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Safety Best Practices


Keeping the Lineman and His Work Site Safe

Line-construction contractors can do their best to train the management, offer safety training and equipment and trust the foremen who are appointed to a job, but it is an inherently dangerous business. Despite all the safeguards, some new linemen say this is what some foremen tell them about...

Hand Safety - Protective Gloves

Rubber insulating gloves are among the most important articles of personal protection for electrical workers. To be effective, the gloves must incorporate high dielectric and physical strength, along with flexibility and durability. For superior performance they should meet and/or exceed the...

Utility Safety Standards


Worker Safety Using Infrared

Infrared safety: using thermal technologies to protect workers BY DOUG BARRY, FLIR Systems Disconnect switches, elbow connectors, cutouts, lightning arrestors, oil-filled circuit breakers, and other electrical components tend to heat up before they fail. The ability to detect overheating on such...

FirstEnergy Explores Alternatives to PJM Capacity Market

In a strategic move aimed at enhancing its power supply reliability, FirstEnergy is actively exploring alternatives to the PJM capacity market. This development reflects the company’s proactive approach to addressing challenges within the existing market structure and ensuring a more robust...

Grounding & Protection


What Is Step and Touch Potential and Reducing Resistance To Ground?

Step PotentialStep potential is the step voltage between the feet of a person standing near an energized grounded object. It is equal to the difference in voltage, given by the voltage distribution curve, between two points at different distances from the electrode. A person could be at risk of...

Tower Climbing Safety Equipment

What powerline technicians must know to stay safe BY JIM HUTTER, Capital Safety Most of modern life is powered by electrical energy, which is why transmission tower work continues to be an integral—yet extremely dangerous—part of the power distribution industry. The Occupational Safety and...

Lineman Safety

Utilities Opt to Automate Crew Scheduling, streamline work

For many utilities, scheduling each day’s construction and restoration work means manually organizing and keeping tabs on ever-changing crew schedules and resources. Managers meticulously update whiteboards dotted with color-coded magnets representing crews and trucks. Augmenting the whiteboards are often schedules pulled from a PC-based project management tool and a database management product. Adding to this challenge is the fact that different departments concentrate on restoring outages, while other groups manage day-to-day construction.

The process is...

Lineman Safety Articles