Responding to new health & safety risks

28 March 2022

Responding to new health & safety risks

Utilities know they must remain ever alert to the challenge of ensuring high standards of health and safety with new risks constantly emerging, not least due to developments in other industries and the impact of the pandemic. This report seeks to identify the key challenges and drivers for change and how utilities are responding.

A new Utility Week report, produced in association with Ordnance Survey, explores the critical role that location data is playing in keeping both utility workers and the general public safe.

Health and safety has long been a key issue in the utilities industry due to the nature of the technologies used and the distributed geography of both energy and water assets.

Cable strikes, where workers damage underground cables during construction works, often result in injury and can also lead to deaths. Similarly, records show regular collisions between those in the agricultural and haulage industries remain an issue.

Alongside these long-standing risks, new technologies and changes in behaviour seen during the Covid-19 lockdown are posing new risks for utility companies to deal with.

This report explores how location data is helping to underpin an increase in mapping and risk assessment of utility assets, and also helping ensure the safety of workers in the field responding to emergency situations.

Featuring contributions from the Energy Networks Association, National Grid, the Geospatial Commission and Northumbrian Water, this report explores the health and safety challenges facing the industry and the different initiatives being implemented to bring about change.

Download the report for free by filling in the form on this page.