Utilities: Are You Keeping Your Workforce Safe On Site?
26/05/2022
Answering the question, "Are you keeping your workforce safe safe on-site?" may feel like a straightforward "yes" without having to do much thinking, but there's still many things to consider before you rush into an answer.
For example, working within the energy and utilities sector is not your run-of-the-mill office job. Desks, chairs and computers are traded in for working at a height, inside wind turbines, and in and around water. And with environmental factors comes environmental risks, especially when energy and utility companies occupy so much diverse space on site.
Today, in our latest Utilities Pain Points blog, we discuss the smart two-way radio features that will keep your workforce safe on site - all available via an ultra-smart two-way communication platform like TRBOCALL.
Lone Worker
It’s estimated that 20 percent of the UK workforce is made up of lone workers, where people are operating in isolated environments. And in the energy and utilities sector, lone working is very common.
You have workers operating at a height (inside a wind turbine or fixing electricity cables), or confined spaces, such as in underground areas repairing gas or water pipes. Working in this way comes with associated dangers, and can result in accidents or injuries, or even more serious scenarios.
The need to work in this way means that workers in other areas of wind farms, nuclear energy plants, or water reservoirs need to live safe in the knowledge that lone workers are protected in terms of welfare and health.
Lone Worker is an alarm system that is designed to increase worker safety by allowing workers to send intermittent radio requests to lone workers as part of their welfare checks. This is achieved by an update being sent to the radio at set times. The lone worker then presses a button on the radio to confirm they are okay.
If they fail to respond to periodic alerts, an emergency alarm will be triggered. GPS signals also identify their location in real-time, so the risks of anything happening, without people realising, are reduced heavily.
Man Down
Man Down is another feature of digital-two way radios that sends an emergency alert to other radio users when a worker doesn’t respond - especially if they have fallen. This is thanks to an integrated accelerometer, which detects that the radio is in irregular position, or periodic alerts haven't been responded to. Within the radio's motion sensor, an alarm sequence can be programmed and activated when the hand portable is in unusual position, or if the user is inactive for longer than normal.
The alarm can notify individuals, user group or a central control room. So, if you have a centralised team who oversee their workforce (who are out and about on the wind farm, or are in underground spaces fixing gas or water pipes) then you can live safe in the knowledge that any unusual activity is being picked up in real-time.
Notifications can be sent in the form of an audible tone, text message or pre-recorded voice message to other radios, PABX systems, mobile phones, or e-mail addresses. Certain radios with a Man Down feature can activate an ‘open mic’ mode, so other uses can hear what's going on.
Panic Button
Panic Button is a critical feature of a digital two-way radio, as it's easy to use and can be life saving for the person who needs to use it. Pressing the emergency button on the radio will send an alarm across all individual and group channels to alert them of a potentially life or death situation. There's no requirement to press the Push To Talk button, and workers won't need to remove gloves to press the panic button as it's large in nature and in purpose.
Voice Recording
It’s important to know exactly what happened when an incident takes place on site. Without a clearly defined audit trail, it’s nearly impossible to know the exact events that took place and how to stop them happening in the future. And whilst operating in large areas is good from a business point of view, it can be bad for workers, as dangerous situations can unfold with nobody else around to see what happened.
With Voice Recording, the audio of incidents can be recorded and then played back in MP3 format, so your health and safety professionals can analyse the information and use it for training purposes.
GPS Tracking
When dangerous incidents can happen at a moment’s notice, it's important that you are able to react quickly. Not only is it important to react quickly, but you need to have a level of data intelligence that can put you one step ahead of the game when something's about to happen.
Outdoor location tracking is the solution to this problem. GPS tracking is built into many digital two-way radios and it used for location monitoring purposes. It provides control room users and dispatchers with real-time information of where staff are on site.
Extended Alarm Management
Extended Alarm Management is all about sending alarm updates and alerts to the right people, at the right time, and in the right situation.
When an alarm is raised (via a dispatch system like TRBOCALL) the Alarm Control System will identify the available radio users and escalate the alert until it is accepted and resolved. Critical alarms can be delivered to computer dispatch systems, digital two-way radios, smartphones, and tablets.
Book a FREE demonstration
All the safety features mentioned in this blog are available on our TRBOCALL platform. If you would like to know more about the ways in which we can improve worker safety for your business, please book a FREE no obligation demonstration today via our contact us page.
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