Do we have "The Right Stuff" in our Electrical Safety Program? By Terry Becker, P.Eng., ESPS,
and Larry Johnson, Enerflex-Syntech.

Do we have the “Right Stuff” in our Electrical Safety Program?  Have we learned anything since we started this project?  What might we have done differently, if anything?  What do we do now that we have the Electrical Safety Program in place?  What did we learn, what were the barriers to just getting to the launch pad?  Did we have any problems during the count down?  Was the launch without any incidents?  Did we get a man to “zero gravity” and back safely to earth?  Are we finished?

You know in the 1960’s NASA was tasked to get a man into space in the Gemini Program and they were successful.  There was a goal, there was a plan, there was some action, there was a lot of checking, there was a lot of learning, there was perseverance, there were mistakes, but man did make it into space safely!

Of course developing and deploying an Electrical Safety Program isn’t like trying to get a man into space, or is it?  Isn’t the process the same?  It involved a lot of people, it involved changing people’s attitudes that it could be done.

Isn’t the process the same in developing an Electrical Safety Program?  Are there similar barriers, barriers that you have to find a way around, in order to succeed?  In the case of electrical safety, the success is making the worker do it safer every time!

Ultimately, the work required to make the necessary changes involves both the owner of the electrical equipment and the electrical workers, whether staff or contractor.

This paper will present two perspectives of implementing revised energized electrical safe work practices.  How each company’s approach (an owner and a contractor) was different, but in the end both forms of Electrical Safety Programs created, complement each other.   Documented Electrical Safety Programs for the Owner and Contractor provide a manageable, practical and appropriate process for ensuring electrical workers are more safe than they were in the past, and provide evidence of due diligence with respect to Regulations.

A review of the challenges and successes will be presented, as well as the need to cooperate and work together to get revised work practices implemented.

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