commonplace requirement for photovoltaic (PV) projects. However, arc flash studies and the resulting labels are sometimes treated as check-the-box exercises. In my experience as an engineer, I have found that questions are rarely asked regarding integration of PV arc flash la…
Safety By Design: Implementation and Operation
The first four articles in this six-part series outlined the significance of an organizational safety management system (SMS) that involves all employees. They emphasized effective risk mitigation through a well-developed plan for continuous improvement, with a focus on human and organizational per…
Advancing Safety Through Total Well-Being: Practical Tips and Ideas for Utility Leaders
Over the past 50 years, the electric utility industry has developed and implemented robust engineering controls, detailed work procedures and focused training to reduce injury and fatality rates among workers. However, the total well-being of the worker is another critical safety factor that utilit…
Rethinking Arc Flash Labels for PV Projects
Arc flash labels are a commonplace requirement for photovoltaic (PV) projects. However, arc flash studies and the resulting labels are sometimes treated as check-the-box exercises. In my experience as an engineer, I have found that questions are rarely asked regarding integration of PV arc flash la…
Safety By Design: Implementation and Operation
The first four articles in this six-part series outlined the significance of an organizational safety management system (SMS) that involves all employees. They emphasized effective risk mitigation through a well-developed plan for continuous improvement, with a focus on human and organizational per…
Advancing Safety Through Total Well-Being: Practical Tips and Ideas for Utility Leaders
Over the past 50 years, the electric utility industry has developed and implemented robust engineering controls, detailed work procedures and focused training to reduce injury and fatality rates among workers. However, the total well-being of the worker is another critical safety factor that utilit…
Organizations that embrace holistic worker wellness as part of their safety strategy can move beyond compliance into the realm of cultural transformation.
Advancing Safety Through Total Well-Being: Practical Tips and Ideas for Utility Leaders
Over the past 50 years, the electric utility industry has developed and implemented robust engineering controls, detailed work procedures and focused training to reduce injury and fatality rates among workers. However, the total well-being of the worker is another critical safety factor that utilit…
The Roadmap to Gaining Senior Leader Buy-In for Safety Initiatives
In a recent survey we conducted, 97% of safety professionals who responded confirmed that gaining senior leader buy-in for their safety programs was either very important or extremely important to them.
This research project was a joint effort between the National Electrical Contractors Associat…
Worksite Safety
The Evolution of Personal Protective Grounding: Part 2
Part 1 of this article began with discussion of the first American power systems, when lineworkers initially encountered the hazards of working on de-energized lines (see https://incident-prevention.com/blog/the-evolution-of-personal-protective-grounding-part-1/). This led to early personal protect…
‘Avoid Contact’: Correctly Understanding the MAD Without a Distance
For decades, air has been used to effectively and inexpensively maintain phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground clearances of overhead distribution and transmission power lines and electrical equipment. Air’s extremely high resistance offers excellent protection against the passage of current. The grea…
Rethinking Arc Flash Labels for PV Projects
Arc flash labels are a commonplace requirement for photovoltaic (PV) projects. However, arc flash studies and the resulting labels are sometimes treated as check-the-box exercises. In my experience as an engineer, I have found that questions are rarely asked regarding integration of PV arc flash la…
The Evolution of Personal Protective Grounding: Part 1
Personal protective grounding, or PPG, is arguably the most critical safety procedure affecting contemporary lineworkers. Over time, it has evolved to include numerous significant elements that contribute to the success of today’s comprehensive methods and procedures.
To adequately address these…
‘Avoid Contact’: Correctly Understanding the MAD Without a Distance
For decades, air has been used to effectively and inexpensively maintain phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground clearances of overhead distribution and transmission power lines and electrical equipment. Air’s extremely high resistance offers excellent protection against the passage of current. The grea…
Rethinking Arc Flash Labels for PV Projects
Arc flash labels are a commonplace requirement for photovoltaic (PV) projects. However, arc flash studies and the resulting labels are sometimes treated as check-the-box exercises. In my experience as an engineer, I have found that questions are rarely asked regarding integration of PV arc flash la…
The Evolution of Personal Protective Grounding: Part 1
Personal protective grounding, or PPG, is arguably the most critical safety procedure affecting contemporary lineworkers. Over time, it has evolved to include numerous significant elements that contribute to the success of today’s comprehensive methods and procedures.
To adequately address these…
Mistakes Are Inevitable: Choose to Invest in Recovery Capacity
When past winters were settling in, my family always took comfort with homemade cocoa. Last winter, one instance of preparing the hot beverage turned into a lesson about the nature of mistakes and the importance of planning for them. As my children worked together in the kitchen, one of my older daughters inadvertently spilled cocoa on one of her favorite sweaters. I stepped in, ready to help, and decided to soak the stained sweater in our utility sink as part of the cleaning process.
Filling the sink took longer than anticipated, so I left the room to tend to another task – and briefly lo…
Disable Reclosing to Heighten Worker Protection
In utility line work, safety is built on layers. Each layer is essential; ideally, if one fails, another layer will prevent alignment of all the holes in James Reason’s proverbial Swiss cheese.
Recently, while preparing a training presentation focused on switching procedures, de-energization and…
5 Core Components of a Well-Developed Storm Response Plan
Electric utilities are part of the backbone of modern society, providing essential power to homes, businesses, emergency services providers and more. But this critical service is vulnerable to extreme weather events that can cause massive disruptions, damage infrastructure and jeopardize public saf…
