Tag Archive for 'Safety'

Tri-State safety record beats national averages

Published on January 26, 2012 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The results for Tri-State’s 2011 safety record were presented to the board during its January meeting and revealed that the association’s Total Case Incident (TCIR) and Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rates are much better than the utility industry averages. This is impressive, considering the association’s diverse operations and the wide range of hazards that employees are exposed to regularly.

In 2011, Tri-State’s TCIR was 2.1 OSHA recordable incidents per 200,000 hours worked versus the national utility average of 2.9. Tri-State is 31 percent below the national average.

The association’s DART rate, which measures how often lost time cases occur, is approximately 42 percent better than the national utility industry average. The national average is 1.8 lost time cases per 200,000 hours worked. Tri-State experienced 2.01 cases where employees were off work, received work restrictions or were transferred to other jobs per 200,000 hours worked in 2011.

These results point to a strong alignment with the Tri-State business plan, which outlines safety as a foundational value of the association. “We believe that all work can and should be done safely,” said Mike McInnes, Tri-State’s senior vice president of production.

Tri-State employees across all of the association’s departments, locations and functions are to be commended for contributing to the overall safety record results of 2011. “This positive record is the result of a lot people paying attention to their daily work and many experienced employees putting a lot of effort into safety,” said Kent Mahanna, Tri-State’s senior manager of corporate safety.

Line crews focus on safety as they tackle live-line training exercise

Published on June 22, 2011 in General and Transmission. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Tri-State line crew members scale tower 482 of Story to LRS line.

This week, Tri-State line maintenance personnel were engaged in both classroom and hands-on live-line training exercises at the Brush, Colo., field facility and on nearby energized transmission lines to put into practice what they have learned.

As always, the exercise focused on safety with a detailed “tailgate” briefing on site provided by Clint White, transmission field training specialist based in Ogallala, Neb., and Jim McDonald, a contractor to Tri-State specializing in live-line training.  This yearly exercise was also held last week in New Mexico for the association’s maintenance south crews and is scheduled to be held next week near Salida, Colo. for maintenance west personnel.

The tailgate meeting spells out the specific task to be accomplished by each crew member and points outs safety hazards such as fall protection and maintaining clearances from live lines and energized equipment.  In addition to the crew that scales the tower and assembles the equipment needed to perform the maintenance activity, another crew is needed on the ground to direct the procedure and shuttle equipment via hand lines up to the crew members above.  Another team is needed to stand by on a man lift in position aloft to assist and perform emergency rescue if required. Continue reading ‘Line crews focus on safety as they tackle live-line training exercise’

Impressive milestone achieved by Craig Station employees

Published on March 24, 2011 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Craig Station has been the subject of a lot of good press lately — including recent recognition as the 2011 large business of the year by the Craig Chamber of Commerce. And now, the facility’s employees can be proud of yet another celebrated achievement.

Last week, employees at Craig Station celebrated 365 days without any days away from work related to an injury. According to Tim Osborn, shift supervisor, this is an important milestone and a hard-earned achievement.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Osborn. “We’ve never done this before — gone one year with nobody taking a day away from work because of injury.”

Tri-State training team focuses on once-a-year event

Published on March 1, 2011 in General. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

When it comes to completing the necessary tasks of home and work life, there are a couple of different approaches.  One is to address them one at a time, as they come up; another is to take a proactive, ‘bring it on’ attitude and get them all knocked out at once.  Thus was born “Hell Week.”  It’s not as bad as it sounds.

Hell Week is the brainchild of Tri-State’s training department, and its goal is to update employees on their annual certifications required by both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Tri-State during a concentrated, once-a-year event.  Approximately 200 lineman, substation technicians and telecommunications technicians will be trained at one of six different Hell Week events scheduled over the next four months at Tri-State’s field facilities.

Not surprisingly, coordinating such a program is no easy task.  Leading the charge is Wayne Martin, Tri-State’s training coordinator.  Martin joined Tri-State late last summer after three years with Xcel Energy, where he was a supervisor in their electric trouble department for downtown Denver.  Prior to that, he worked for 20 years at Progress Energy in South Carolina.

Hell Week has been on his radar since day one, with detailed coordination tasks for the events coming at him non-stop for the past month.  “My theory behind the name is because I’m catching a lot of hell,” jokes Martin.

Continue reading ‘Tri-State training team focuses on once-a-year event’

Delivering Power Safely

Published on October 21, 2009 in Transmission. 0 Comments Tags: .

Each day, hundreds of men and women report to work at each of Tri-State’s transmission and electric generating facilities to ensure a reliable power supply is available for each of its 44 member cooperatives. Doing this job in a safe manner is a challenge these workers strive to meet every minute of the work day.

At Tri-State, one of the most important values across the organization is the safety of its employees and to exceed established safety requirements at all its facilities.

Recently, Tri-State became the first cooperative to earn the prestigious Zia Star Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) status from the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) Occupational Health and Safety Bureau at its Escalante Generation Station in Prewitt, N.M. The status recognizes companies with exemplary health and safety management systems that maintain injury and illness rates below the national average for their industry. Average VPP worksite records days away and restricted job at 52 percent below the industry average.

At a ceremony held late last month, NMED Secretary Ron Curry stated, “Escalante Station has demonstrated its commitment to the safety and health of its workers by applying for and attaining VPP recognition. We are pleased to have them as a partner in our efforts to make New Mexico the safest state in the country in which to work.”

VPP is a benchmark of excellence and safety. The challenge ahead for Tri-State’s employees is to maintain its status as they work toward a common goal of keeping each other safe, while providing reliable electricity across Tri-State’s 250,000 square mile service territory.