Workplace Safety Measures and Risks in the Utility Sector

Who Works in the US Utilities Sector? 

The utility sector is a broad term that encompasses companies that provide water, sewage services, electricity, dams, and natural gas. This sector is worth addressing – they provide the public with the necessary commodities that we require to carry out our everyday lives. Within the United States, there are over 3,300 utility companies, with the largest being NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, and Dominion Resources. According to the United States Department of Labor, as of March 2015, about 558,000 people worked within the utility sector, with most employees working in nuclear energy, coal, and advanced natural gas.  Considering power alone, the US is responsible for producing 4.06 billion gigawatt hours – according to the US Energy Information Administration, this is equivalent to about 20% of the total world output (*1). Needless to say, the utility sector in the US is substantial; given the incredibly large number of people that these industries affect and employ, safety should be a top priority. 

 

Protecting Your Workers 

The number of industries that fall under the utility sector umbrella is considerable. However, one factor is true across many of these industries: utility companies often have employees who are regularly working alone in remote areas. Employers need to recognize the severity of safety hazards that come when workers are alone in the field. The crucial question is: if anything happened to our workers on the job, would we know? And if we knew, do we have appropriate safety protocols to handle an emergency effectively? 

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Safety Measures and Risks in the Workplace Specific to the Utility Sector

From the years 2003 to 2010, there were 160+ reported deaths due to contact with electric current alone. In addition to electrical hazards, employees who are frequently dealing with gas, water, and sewage are also exposed to substantial environmental risks (*2). Safety hazards are exceedingly common and can be triggered by many variables that may be work site or weather-related. Let’s look at a few of the most common safety hazards that the utility sector imposes:

Working in confined spaces may involve working underground or in a minimal space, often with electrical equipment. Unstable structures are a significant threat, as well as the risk of suffocation or being seriously injured, trapped, or crushed in the event of a collapse. Furthermore, given that confined spaces themselves are often very small, a worker is often alone. 

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Working at heights poses an additional risk. Unfortunately, this is standard practice across the utility sector, whether it’s scaling towers, climbing scaffolding, inspecting water and gas systems, or operating machinery off the ground. Of course, working at heights constitutes a very high risk of falls; according to the United States Department of Labor, falls associated with working at heights were recorded to be the most significant cause of workplace deaths in 2017. You can learn more about height hazards in our previous blog article Top 7 Workplace Safety Hazards here.


Electrical hazards: are a notable safety concern. Working with electricity dramatically increased the chance of electrocution, which could result in severe injury or death. Contact with live parts that cause shocks and burns, errors that could cause fires, faulty wiring, overloaded circuits, and poorly installed or maintained electrical equipment all pose notable safety threats.  

Hazards related to working in the water industry are also often electrical due to the incompatibility of water and electrical power. When combined, the two are extremely dangerous. Besides electrical-related water hazards, workers can fall into filtration and water tanks and potentially drown. You can read more about mitigating risks for lone workers who are employed by a water company here.

Safety while traveling:  It is also worth identifying the potential for safety hazards that arise during work-related travel. Naturally, workers are required to travel between locations or job sites. Employees often operate company vehicles and machinery on the job, as well. Motor vehicle accidents are significant drivers of injury and death when we take into consideration roads and other drivers’ unpredictable behavior. Furthermore, large vehicles often have blind spots that are difficult to account for. This can create risks for both the employee and their immediate environment. According to the National Institute of Health and Safety, approximately 1,300 US employees died in work-related vehicle crashes in 2017. This statistic accounts for 25% of all work-related deaths in the US that year (*3).  

 

Violence and Aggressive harassment in the workplace 

The last hazard that we would like to discuss is customers. Although this might not seem like an obvious one, aggressive or disgruntled customers pose a huge threat to remote workers. Just as utility workers are the ones who provide the service to the customers, they are also often the ones who are called in the event of disconnection or related issues. Furthermore, these workers are usually alone with clients in their homes. Not to mention, customers are rarely ‘happy’ about water or sewage issues. The employee will never know the state of the customer before entering their home and behaviors can be difficult to predict. Dealing with an angry, aggressive, or potentially violent customer can be very dangerous.   


What Employers in the Utilities Sector Can Do? 

With this extensive list of things that can go wrong in the workplace, employers must take the necessary precautions to protect themselves, their employees, and their bottom line. This means being proactive and using a preventative safety measure, like Scatterling a working alone check in-app and more. Features such as proactive monitoring, fast response time, emergency panic button, easy reporting, and check-in systems will ensure the health and safety of your staff in the workplace.  


The Benefits of Having a Check-In System 

Check-in safety systems do not rely on your ability to signal that you are in danger when you are in danger. They recognize the fact that often when a worker needs help, they are unable to say so. Manual check-ins will not keep your workers safe 100% of the time. While widely recognized as a low-cost solution, manual check-in calls are unreliable, disruptive, and time-consuming. Not to mention, they will cost your company more in the long run if an emergency occurs.  

Check-in safety systems do not rely on your ability to signal that you are in danger when you are in danger. They recognize the fact that often, when a worker needs help, they are unable to say so. Manual check-ins will not keep your workers safe 100% of the time. While widely recognized as a low-cost solution, manual check-in calls are unreliable, disruptive, and time-consuming. Not to mention, they will cost your company more in the long run if an emergency occurs.  

A check-in safety system, working alone check in-app, or a personal safety device like the one used by Scatterling, is part of our cloud-based monitoring system that provides a fail-proof method to detect emergencies - even if the worker is disabled. It is easy to access and readily available on our lone worker app. Required check-in intervals are completely customization. Workers often chose to set shorter intervals in riskier settings, so that they can check in more often to confirm their safety. If a check-in time is missed or deviated from in any way, monitors are notified, and steps are taken to make sure that the remote worker is okay. This reliable system clearly highlights the disadvantages of manual call-ins, which assume that the endangered worker will be able to make the call in the first place. Automatic check-in systems also track each employee’s location and provide an opportunity to log events to describe the nature of their task at hand. This helps provides contexts in the event of an emergency.  

Check-in safety monitoring systems are invaluable in the utility sector. Given the hazardous nature of day to day work, workers must be routinely letting their employers know that they are okay. Check-in reminders also notify employees at set intervals before their required check-in so that an emergency isn’t unnecessarily reported. Whether an employee is working in water, sewage services, electricity, dams, or natural gas, our check-in monitoring system will provide a comprehensive, easy to use, safety system that will protect your people. 



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