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Compliance with the labour protection rights and solving of industrial safety security tasks are the important directions of IDGC of Centre policy. The Company provides the employees with all the things needed to secure their labour: up-to-date technologies, equipment, training and personal protective equipment (PPE) allowing to reduce injuries risks considerably. In electric power industry every day about 40 % of personnel (operating and operation and maintenance personnel) are in zone of thermal risks, and role of overall that prevents getting of thermal injury cannot be exaggerated.
Testing of resistance to electric arc impact of overall used by the power engineers of IDGC of Centre was conducted in testing centres of Switzerland. Wearing time of such protective outerwear suit is two years determined by standards. Possibility to extend the wearing time of these suits is provided by the regulatory documents of IDGC of Centre on condition of confirmation of their thermoresistant properties preservation. Testing conducted by the company “Dyupon” proved that even after ending of normative wearing time including after 50 washes the suites produced from the textiles “Nomeks” preserve their thermoresistant properties.
Pilot testing of protective properties of the suits was conducted in accordance with the requirements of GOST R 12.4.234-2007 methods based on the standard of International Electrotechnical Commission. Testing of suits for resistance to electric arc was conducted at the special installation simulating electric arc with respect to earlier set parameters. When testing air temperature attained 10 000 degrees Celsius.
Resistance to impact of open flame was tested in special room inside of which there was manikin fitted with 122 heat-sensing devices and surrounded by 12 blowpipes. In the course of testing open flame with up to 1 500 degrees Celsius temperature was impacting on the manikin dressed in protective suit during four seconds. Then during 56 seconds more readings were being taken from heat-sensing devices to control residual burn.
During testing of thermoresistant suites used in IDGC of Centre heat-sensing devices on “corpus” of manikin recorded the minimum percentage of burns. At maximum impact of electric arc and flame the total area of burns in the aggregate was 4 %. Probability of survival in such case for all age categories is virtually 100 %. The results of testing proved as well that protective suit is resistant to open flame for time sufficient for independent evacuation of person out of emergency zone.
Elena Kalinina, Head of the Service for Industrial Control and Labour Protection of IDGC of Centre, JSC, noted: “Our goal is to provide every employee with up-to-date and comfortable protective equipment and overall of the highest quality in order to be sure that this will help to safe life and health of our employees”.
Industrial injuries prevention measures taken by the Company Directorate yield their results: for 2009 number of persons suffered from industrial injuries in IDGC of Centre reduced by 50 %.