Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I. Introduction
A comprehensive Electrical Risk Assessment (ERA) study was carried out for a EUC
(Electric Utility Company) in western India for their operations from the electrical safety
point of view. This EUC supplies electric power to a city in Western India, for a mix of
consumers (residential, commercial and industrial). The safety issues involved in
distributing electric power to a typical Indian city made this Electrical Risk Management
project an interesting & challenging one for our team. Benchmarking this EUC against
the global best practices / national & international standards was one of the elements in
the scope of work.
The specific elements that were mutually agreed in this project are given below:
Electrical Hazards Physical inspection to identify electrical hazards (shock, fire, flashover
and explosion) in various EUC operational areas and to suggest
electrical safety solutions.
Electrical Accidents Review of electrical accidents and near misses in the EUC operational
areas to identify the root causes. The audit will also suggest practical
recommendations to minimize electrical accidents.
Electrical Systems and Review of electrical systems & procedures (work permits, interlocks,
Procedures lockout tags, etc.) to identify operational hazards & non-compliance to
defined procedures / standard practices.
EUC Safety Management Review of the importance given to electrical safety in the company
System safety policy, safety committee (if applicable), continuous electrical
hazard identification, etc. and make suitable recommendations to
institutionalize the process
Earthing System Review of the earthing system (installation & maintenance aspects),
including sample earth resistance tests at a few EUC installations.
Contractor Safety System The contractor safety requirements relevant for EUC operations will be
assessed against the existing practices. A few elements that will be
assessed would be PPE, work practices, minimum qualification &
experience for workmen, training, etc. Review of existing contractor
safety manual will also form a part of the audit.
Emergency Communication Assess the existing emergency communication system for EUC
System operations and to suggest suitable recommendations to manage
emergencies. Also to make recommendations for emergency or
disaster management plan
Cabling The HT and LT overhead power lines and underground cable
installation practices will be assessed from the safety point of view.
Focus Areas:
Pillai Sreejith adopted the following methodology to carry out the ERA study. The audit
team held detailed discussions as part of the pre-audit exercise with the co-coordinator
of the EUC to agree on the ERA study scope, methodology, etc. This interaction ensured
that all elements are addressed & precise scope is defined as part of the ERA exercise.
The attached flow chart shows the ERA process.
Pre-Audit
• Finalizing the ERA scope, in consultation with EUC
• Submission of technical proposal (scope of work, auditors’ profile,
technical expertise, audit methodology, data request)
• Finalization of audit dates (based on mutual convenience)
ERA Audit
• Opening meeting
o To communicate the audit scope & methodology of audit to EUC
officials
o To identify audit co-coordinator from the EUC side
• Audit
o Visit to power receiving stations, distribution switchyards and
various consumer installations
o Discussions with various EUC departments (Mains, Controls,
Commercial, HT Cell, Transformer & Switchgear Department,
Vigilance, Receiving Stations, Stores, contractors, corporate
planning, training, etc.)
o Sample measurements (earth tests, temperatures, etc.)
o Review of records / documents
• Close-Out Meeting
o A presentation to brief EUC management about the salient
observations on completion of the audit
ERA Post-Audit
The audit team consisted of two senior electrical engineers (31 & 16 years
experience) and an experienced engineer, an expert in loss prevention /
safety management (17years experience). The audit was carried for nearly
10 days.
V. ERA Coverage:
1 Technical excellence 9
2 Promptness in Response 9
3 Adhering to Delivery Schedules 7
4 Sharing of information 9
Contact:
Defining
boundaries of
ERA
Data collection
and Review
Meetings at site
with EUC
Interaction with
EUC employees
Site visit
Developing
Recommendations
Identification of
areas for further
improvement