Working safely has the highest priority throughout our organisation. Also now when our work on the energy system of the future demands a lot from our organisation. In this manner, we continue to strengthen our safety culture together with our employees and the contractors with whom we are collaborating more and more closely. Together, we want to get more work done in a safe manner.
Safety is a top priority at Enexis. Distributing and working with electric voltage and flammable gas under pressure can lead to safety risks. Everyone in our whole organisation is aware of this, from employees who work on the energy grid to the departments that support the operation.
Strengthening our safety culture
With the Safety Culture Ladder, we continue to work on strengthening our safety culture in 2023. This instrument measures the safety awareness of organisations, as reflected in attitude, behaviour, and culture. Operations already scored well on step 3 (calculative) in 2022, Asset Management and Supply Chain Management also attained step 3 in 2023. ‘Calculative organisations’ have proven that they consider safety rules important. They are aware and they assume responsibility, although this is often based on self-interest. Involvement in safety and compliance with rules and laws is mainly the task of (senior) management. We aim to attain step 4 (proactive) in the coming year. Proactive organisations can demonstrate that safety has a high priority. And that they constantly pay attention to safety across all layers of the organisation.
Stimulating safe behaviour
To protect employees, we try and limit risks as much as possible. We do this with the aid of safety standards, training, proactive measures, and a safe work culture. We also closely monitor what is happening in our grids and constantly stimulate the safe behaviour of our employees. We do this by paying attention to safety when visiting workstations and workshops, by constantly improving processes, by learning from incidents, and by providing positive safety examples. With our Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Award, we also pay tribute to colleagues every year who have promoted safety in special or visible way. The HSE Award in 2023 was awarded to a technical manager in our Brabant-Noordoost location. All company vans for our technicians are equipped with an AED. The technical manager ensured that the company vans may also be used outside working hours if heart massage with an AED is necessary.
Incidents with absenteeism
It is self-evident in such a safety-aware environment that we want to prevent work-related accidents from happening, for our own employees as well as for external hires and at our contractors. We do our best every day to prevent accidents. In 2023, mainly minor incidents resulting in limited injuries to Enexis employees occurred. The Lost Time Injury Frequency (LTIF) shows the number of incidents resulting in absenteeism per one million hours worked. The LTIF for Enexis employees amounted to 0.6 (2022: 1.9). The LTIF for employees of our contractors amounted to 1.7 (2022: 3) and there were no serious accidents. This is a strong improvement of both indicators compared to last year.
|
Accidents and LTIF1 |
2023 |
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
|
Fatal accidents |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Enexis |
0.6 |
1.9 |
1.2 |
0.8 |
1.2 |
|
Contractors |
1.7 |
3.0 |
1.2 |
2.6 |
2.6 |
- 1LTIF: the LTIF is the number of accidents resulting in absence per 1,000,000 hours worked.
With this, we have realised our goals with regard to safety. However, every accident is one too many. Safety remains a central focus of attention in the coming years.
We compare our performance with that of other comparable companies to make visible what is going well and what could be improved. Compared to similar companies in the sector, Enexis' safety score is sufficient (Stedin: 0.24; the figure for Alliander was not yet known at the time of publication of this report)
Learning from (near) accidents
Learning from accidents and near accidents has top priority; therefore, we monitor and analyse all incidents. We share the outcomes and incorporate these lessons in our work protocols, team meetings, training programmes, and training sessions at our in-company vocational training sites. We also work together closely with contractors to improve safety. When carrying out work in the field, we try to protect our employees as much as possible also against verbal and physical abuse from citizens and people who ignore speed limits or barricaded work areas. In 2023, in the south of the country, we continued with the successful practice of completely closing roads for traffic when we were carrying out work. We do this in close cooperation with municipalities.