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iPi Monthly Forum for Utility Professionals
The iPi monthly forum is where you can get answers to questions you have from subject matter experts like David McPeak, Jim Vaughn, Danny Raines and other utility safety and ops professionals like yourself. Forums will include industry specific topics, challenges, trends, and solutions along with best practices in leadership, operations, and safety.
Lifelong learning is a continuous act of self-preservation.
The Petri Dish Effect: Shifting Our Focus From Root Causes to Root Conditions
Our industry’s persistent serious injury and fatality (SIF) statistics indicate that we are aiming at the wrong target, despite our best intentions. A small shift in our industry’s approach to incident investigations, however, could lead to meaningful change.
Decades of professional experience have taught me that when we search for an event’s root cause, we typically get what we aim at. By that…
Manhole and Vault Inspections: 5 Critical Safety Steps for Underground Employees
Beneath every major American city lies a hidden electrical network that powers homes, hospitals and commercial industry. Manholes and vaults are the gateways to these underground systems, providing access to low-, medium- and high-voltage infrastructure essential to reliable power distribution. Because they also present some of the most hazardous conditions that utility workers regularly encounte…
July-August 2026 Q&A
Q: How do consensus standards apply to the employer’s responsibility for safe work practices?
A: Consensus standards are part of a system that employers can use to develop their safety programs. The issue here is whether an employer can defend their programs. Compliance with a consensus standard…
250 Years of Safety
Since we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary this summer, I thought it would be interesting to examine a brief overview of the last 250 years of safety. Let’s see where we started, assess how far we’ve come and renew our commitment to continuous improvement.
To assist with this project, I aske…
Are You Prepared for ‘The Big One’?
At NASCAR’s Talladega Superspeedway, Daytona International Speedway and Pocono Raceway, there is always talk of “The Big One” – a wreck that often characterizes the three-hour, 200-mph, 40-car races on three-lane-wide ovals. Of course, The Big One doesn’t happen at every race, which could be due to…
For Love of the Job
I’m so pleased that we now have various social media platforms to recognize lineworkers for the critical services they provide, not to mention the sacrifices they make to do so. When I worked storms in the 1960s and ’70s, my crewmates and I rarely received more than the occasional note of appreciat…
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Recent Posts
Safety Management
Vocational Mastery: The Final Practice of Personal Safety Excellence
This series explores five personal practices of safety excellence, including steps each of us can take to become as safe as possible.
The first article in the series was a reminder that we have personal accountability and agency in safety – enough to stop work and even walk off the job if cond…
6 Employer Best Practices for Effective Landowner Engagement
Transmission line construction is one of the most complex and politically sensitive infrastructure endeavors in the United States. Crews routinely work across dozens and sometimes hundreds of distinct land parcels, navigating a patchwork of easement rights, property histories and landowner temperam…
Making Safety the Easy Choice
Walk through any industrial environment and you’ll hear familiar messaging: “Be proactive.” “Own safety.” “Follow the procedure.” Then step into the boardroom, where the conversation shifts to yield, uptime, injuries and cost.
We coach people on behaviors yet judge them based on outcomes, sendin…
Physiological Health for Safer Performance
If you’ve been following this series, you know that it was founded on a simple but powerful idea: personal accountability.
In Part 1, we discussed agency, or the degree to which you believe you are responsible for your own safety. Part 2 examined mental preparation, the “firmware” that governs h…
6 Employer Best Practices for Effective Landowner Engagement
Transmission line construction is one of the most complex and politically sensitive infrastructure endeavors in the United States. Crews routinely work across dozens and sometimes hundreds of distinct land parcels, navigating a patchwork of easement rights, property histories and landowner temperam…
Making Safety the Easy Choice
Walk through any industrial environment and you’ll hear familiar messaging: “Be proactive.” “Own safety.” “Follow the procedure.” Then step into the boardroom, where the conversation shifts to yield, uptime, injuries and cost.
We coach people on behaviors yet judge them based on outcomes, sendin…
Physiological Health for Safer Performance
If you’ve been following this series, you know that it was founded on a simple but powerful idea: personal accountability.
In Part 1, we discussed agency, or the degree to which you believe you are responsible for your own safety. Part 2 examined mental preparation, the “firmware” that governs h…
Lifelong learning is a continuous act of self-preservation.
Vocational Mastery: The Final Practice of Personal Safety Excellence
This series explores five personal practices of safety excellence, including steps each of us can take to become as safe as possible.
The first article in the series was a reminder that we have personal accountability and agency in safety – enough to stop work and even walk off the job if cond…
The Petri Dish Effect: Shifting Our Focus From Root Causes to Root Conditions
Our industry’s persistent serious injury and fatality (SIF) statistics indicate that we are aiming at the wrong target, despite our best intentions. A small shift in our industry’s approach to incident investigations, however, could lead to meaningful change.
Decades of professional experience h…
Worksite Safety
6 Employer Best Practices for Effective Landowner Engagement
Transmission line construction is one of the most complex and politically sensitive infrastructure endeavors in the United States. Crews routinely work across dozens and sometimes hundreds of distinct land parcels, navigating a patchwork of easement rights, property histories and landowner temperam…
Manhole and Vault Inspections: 5 Critical Safety Steps for Underground Employees
Beneath every major American city lies a hidden electrical network that powers homes, hospitals and commercial industry. Manholes and vaults are the gateways to these underground systems, providing access to low-, medium- and high-voltage infrastructure essential to reliable power distribution. Bec…
Anatomy of a Medium-Voltage Splice
Open the trench, vault or manhole. Strip back the jacket. Expose the neutrals. Remove the semicon and insulation. Crimp the connector. Rebuild the conductor shield, insulation and semicon. Seal the outside.
This splicing routine eventually becomes second nature for medium-voltage cable splicers…
Spiritual Preparation for Safer Work
The previous articles in this series examined two factors that strongly influence personal safety. Accountability is the idea that meaningful improvement begins when workers accept responsibility for their own safety decisions. Through mental preparation, workers gain an understanding of the ways i…
Manhole and Vault Inspections: 5 Critical Safety Steps for Underground Employees
Beneath every major American city lies a hidden electrical network that powers homes, hospitals and commercial industry. Manholes and vaults are the gateways to these underground systems, providing access to low-, medium- and high-voltage infrastructure essential to reliable power distribution. Bec…
Anatomy of a Medium-Voltage Splice
Open the trench, vault or manhole. Strip back the jacket. Expose the neutrals. Remove the semicon and insulation. Crimp the connector. Rebuild the conductor shield, insulation and semicon. Seal the outside.
This splicing routine eventually becomes second nature for medium-voltage cable splicers…
Spiritual Preparation for Safer Work
The previous articles in this series examined two factors that strongly influence personal safety. Accountability is the idea that meaningful improvement begins when workers accept responsibility for their own safety decisions. Through mental preparation, workers gain an understanding of the ways i…
Coaching Courage on the Front Line
From leadership development courses and culture workshops to human performance training sessions and OSHA refresher programs, our industry spends countless hours talking about safety. There’s one question I find myself asking each time I attend one of these events: How can we coach courage in ourselves and others? Because often, safety failures stem not from a lack of knowledge but from a lack of courage.
Now, I know electrical workers rarely lack physical courage. What I’m referring to is the inner strength that enables a person to speak up, challenge a respected coworker, stop a job, adm…
The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Confronting Confirmation Bias in Incident Investigations
Several months ago, my dad and I drove to Roanoke, Virginia, to watch my son compete in a collegiate boxing match. It was the kind of weekend that makes you grateful: time with family, a little adventure on the road, and a front-row seat to watch your child chase a dream.
One of the moments that…
Increasing Weather Events Require Increasing Safety Measures
The 2025 Guadalupe River flooding tragedy in Texas was not a surprise. Nor are the hurricanes, wildfires and other flooding events that continue to accelerate in frequency and intensity.
What is surprising is how many organizations still treat extreme weather as an external disruption rather tha…
250 Years of Safety
Since we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary this summer, I thought it would be interesting to examine a brief overview of the last 250 years of safety. Let’s see where we started, assess how far we’ve come and renew our commitment to continuous improvement.
To assist with this project, I aske…
‘I Am a Good Putter’: What Golf Teaches Us About Safety Success
During my trip to Glendale, Arizona, for the most recent iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo, I received the single greatest piece of golf instruction I have ever heard. Now I want to share it with you, particularly as it relates to safety.
But first, you may be wondering how I obtained such…
For Love of the Job
I’m so pleased that we now have various social media platforms to recognize lineworkers for the critical services they provide, not to mention the sacrifices they make to do so. When I worked storms in the 1960s and ’70s, my crewmates and I rarely received more than the occasional note of appreciat…
Safety Leadership at Every Level is Key to SIF Prevention
The electric utility industry experienced some catastrophic events during the first quarter of this year, including the deaths of multiple employees. I always feel incredibly sad when I hear about another serious injury or fatality (SIF). My heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted by these…
Easing the Transition to Utility Safety Leadership
Our industry’s frontline workers are commonly promoted to supervisory positions in rapid fashion. Some struggle with the transition as they discover that their new role involves far more than increased compensation, a fancier title and the keys to a company pickup truck. This installment of “Voice…
‘Can I Be the Leader?’
Leadership continues to be a critical area of focus for utility safety and operations professionals. In my own career at Georgia Power, “Can I be the leader?” was a question I often asked myself and my employer. Now, in this installment of “Voice of Experience,” I am going to discuss the opportunit…
July-August 2026 Q&A
Q: How do consensus standards apply to the employer’s responsibility for safe work practices?
A: Consensus standards are part of a system that employers can use to develop their safety programs. The issue here is whether an employer can defend their programs. Compliance with a consensus standard does not necessarily ensure OSHA compliance; the agency has clearly defined consensus standards as…
May-June 2026 Q&A
Q: In the April-May 2024 issue, Incident Prevention responded to a reader’s question about the OSHA digger derrick exemption for licensed operators (see https://incident-prevention.com/blog/april-may-2024-qa/). Have you heard anything since then about exemption enforcement trends? For example, has OSHA indicated that it might more closely assess specific lifting activities?
A: OSHA 29 CFR 192…