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FEBRUARY-MARCH 2019 Archive

3 Safety Measures to Mitigate Substation Risks

| Ryan Stephens, AEP, and Amber Travis, GSP |
Any type of utility work can present a number of potentially fatal hazards, from arc blasts and flashes to extreme temperatures that can cause the human body to overheat or become hypothermic. And it’s not just severe hazards that can lead to injury or death – even the slightest negligence can bring about circumstances in […]
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Specifying Arc-Rated and Flame-Resistant Gloves

| Hugh Hoagland and Stacy Klausing, M.S. |
Until recently, standard specifications and conformity assessments of flame-resistant (FR) gloves fell into no-man’s land. While many end users have requested FR gloves, there has not been a standard in the industry for manufacturers to use to specifically label their gloves as flame resistant. In 2013, ASTM F18 set forth a standard for testing gloves […]
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Recognizing Our Human Risk Factors

| William N. Martin, CUSP, NRP, RN, DIMM |
Determining the root cause of an incident or accident gives us the opportunity to share lessons learned to help prevent future duplication of the event. In this article, we’ll identify those inherent human traits that seemingly have little to do with the tasks lineworkers perform but often are the cause of incidents. It’s difficult to […]
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Feedback and Accountability in the Disciplinary Process

| Mack Turner, CUSP |
Disciplining employees is always a tough task to handle, so it’s not surprising that many leaders and employees have a fear of the disciplinary process. However, discipline is a necessary part of business. That’s because sometimes, despite people’s best intentions, course correction must occur. As leaders who are tasked with doling out discipline, we should […]
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The Hard Hat Celebrates 100 Years

| Stacey Simmons |
When you think of people who have changed our lives with their inventions, you may think about Thomas Edison and his lightbulb or Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone. Not many of us would think to include Edward W. Bullard on that list, but 100 years ago – in 1919 – he invented the hard […]
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Train the Trainer 101: Telcom Workers Don’t Need FR – Or Do They?

| Jim Vaughn, CUSP | ,
The question that is the title of this installment of “Train the Trainer 101” originally came to me from a client during safety training for the company’s distribution employees. The client is a T&D contractor with a telecommunications (telcom) division. And yes, the question was regarding arc flash, which is not the same thing as […]
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Voice of Experience: Planning for a Storm Restoration Effort

| Danny Raines, CUSP |
The electric utility industry is experiencing more major catastrophic storms than ever. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and snow and ice storms are taking their toll on both systems and employees. It was just several months ago that we were dealing with back-to-back hurricanes – Florence and Michael – and now we’re well into a winter that has […]
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February-March 2019 Q&A

| Jim Vaughn, CUSP | ,
Q: We have crews working under a clearance on a de-energized circuit jointly controlled by two different utilities (employers). The concern is that the other employer’s personnel, wishing to bundle maintenance opportunities during the outage, are taking protective relays out of service on their end of the circuit. If a switch were inadvertently closed on […]
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March2019 webinar

Frontline Fundamentals: Developing a Complete Definition of Leadership

| David McPeak, CUSP, CIT, CHST, CSP, CSSM | ,
Our industry is under a lot of pressure. There is the ever-increasing pressure to keep the lights on and rates down by performing work efficiently and safely. To do more with less. Adding to the pressure is an aging workforce, high levels of turnover, and changes in workforce demographics – such as generational differences – […]
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Incident Prevention Magazine Series