The substations, transformer rooms and switch rooms that make up the underground electricity supply network of Adelaide’s CBD contain a number of Work Health and Safety related hazards, and provided significant corporate risk to SA Power Networks.

With hundreds of safety-critical sites, SA Power Networks engaged Nova Systems to assess these locations for hazards, hazard treatment related to the potential of delayed rescue and to provide a priority-based listing of additional work that was required to reduce corporate risk to an acceptable level. In addition to the assessments, Nova Systems personnel walked every escape route (where available) in order to confirm the route provided a valid escape path and also to map the route. This information was used to prepare escape route maps that were installed in each of the 100 asset locations.

Nova utilised its proprietary Field Interactive Risk Management Environment (FIRME) system to facilitate the assessment of each selected asset location. FIRME is an asset access management tool that is used to provide details of each site, including the physical location, a description of the hazards present at each site and emergency contact details in the event of an emergency.

This project resulted in a reduced corporate risk profile for SA Power Networks and a much safer work environment for their workers. This project also highlighted the need for establishing that a proper safety culture is the first and most important step in making meaningful improvements in the on-going safety of the workplace.