Editor’s Note: Responses to the Hydropower Safety Survey are due April 30. To obtain a copy of the survey invitation, contact Chris Hayes (chris@hydro.org) or Jim Miller (ljmiller-sec@epbfi.com).

Safety in the workplace is a significant focus for any organization. Owners and operators of electrical power generating facilities track — at a minimum — injury and illness incidence rates for internal management proposes and periodic reporting to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other regulatory agencies. This data is posted in the workplace so employees can be aware of the impacts of work-related injuries and illnesses.

On an annual basis since 2007, the National Hydropower Association (NHA) and the Electric Utility Cost Group (EUCG) have jointly conducted an annual safety survey of the hydropower industry.

The objective of the survey project is to assist organizations to compare their performance against industry averages and identify areas of improvement. The safety survey is unique due to its focus on the hydropower business unit, as other available electrical power generation industry safety data is aggregated with other forms of generating resources.

Heather McDowell, Chair of EUCG’s Hydroelectric Productivity Committee (HPC) shared its viewpoint of the survey by stating “the safety data collected through the annual safety survey is highly valued as it documents safety performance of hydropower industry peers and is used in utility metric dashboards and establishing company goals.”

All company identifying information is redacted in the combined data and the results files, which are provided to each organization participating in the survey.

This article provides some interesting data summarized from the past three years of survey responses.

In early March 2025, NHA and EUCG invited its member organizations to complete the survey.

Submissions are due April 30, 2025.

WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED IN THE HYDRO SAFETY SURVEY?

The first section of the safety survey consists of first aid and recordable injuries. The data, such as the number of days absent from work due to the injury, is reportable to OSHA and is utilized to compute the Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART), Recordable Incident Rate (RIR), and Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) metrics. (At the end of this article, you’ll find the definitions for various metrics reported in the survey.)

The safety survey’s second section provides the responder with an opportunity to share additional details about the recordable injuries and illnesses reported, such as day of week, time-of-day, body part involved, and type of injury.

The third section is used to collect information on the leading safety indicators being used by the submitting organization. Safety professionals note that these indicators can provide insight into the effectiveness of an organization’s safety culture.

SUMMARY RESULTS OF PREVIOUS THREE ANNUAL SURVEYS

The average response in the previous three years (2021, 2022, and 2023) to the safety survey was twenty-three companies (20 utilities and three service providers) with the utilities comprised of investor-owned and governmental organizations. The three-year (2021-2023) data covered an average number of employees of 5,591 with 9.5 million associated labor hours and the average number of hydropower plants included in the survey was 312.

No fatality was reported in the three-year period and the average percentage of cases reported with injuries and illnesses involving lost days away from work of 26.6% of the total OSHA reportable cases. The average time away from work was 32 days.

In the three-year period, the data indicated the body-part with the most injuries involved the head, followed by hand and the most common type of injury reported was sprains associated with back and shoulder injuries. The day of the work week with the highest number of recordable injuries was the second day.

For the ten utilities that have consistently reported data over the past three years, the hydropower industry’s DART and LTIR metrics decreased approximately 0.5 and 0.25 percent, respectively.

The survey participants shared their company’s initiative-taking safety program activities undertaken which are tracked and measured with leading safety indicators such as: safety training completion rate, number of formal safety audits, and completion of safety actions and safety related work orders. Most participants reported periodic employee safety training, formal safety audits, and tracking of noted safety deficiencies in their company’s work management or safety program systems.

Phil Cantarinha,  Chair, of NHA’s Hydropower Technical Community stated: “It is easy to participate in the annual joint safety survey between EUCG’s HPC and NHA’s HTC. The safety data is already collected by companies for reporting to OSHA and the submission form can be completed in less than hour which is great investment for the value received.”