Loss Control, Safety, and Compliance

Controlling losses and promoting safety has always been one of the major goals of KEC Loss Control, Safety & Compliance Department.

Special effort is made to train linemen and others to perform their jobs efficiently and, since much of today’s line work involves working with fully-energized wires, to perform their tasks with proven safety procedures. Special emphasis is placed upon “No Lost Time” due to an accident and the effort continues to pay off with lower worker compensation insurance premiums and no fatalities.

For more information, contact Larry Detwiler at 785-478-4554, or e-mail him at ldetwiler@kec.org

National Electric Safety Code (NESC) Workshop Scheduled

The KEC Loss Control Safety and Compliance Department will be hosting two NESC Workshops:

• April 10-12, 2012, Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., 7332 SW 21st Street, Topeka
• April 17-19, 2012, Victory Electric Cooperative Assn., 3230 N 14th Avenue, Dodge City

The number of trainees will be limited to 25 per workshop. The workshops will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The deadline for enrollment for both workshops will be March 12, 2012.

The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) is the consensus standard for electrical safety in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of electric facilities for most electric utilities and cooperatives in the United States. The NESC is generally adopted by statute by most state utility commissions and many times it becomes the standard of care by which utility construction and operations are judged during litigation against utilities.
This seminar is designed to explore the history and development of the NESC, the process by which the NESC is codified and amended, and how the NESC is applied to overhead and underground lines and equipment, substations and utility employer/employee work rules. The seminar covers all rules pertaining to electric utility construction and operation, including:

- Grounding Rules
- Rules for substations and switching stations
- Rules for overhead lines and equipment, including clearances and strength of construction
- Rules for underground lines and equipment
- Work rules

This seminar also covers the most current rule changes found in the 2012 NESC.

One of the valuable features of this workshop is that students leave with:

• A complete knowledge of how the existing NESC clearance requirements were developed.
• The ability, when facing a situation not specifically addressed by the NESC clearance requirements, to develop a clearance that is supported by the entirely consistent with the NESC; i.e., the attendees can develop exactly the clearance that would have been specified in the CODE, if the CODE had directly addressed the particular situation in question.

• Workshop Agenda (PDF)
• Robert E. Witter Bio (PDF)
• Topeka Enrollment Form and Map (PDF)
• Dodge City Enrollment Form and Map (PDF)