Working safely

With the introduction of an incident registration system and the STOP programme, we continued to raise safety awareness among staff.

Fatal accident at Hemweg Power Station
More exchange of information between divisions
Nuon Generation
Network Services

Fatal accident at Hemweg Power Station

On Saturday 4 November an employee of a subcontractor lost his life during construction work at the Hemweg power station in Amsterdam. The accident happened during the construction of a flue gas purification installation (DeNox). During the preparations for hoisting work, a steel cable started swinging and struck the employee on the head with fatal consequences. The exact circumstances of the accident are being investigated by research institute TNO in cooperation with the Labour Inspectorate. This investigation was commissioned by Nuon.

More exchange of information between divisions

The responsibility for the safety of our staff rests with the divisions. In 2006 structural consultation was initiated with all divisions about the safety policy and key safety issues. Since the introduction of the Promasys incident registration system in 2005, safety incidents in all divisions are registered at central level. Information on accidents, near-accidents and dangerous situations is thus made available for communal use. Efforts to promote the use of Promasys in 2006 led to greater safety awareness among employees as well as the active registration of incidents. As a result, the number of reports of, particularly, near-accidents grew significantly.

Nuon Generation

In 2006 the business unit Nuon Generation once again obtained certification for VCA (Safety Checklist for Contractors). In addition, the Contractor Manual was introduced for companies contracted by Nuon to work in our wind turbines. The STOP programme was introduced with a view to improving the safety culture within Nuon Generation. This programme was developed at DuPont to promote safety awareness. In addition, it was decided in 2006 that Nuon should put in place a certified health & safety system in accordance with OHSAS 18001. One point of concern for 2007 is the involvement of non-Dutch speaking employees from Eastern Europe during power station overhauls at Nuon locations. The language barrier sometimes causes confusion over the prescribed safety procedures.

Network Services

In 2006 NWS again put a lot of energy into the safety awareness of employees. This was not yet reflected in a higher score in the Year Monitor in which the employees of NWS rated their sense of workplace safety at 3.9 (on a scale from 0 to 5). Several instruments were deployed in 2006 to improve safety at NWS. Workplace inspections and toolbox meetings with teams about safety issues play an important role in this context.

In addition, measures were taken in 2006 to make the work safer for employees:

  • Steps to improve the safety of working at height were taken. This entails that employees must wear a safety line when working above a height of 2.5 metres. To this end, the first 30 substations were equipped with anchors to secure employees working at height;
  • New bridges were taken into use for reaching stations over water;
  • Together with external advisors a new procedure prescribing protection measures for staff was developed for working in contaminated soil;
  • An asbestos inventory of 400 mid-voltage transformer houses in Amsterdam revealed suspected asbestos at 24 locations. Cleaning operations were started in 2006 and are continuing in 2007.

The number of incidents leading to absenteeism remained virtually unchanged. Only three absenteeism cases were related directly to the primary processes of NWS. The other 22 were (sometimes) related to the work, but were not specific to the energy sector. The most serious absenteeism cases were caused by a traffic accident. Analysis of a total of 366 Promasys incident registrations led to the identification of five Basic Risk Factors for the occurrence of incidents:

  • Failure to comply with, or absence of, procedures;
  • Insufficient training and education; 
  • Insufficient grid maintenance;
  • Poor technical design of the infrastructure;
  • Insufficient or no communication.

This means that in 2007 more attention will be given to secondary issues surrounding the work, such as maintaining knowledge, insight into the state of maintenance of our buildings and installations and supervision of e.g. contractors.