Hotline of power engineering specialists:
IDGC of Centre — Kurskenergo division held a round table on electrical safety. The main purpose of the meeting was a further consolidation of efforts of all stakeholders in order to prevent injuries to third parties at power grid facilities in the region. The event was attended by experts of Kurskenergo, representatives of the Russian Ministry of the Interior in the Kursk region and the city of Kursk, the Upper Don RTN Office, Committee of Energy and Utilities, Education and Science of the Kursk region, Committee of Education of the city of Kursk, and the media.
Opening the meeting, Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre — Kurskenergo division director Alexandr Pilyugin stressed: “IDGC of Centre pays considerable attention to issues of energy safety. To reduce the risk of electric shock and prevent intrusion of third parties into electrical installations a set of special measures of organizational and technical and information and training nature was developed. There is a good result, and now we want to share best practices, and invite you to joint preventive work, especially for the prevention of children’s electric injuries”.
The round table participants were presented the Target program of Kurskenergo to reduce risk of injury at power plants. Important elements of the program are to inform the citizens through the media about the danger of being near high-voltage equipment, to conduct lessons “Safe electricity” for students of educational institutions.
In 2011 more than 200 schoolchildren attended Kurskenergo facilities, where they received information about the danger of electric current, became acquainted with the rules of behavior near power facilities. From the beginning of the year experts of the branch have covered with their talks more than 700 children aged 7 to 17. Explanatory conversations with students before school summer holidays (including through participation in parent meetings) are conducted. Preventive work is being done at children’s summer camps.
During the discussion, the meeting’s participants called for a systematic approach to injury prevention of third parties, including children’s injuries.
Deputy Chairman of the Housing and Energy Committee of the Kursk region Nikolay Tretyakov noted that Kurskenergo had achieved much in that work, but in the region there are many power plants of other departments, which require modern equipment. As for children’s injury, Nikolay requested to start preventive work with the kindergarten, to continue in school and later in universities.
Acting Head of the Organization of Public Order Office of the Russian Ministry of the Interior in the Kursk region Vladimir Vodnev, based on his experience, offered on his part a lot of pieces of technical advice to counter the theft of nonferrous metal. He spoke of the need to conduct talks with the population, distribution of leaflets about the mortal danger of electric current in the theft among the residents of private housing, self-willed entry into electrical installations and unauthorized connection to power grids on the Single Prevention Days and during the gathering of citizens, which are regularly held in district towns.
Deputy Director for Technical Issues — Chief Engineer of IDGC of Centre — Kurskenergo division Alexander Rudnevsky and Head of the state energy supervision and oversight of GTN in the Kursk region of the Upper Don RTN Office Oleg Valishvili during the roundtable raised the need for legal initiatives against those conducting unauthorized work in the exclusion zone along power lines. It was suggested that before the end of the year to initiate the issue of tightening measures against the owners of illegally constructed facilities in exclusion zones along power transmission lines, as well as those conducting unauthorized work in the protection zone along power lines.
The discussion was supported by Chairman of the Committee of Education of Kursk Vladimir Anikin and Consultant to the Committee of Education and Science of the Kursk region Eduard Zvyagintsev. They proposed to jointly develop visual propaganda materials, manuals and leaflets with warnings taking into account perceptual psychology of children and adolescents. They also supported the idea to hold special sessions on electrical safety based on the training centres of operating personnel of Kurskenergo for teachers for further use of this information during class hours.
The meeting participants highly appreciated the leaflets and videos for the prevention of children’s injury, developed by IDGC of Centre. The Committee of Education of Kursk will distribute the leaflets in the schools of the regional center, and the Committee of Education and Science of the Kursk region will place a three-minute video on its website.
The roundtable participants concluded that working together is an effective means of preventing accidents at power plants, is of practical importance in ensuring the rule of law in the region, raising awareness of residents of the Kursk area about the need of careful attitude to electric grid facilities and spoke for the continuation of the work started.