National public safety award for Orion

Orion has been awarded the 2009 electricity supply industry public safety award for its efforts to keep the community safe around network equipment such as substations, switchyards and kiosks.

Orion developed a ‘physical security plan’ to reduce the risk of harm to the public from its network and has started to implement key safety improvements around network assets, setting a benchmark in the New Zealand electricity industry for public safety and system security.

“Improving public safety through good engineering practice, education and publicity is an integral part of the work of our industry, the Electricity Engineers’ Association and the energy regulator. The judging panel believed the Orion physical security plan is an excellent model that could be easily and quickly adopted by other New Zealand network asset owners to improve public safety outcomes,” said Electricity Engineers’ Association (EEA) President Greg Skelton who presented the award to Orion.

Over the past four and a half years the company has developed new standards to minimise the risk of public access to live equipment, and has now started implementing identified safety improvements. For example, two fences are being erected around substations and switchyards with warning signs on each fence, and transformer kiosks are being fitted with a polycarbonate insert inside to act as a second barrier if the door becomes unsecured.

Equipment improvements are prioritised based on the potential risk to the public, with assets near schools, parks and other public areas receiving the highest priority. The physical security plan rates network asset types into five levels of security risk, identifying likely security breach causes which could harm people. Both new and existing network equipment is included in the plan rollout.

Meeting many challenges

Orion’s General Manager Infrastructure, John O’Donnell, said the company’s challenge during this project has been to improve public safety while maintaining good engineering practice, controlling costs and completing safety improvements within acceptable timeframes.

“The plan development and implementation has been an excellent achievement involving a number of people within the Orion infrastructure team, and we’re proud that their efforts to enhance public safety around our network have been recognised with this award,” Mr O’Donnell said.

The award’s judging panel commented that the Orion physical security plan showed a careful and thorough analysis of public safety issues, and comprehensive risk-based engineering methodology and design outcomes that have delivered improved public safety outcomes for Orion. Since the plan has been in place, no known breach of access has occurred on the network.

About the award

The electricity supply industry public safety award was established in 2004 by the Energy Safety Service of the Ministry of Economic Development and the EEA. The aims of this award are to promote public safety, reduce accidents to the public involving electricity and raise awareness of electrical safety issues.

This year's award was presented at the 2009 EEA 'Delivering Sustainable Infrastructure' annual conference held from 19-20 June at the Christchurch Convention Centre.