Electricity Today T&D Magazine

A comprehensive review of IEEE guidelines and documents

BY JIM TOMASESKI, IEEE, NESC Main Committee, PAR Electric

Every day, utility workers are risking their lives in work environments that involve high-risk activities such as working at extreme heights, managing or repairing energized high-voltage power systems, transporting dangerous goods, working on suspended access equipment, or the opposite, cramped underground with little ventilation, and mitigating natural disasters.

Although assuring the safety and health of America’s utility workers is the top priority among industry, it is no easy task. Ensuring worker safety involves setting and enforcing standards; providing outreach and education, general site...

A variety of factors influence the safety of those who work on utility lines. Many of the items are standard and likely on everyone’s line worker safety checklist. But there’s one that may not be top-of-mind when considering how to keep linemen and linewomen safe — the influence technology vendors can have on worker safety.
Some of the more typical elements of a safe work environment for utility line crews include adherence to the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), training programs and personal protective equipment (PPE). But the less common safety element we want to highlight relates to...