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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.
What does your organization need to do to protect its critical assets from terrorist attacks?
Eyes on the Wire: The Year of Actively Caring
Power Delivery leaders and supervisors at Georgia Power are working on initiatives to increase their time in the field and demonstrate active caring. However, as they work through managing meetings, to-do lists, deadlines and time constraints, finding time to be in the field can be difficult. As Power Delivery works to meet this challenge, Georgia Power has implemented an innovative idea and ta…
Using Power Tools in the Bucket
Lineworkers rely on a variety of tools when working from the bucket of an aerial device. Safe work practices require that these tools not create additional exposure to electrocution. Hand tools – such as bolt cutters, knives, pliers and wire strippers – are often made of metal. So, when employees are working in aerial devices, employers typically require hand tools to be insulated with layers o…
June – July 2023 Q&A
Q: How do consensus standards apply to the employer responsibility for safe work practices? Are they absolute?
A: No, consensus standards are part of a system the employer can use to develop their safety programs. The issue is, can the employer defend their programs that do or do not conform t…
The Art of Safety: Protect the Worker
Given the predictable nature of hazards, how and why do incidents occur? Think about this: If I know the winning numbers ahead of a lottery drawing, it’s simple for me to be 100% successful at winning the lottery money. So, if we know how hazards are going to act and how they cause harm, why aren…
Lineworkers and Rubber Sleeves
I am often asked about the benefits of wearing rubber sleeves. Personally, I never had to wear them as an apprentice or a lineman because of my former employer’s belief that an insulate-and-isolate program was the best way to go. Even today, the company that employed me for over 40 years does not…
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Frontline Leadership – The Hurdle
Utility Business Media, Inc. publisher of Incident Prevention Magazine is excited to announce the publication of Frontline Leadership – The Hurdle and Frontline Incident Prevention – The Hurdle both written by David McPeak, Director of Professional Development for Incident Prevention InstitutE (iPi).
These books are based on iPi’s popular Frontline leadership training program and are a must read for utility industry leaders. Learn More
Frontline Incident Prevention – The Hurdle
This book is your essential how-to guide on recognizing hurdles and developing effective run-ups to soar over them. You’ll learn how to lead and protect people rather than manage robots. You’ll also learn critical lessons about self-reliance and risk tolerance that culminate in proper application of the hierarchy of controls. Reading and applying the insights from this book will make you, your team, and your organization safer.
iPi have taken it a step further. You can add The Art of Safety course and downloadable workbook to your experience. Find out more more about this course – The Art of Safety
Learn to understand, lead, develop, and protect people.
That is the Art of Safety!
Powered Ascenders in the Utility Space
With the variety of ascenders available, crews have another option for use in difficult access scenarios.
Overcoming the Illusion of Safety
There are striking similarities in how we respond to incidents, injuries and fatalities in our industry. Safety stand-downs are held. Utilities and contractors conduct incident investigations that are typically wrapped up with action items that need to be handled.
But consider this: Is everyth…
Strengthening the Substation Fence
People have finally discovered one of the best unkept secrets in America: Our utility systems can be attacked, and it doesn’t take military tacticians to pull it off.
Activists have recently renewed calls for more attacks that disrupt essential utility services and create chaos. Previously, te…
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Safety Management
Strengthening the Substation Fence
People have finally discovered one of the best unkept secrets in America: Our utility systems can be attacked, and it doesn’t take military tacticians to pull it off.
Activists have recently renewed calls for more attacks that disrupt essential utility services and create chaos. Previously, te…
Preventing Struck-By Incidents in Utility Construction
Anatomically modern humans emerged over 100,000 years ago. For the bulk of that time, the environment in which we lived didn’t change much or very quickly. Now, think about how much the world has changed in just the last 100 years. One interesting thing to consider is how modern human innovation …
The Quail Effect: An Indicator of Safety Culture
It is not uncommon for a flock of birds, such as quail, to scatter when people get too close to them. This sometimes happens on work sites, too, but instead of birds, it’s workers who scatter when they see safety personnel show up on their job site.
A lot can be said about an organization’s sa…
Eyes on the Wire: The Year of Actively Caring
Georgia Power’s new program brings company retirees back into the field to leverage their experience and empower the newest wave of lineworkers.
Preventing Struck-By Incidents in Utility Construction
Anatomically modern humans emerged over 100,000 years ago. For the bulk of that time, the environment in which we lived didn’t change much or very quickly. Now, think about how much the world has changed in just the last 100 years. One interesting thing to consider is how modern human innovation …
The Quail Effect: An Indicator of Safety Culture
It is not uncommon for a flock of birds, such as quail, to scatter when people get too close to them. This sometimes happens on work sites, too, but instead of birds, it’s workers who scatter when they see safety personnel show up on their job site.
A lot can be said about an organization’s sa…
Eyes on the Wire: The Year of Actively Caring
Georgia Power’s new program brings company retirees back into the field to leverage their experience and empower the newest wave of lineworkers.
Does everything we do in the name of safety actually help to keep our workers safe?
Overcoming the Illusion of Safety
There are striking similarities in how we respond to incidents, injuries and fatalities in our industry. Safety stand-downs are held. Utilities and contractors conduct incident investigations that are typically wrapped up with action items that need to be handled.
But consider this: Is everyth…
Overcoming the Illusion of Safety
There are striking similarities in how we respond to incidents, injuries and fatalities in our industry. Safety stand-downs are held. Utilities and contractors conduct incident investigations that are typically wrapped up with action items that need to be handled.
But consider this: Is everything we do in the…
Gauges: How Do You Measure Safety?
The small utility had just lost two journeymen linemen to contractors, and they needed replacements who could hit the ground running. So, the company held some interviews and hired two seasoned journeymen.
Beyond Behavior-Based Safety: Why Traditional Safety Practices are No Longer Enough
Traditional safety management practices are built on the assumption that human behavior is rational and occurs primarily through conscious decision-making. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are, in fact, irrational by nature, creatures of habit and deeply influenced by past experiences….
Using a Learning Management System to Augment Lineworker Training
“You can’t learn how to climb a pole by looking at a computer screen.”
That’s a sentence that has been repeatedly used in our industry to discredit web-based learning. And it’s true; in any skilled trade, neither distance learning nor classroom work alone can replace the skills and confidence g…
Worksite Safety
Strengthening the Substation Fence
People have finally discovered one of the best unkept secrets in America: Our utility systems can be attacked, and it doesn’t take military tacticians to pull it off.
Activists have recently renewed calls for more attacks that disrupt essential utility services and create chaos. Previously, te…
Preventing Struck-By Incidents in Utility Construction
Anatomically modern humans emerged over 100,000 years ago. For the bulk of that time, the environment in which we lived didn’t change much or very quickly. Now, think about how much the world has changed in just the last 100 years. One interesting thing to consider is how modern human innovation …
Powered Ascenders in the Utility Space
With the variety of ascenders available, crews have another option for use in difficult access scenarios.
Eyes on the Wire: The Year of Actively Caring
Georgia Power’s new program brings company retirees back into the field to leverage their experience and empower the newest wave of lineworkers.
Preventing Struck-By Incidents in Utility Construction
Anatomically modern humans emerged over 100,000 years ago. For the bulk of that time, the environment in which we lived didn’t change much or very quickly. Now, think about how much the world has changed in just the last 100 years. One interesting thing to consider is how modern human innovation …
Powered Ascenders in the Utility Space
With the variety of ascenders available, crews have another option for use in difficult access scenarios.
Eyes on the Wire: The Year of Actively Caring
Georgia Power’s new program brings company retirees back into the field to leverage their experience and empower the newest wave of lineworkers.
Power Restoration Triage and Delta Systems
Triage is a common tool used to prioritize medical treatment based on urgency of need and severity of the injury or condition. For example, in mass-casualty incidents, victims are tagged using a color-coded system that identifies which individuals should get transported to the hospital first. Colors may vary depending on the triage system you use, but typically there are four colors – red, yellow, green and black – with red indicating that immediate transportation is required while black means that the individual likely will not survive.
Beyond its medical uses, triage is also highly use…
Bill Martin, CUSP, NRP, RN, DIMM
Words of Wisdom from a Longtime Safety Man
I first got into the electric utility industry in 1965 when I was hired to work as a lineman’s helper. Lineman’s helpers were also called by another name: grunt. At that time, you were not considered a grown adult until you were 21 years of age. I was just 18 in 1965. I could not drink, I could n…
Rayford “RL” Grubbs, CUSP
Training a New Generation
My personal journey in line work started October 2, 1978, on a two-man line crew. It was just my foreman and me. He was an old, seasoned power lineman, gruff and to the point. When we met, he looked at me and asked, “Can you climb 30 poles a day?” Heck, it was all I could do to not turn around an…
R. Neal Gracey
3 Reasons to Think Twice
Dale West
The Significance of Critical Steps at the Work Site
R. Neal Gracey
Safety Considerations for Matted Surfaces
Nathan Boutwell, M.Eng., CSP, SMS, CIT, CUSP; Nick Powers; and Bill Hinrichs, CUSP
Control High-Energy Hazards to Help Reduce Serious Injuries and Fatalities
Brian Sambuco, M.S., CSP, CUSP
Working Safely from Elevated Heights
Charles Keeling, CUSP
