Five Power Generation locations achieve milestone OHSAS 18001 Safety Accreditation in 2007

Best practice safety management systems follow the 'plan, do, check act' principles. By following these principles a team can be sure that they can achieve continual improvements in safety standards. The OHSAS 18001 Safety Standard is awarded when a location has satisfied an external reviewer that they are implementing these principles to a sufficiently high standard on an ongoing basis.

In a drive to bring safety standards within ESB Power Generation to the level of best practice, the Senior Management Team has made the achievement of OHSAS 18001 certification in ESB Power Generation as one of its main safety objectives for 2007 / 2008.

In 2007 four stations (Lough Ree Power, Aghada, West Offaly Power and Erne) and the ESB Power Generation Senior Management Team achieved this target. This followed audits carried out by external consultants SGS. Following on from this success, it is now the aim of ESB Power Generation to have the remaining locations certified by the end of 2008.

Kevin Grace, ESB Power Generations Safety Services explained to EM why this certification is so important to ESB Power Generation. "The main aim of seeking OHSAS 18001 certification is to ensure that each location maintains a structured and audit approximately a month later. Both audits involved a thorough examination of processes and documentation along with a comprehensive tour of the site.

In congratulating all those involved in the five locations on their achievement Power Generation Executive Director Pat O'Doherty said that he was very pleased that such a strong start had been made in ensuring that this certification become the standard across Power Generation. "This process requires that we bring further rigour and discipline to our safety management systems and I am very pleased at the progress we have made so far. I am determined that by the end of 2008 we will have achieved Certification in the remaining locations. Safety performance has improved in ESB Power Generation in recent years, but we can never afford to be complacent. I have been very impressed by the commitment and energy of the teams who have been through the OHSAS 18001 process and I want to thank everyone involved for their effort. Now the challenge is for the rest of our locations to ensure that their performance is as strong.

"I look forward to the day when we can say that the entire ESB Power Generation organisation has achieved OHSAS 18001 accreditation; it will illustrate that we have fully embedded best practice safety management systems throughout our business."

Now the challenge is for the rest of our locations to ensure that their performance is as strong. "" well maintained safety management system. This thereby leads to improved safety for all ESB Power Generation staff ". The process, which was project managed by Kevin Grace, (assisted by Jim Reynolds, Johnny Campbell and Gerry Talty) took approximately four months from inception to certification in each location. During that period each location addressed gaps in their safety processes and documentation, carried out internal OHSAS safety audits and managed their safety documentation on the SMS (Safety Management System) module of the intranet Engineering Information Management System (EIMS). External OHSAS auditing by SGS consisted generally of a day's pre-certification audit which identified gaps in the safety management system, which locations then addressed before the final two-day certification

ESB POWER GENERATION