We run several safety programmes across our Energy Wholesale and Energy Networks businesses that focus on people, processes and plant, to provide a complete approach to health and safety.
Behavioural Safety
Behavioural safety programmes have played a significant role in helping to reduce the number of accidents and injuries within the business and maintaining high levels of safety awareness among employees and contractors.
These programmes involve trained staff conducting safety tours, or behavioural safety audits, where they engage with employees in a positive way about the safety aspects of the job they are doing.
Larger sites use STOP risk assessments (the Safety Training Observation Program) using a pro forma checklist, while smaller locations use similar behavioural auditing techniques, but in a less formal way.
Process Safety
We have placed a strong emphasis on process safety over the last few years, as high profile incidents globally in the oil, gas and power industries has shown that concurrent failures in the areas of people, plant and processes can cause catastrophic plant safety failures.
Process safety involves a strong focus on asset management to ensure plant safety and to protect its operational integrity.
Correct installation, operation and maintenance of plant is essential to ensure high standards of safety. Our Energy Networks and Energy Wholesale businesses have achieved PAS55 accreditation for asset management.
To ensure effective process safety, the business has adopted a set of principles, endorsed by senior management, which will also apply to contractors and suppliers.
These govern the identification of safety critical assets and the installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of plant in accordance with specific standards, specifications, practices and procedures.
The principles also include employee authorisation, decision-making, competency, and responsibility and outline processes for the investigation of incidents and near misses, the sharing of information, as well as the operation of risk control, change control and performance measurement frameworks.
Process safety is now fully embedded in our Energy Wholesale business and roll-out in Energy Networks is well under way.
Our integrated, comprehensive process safety management system is based on HSE’s guidance HSG254 and addresses process safety at every level in the organisation.
In Energy Wholesale we identified 20 projects that were crucial to delivering the Operational Transformation Programme and established seven work groups to deliver them, covering the following areas:
- Governance & Audit
- Integrated Operations & Maintenance
- Leadership & Staff Competency
- Emergency Arrangements, Critical Systems Management
- Engineering Governance
- Alarm & Instrumentation Management
- Capital Investment
To achieve best practice process safety we:
- Adopted a consistent approach to process safety across the business, based on sharing best practice
- Established strong process safety leadership across the business
- Established common processes and systems across our 11 power stations. These are now covered by Operational Standards, which outline the steps that must be taken when starting up and shutting down a generator, for example, or during a shift handover. They are also linked to Staff Competency Standards
- Identified all of our leading and lagging indicators in line with HSG254
Innovations in technology
At the heart of our Process Safety Management System is an innovative KPI Dashboard that enables near-time tracking and visibility for key risk control systems at all power stations.
The Process Safety KPI Dashboard allows staff across the business to see an “at a glance” picture of the leading and lagging indicators. System users can then “drill down” from a KPI on the dashboard to see underlying business processes, enabling them to quickly identify any areas that need improvement before they become a threat to safety or commercial performance.
The KPI Dashboard shows trends, tracks performance improvements and enables the proactive management of risk. Using weighted KPIs, it will generate a Top 10 Risks report, for example. A governance framework ensures that performance and actions are reviewed by the management team each month.
Reliability engineering
We have adopted leading edge, handheld technology to enable operators to capture information that will drive proactive condition-based maintenance.
We have introduced Cintellate, a web based system, to provide a standard approach to capturing information on safety, environmental and technical incidents. This feeds into the lagging indicators on our Process Safety KPI Dashboard.
We have introduced an electronic logging system at each location with automatic shift handover, start-up and shut down, and other features to support our Operational Standards and ensure compliance with the findings of the Baker Report into the Texas City fire.
Process safety recognition
The Institute of Chemical Engineers recognised our achievements in December 2010 by awarding ScottishPower first prize in the 2010 IChemE category of innovation in process safety.
In addition, a case study on our approach to process safety has been published on the Health and Safety Executive website: www.hse.gov.uk/comah/case-studies/case-study-scottish-power.pdf
Public Safety
We continued to conduct public safety campaigns during the year with a particular focus on children, through our award winning PowerWise programme. This consists of health and safety education in schools, supported by visits to safety centres in Flintshire, North Wales and The Risk Factory in Edinburgh.
Our Public Safety Team attended an agricultural health and safety awareness day in Lanark, co-ordinated by the HSE to raise awareness of the dangers of operating machinery in the vicinity of overhead lines. Approximately 300 local farmers attended and feedback was very positive.
Plans are being developed to support other HSE awareness events through 2011, particularly those within the high-risk industries of agriculture and construction.
In addition, our Galloway Hydro-electric scheme hosts safety based visits for schools at its visitor centre at Tongland Power Station in Kirkcudbright (by appointment only). They have a safety DVD, focusing on water safety and publish a factsheet on water and electrical safety.
At Galloway and Lanark Hydro-electric Schemes countryside rangers sponsored by ScottishPower play an important role in both nature conservation and public safety.
Although children are our main focus, we also run safety campaigns aimed at others, such as construction and agricultural workers and sporting groups, such as anglers.
Copper theft from electricity substations is a continuing issue for Energy Networks, as it not only endangers those involved in the act of theft, but also compromises public safety and can result in power cuts.
The company has been working with police to minimise these incidents, including the use of SmartWater forensic coding and a media information campaign in areas that thieves have targeted.
For further information on Public Safety, please see the Communities section of this report.