Home > Minutes to our past safety meetings

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Ameren opened the meeting with a welcome message after a time of networking and continental breakfast.

The Chairman, from Pepco distributed an Agenda to each attendee.  After discussing plans for future meetings, it was tentatively decided that the Fall 2006 IUSTA Meeting will be hosted by PPL (probably in the Allentown, PA vicinity), and the Spring 2007 Meeting will be hosted by First Energy, at a site to be determined.  John presented a short Safety Message, and everyone introduced themselves by name, job title and company affiliation.

The Secretary, from Delmarva Power provided an Attendance Roster for each person to complete name, address, telephone, e-mail, and FAX data.

1.) United Illuminating Co presented the “Time Merit Progression Program that is used at UI. A completely new program is being developed. A 4-page hand-out of the overall program was provided, and a 1-page sheet that showed in which of several types of formats a course is presented. UI’s current program takes 5 years for a new hire to attain the top level.

2.) The meeting continued with a presentation by 2 individuals from 360 Training. They presented a Power Point slideshow that outlined what training products 360 Training can provide. 360 Training recently acquired L&K International Training from Canada.

They distributed 2 handout pages that have training topics available under 8 separate headings: Combined Cycle, Distribution System Training, Electrical Fundamentals, Gas Turbine Power Generation, Heat Rate Optimization, Hydro-Electric Power Plant Operations, Steam Power & Co-Generation, System Protection Technology, and Transmission System Operation. All together, there are approximately 125 Course Titles. Some, if not all, of the courses qualify the student for Continuing Education Hours. Most of the courses are interactive, available on CD-ROM or the internet

Note: Delmarva Power has purchased the System Protection Technology program for training our Relay Testers.

3.) A round-table discussion on the problems concerning the Aging Workforce. Everyone recognizes similar problems, and there are few real solutions being implemented by the companies present.

4.) A round-table discussion on “Basic Electricity Training Equipment”. Companies identified Tele-Train, NUS, and Simutech as sources of some training materials. Simutech can provide an interactive compact disk for training Troubleshooting Operating Mechanisms if you send them a wiring diagram and schematic.

5.) A Round-Table Discussion was held related to possible revisions coming soon to OSHA Standard 1910.269. Some changes may be coming for Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s), Lock-Out / Tag-Out, Rubber Protective Equipment, removing portable grounds, tailgate sessions, free climbing, previous job experience counting as training, underground network protectors, entering a manned substation, training requirements for each contractor employee (as opposed to training just one representative from the contractor company), and possibly some other topics.

Also mentioned:

• It was noted that all companies at the meeting require some kind of Fire Retardant clothing for certain tasks.
• Almost all companies allow switching to be performed by an individual working alone.
• Only 1 company (Delmarva Power) is presently doing “Shelter-In-Place” training.
• Some companies are working with local, volunteer Fire Companies for electrical fire safety.

Friday, April 21, 2006

After a time of networking and a continental breakfast, the meeting continued. There was a discussion about agenda items for the next meeting. A PPL representative suggested we talk more about the pending changes to OSHA Standard 1910.269 and the impact on our training programs.

6.) Delmarva Power presented “Secondary Roles for Storm Duties.”

After Hurricane Isabel in September of 2003, James Witt (former head of FEMA) was brought in as a consultant to analyze the total activities around storm restoration for the combined companies. We got pretty good grades in our Preparation Phase and Endure Phase, but there were lots of recommendations on ways to improve the Assessment Phase and the Restore Phase. The biggest impact was to roll out the Second Roles Program and train all employees on their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Roles (new job titles, too). We also got a new Vice President of Emergency Preparedness, and a new feature on the company website for Outage Management information All of the Second Roles training was developed and delivered throughout 2004 and the first half of 2005. The training was Instructor-Lead, classroom delivery type, with an annual refresher training developed as computer-based training.