The City of London, Ontario is in southwestern Ontario, approximately 200km west of Toronto. London has apopulation of over 390,000 and covers a geographic area of over 420 sq-km. The city is home to numerous insurance, manufacturing, and IT companies as well as a strong life-science and biotechnology sector. London is also home toWestern University with 24,000 students.
For more information visit london.ca.
The City of London operates numerous facilities, including community centres, recreation complexes, pools, arenas, fire stations, museums, operations yards and administration buildings. These facilities are serviced by an extensive electrical power system thatis operated and maintained by the City of London Facilities Management and Operations staff. Since many facilities serve the public, it is critical that the electrical infrastructure is highly reliable. A key objective for management is maintaining this electrical system safely for employees, contractors and the general public and to always follow industry best practices. In order to meet this goal, the City of London required an electrical safety program as well as a tool for systematically and consistently performing job safety assessments and managing risks from all hazards including shock and arc flash.
Historically, electrical job safety assessments were completed on paper forms which were onerous and time-consuming and did not provide management the appropriate visibility and audit trails into the workplace electrical safety processes.
In 2014, The City of London decided to implement e-WorkSAFE. The e-WorkSAFE system is comprised of an Electrical Safety Program to define best practices for the organization, a centralized electrical equipment database, a mobile app for technicians to use on-site, and a cloud platform for management visibility. The e-WorkSAFE system is designed in partnership with the Electrical Safety Authority in Ontario and in close conjunction with the CSA forElectrical Safety Standard Z462.
The e-WorkSAFE mobile app puts CSA Z462 standard into action as a real-time, mobile job safety assessment and execution tool. e-WorkSAFE helps front-line workers identify and manage all hazards linked to specific tasks and equipment. Equipment data and arc-flash
information are stored in the e-WorkSAFE database and are utilized by employees and contractors via the mobile app. The e-WorkSAFE Cloud Portal streamlines the administration of safety management for employees and contractors and ensures compliance to safe work practices providing real-time audit trails of the completed job safety assessments.
The Facilities Management and Operations staff has been using e-WorkSAFE for over 7 years to maintain over 4,000 pieces of electrical equipment across most city facilities.
In the 7 years that London has been using e-WorkSAFE, staff electricians, HVAC, and maintenance workers as well as electrical and HVAC contractors have created thousands of Job Safety Plans using e-WorkSAFE.
London implemented the Electrical Safety Program together with e-WorkSAFE mobile application. Initially, the city found that the e-WorkSAFE app enhanced job safety because many electrical panels did not have arc flash warning labels. The city has now installed arc flash labels on all panels and so the e-WorkSAFE mobile app primarily serves as a job safety planning and documentation tool to ensure that electrical maintenance tasks are performed according to CSA Standard Z462.
The initial implementation of the application required a change management process involving training staff andcontractors to use the system and communicating the value of the system. Management reported that, as time has past since the initial implementation, it is necessary to provide refresher training on both the usage and the value of the application.
There have been no electrical incidents recorded at the City of London where the app was properly utilized.
Furthermore, management now has a central, electronic record of all electrical Job Safety Plans completed, including the hazards encountered and the steps taken to mitigate the risks. The combination of the e-WorkSAFE mobile app and the cloud portal help the City’s facilities and operations teamsmeet the challenge of safely operating and maintaining London’s electrical infrastructure.
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