Issues with electrical cables - Faults to be wary of and precautions to take...

1. Health, Safety and Environment
Weekly Safety Review 7 SIMS awaiting
First Aid Recordable
Managers Comments
No. injuries ytd 0 0
Injury rate ytd 0 0
No. days worked since 83 Injury
last OSHA recordable (2/11/10) Performance
Issue Date : 25 / 1 / 2011 INJURY
No. days worked since 83
FREE
last RIDDOR injury (2/11/10)
Sembcorp Electrical Cable Issues WEEK
5
During 2010 we have seen The Electricity at
Work Regulations
– Scaffold tubes dragged across cables
1989 and MP 8102
– Scaffold legs erected on top of cables “Electrical Safety” are
– Numerous muddy footprints on cables both relevant here – if
– Physical damage from tools and apparatus you work with
– Loss of service on fibre optic cables electricity be aware of
their requirements
– Many damaged and stolen cables
Electric cables - causes of failure
• Many cable faults Sembcorp investigates are the result of impact or physical
damage by people, and these represent a very different and severe hazard
risk to anyone who directly causes the damage or is close to, or in metallic
contact with the damage point .
• Spontaneous internal failures due to manufacturing defects or deterioration
are rare and the likelihood of someone being present and close to the fault
location is extremely rare and has not occurred in the site history. They are
local to the cabling, very short duration and rarely affect other nearby items.
Electric cable precautions
• No one must touch, move or stand on live cables
• All cables are to be presumed live and dangerous until they are isolated,
proved dead and a WCP is issued
• Apparatus, materials or equipment must not be attached to or rested on
cables
• No one shall access cable areas unless they are inducted for the area
concerned
• All contractors working near to cables shall be aware of the hazards and
the precautions required, and shall be audited to check their compliance
• Any cable damage shall cause nearby work to be stopped, and must be
reported immediately and checked by a Sembcorp competent person

2. The outcome of contact with electricity can include ………..
• Death
• Electrical burns
• Fires
• Electric shock
• Impact injury
• Very High noise
• Arc Eye
and
• Severe disruption to plant and processes
• Sembcorp has not yet experienced any serious injuries from cable
failures but with all the interference the likelihood must be growing
• In the UK each year there are several deaths and many severe
and debilitating injuries cause by impact with cables
• The injuries include : Blindness, deafness, severe internal organ
damage, severe burns, loss of limbs.
• There was a fatality on Teesside last year when a workman struck a live
buried cable in the bottom of a trench with a metal bar
• A near miss occurred at Sembcorp a few years ago. A tractor mounted
fence pole auger bored through a live 11kV cable. Fortunately there was no
injury to the driver or a nearby technician.
• The above were high voltage but relatively low powered cables !
Electric cables - facts
• Over 400km of cables in Sembcorp pipe trenches
• Mostly High Power and High Voltage cables
• Fault currents up to 40,000 Amps i.e 400 times more than a welding current
• Temperatures of arc over 5,000 C , the arc can cut through most engineering
materials !
• Most cables have thin plastic covering with a wire screen (they can be cut and
severely damaged with for example a pen knife)
Please note : For Sembcorp Personnel a record of this training must
be sent to :-
Cheryl Lawson, Health & Safety Dept., Sembcorp HQ by 4th Feb 2011
on the attached sheet