NERC receives 72 health safety reports in 1st Quarter
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says it receives a total 72 health safety reports from 29 licensees during the 1st quarter of 2019.
The information is contained in the First Quarter Report obtained from the website of NERC, the regulator of the industry, by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
The report said the accidents resulted in 10 deaths and seven injuries of various degrees involving both employees of the companies and third parties.
It said that in comparison with the 4th quarter of 2018 during which 16 deaths and two injuries were recorded, there was a slight improvement in the health and safety performance of the operators in the 1st quarter of 2019
“The health and safety performance of the operators improved slightly in the first quarter of 2019 as the number of deaths decreased by six.
“However, the number of injuries recorded increased by five during the same period,” the report noted.
NERC said that the reports were used in line with the provisions of Section 32 1(e) of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (2004) for monitoring and evaluation of health and safety performance of licensees.
According to NERC, the safety of all electricity providers and electricity users in Nigeria remains one of the key priorities of the commission.
“The commission will ensure that operators keep up to their responsibility of delivering safe electricity services to consumers.
“In line with its mandate to ensure licensees’ commitment to safe energy delivery, the commission approved six enforcement actions on some of the incidences involving various health and safety breaches.
“It approved appropriate penalties in each case during the quarter under review.
“Also, the commission has resolved to develop a framework for penalties and compensations guidelines in order to avoid the discretionary payment of compensations to victims or victims’ families,” it said.
NERC said that in line with its strategic goals 2017-2020, the commission had intensified efforts in developing various safety programmes aimed at eliminating accidents in the industry.
“As stated in the preceding quarterly reports, among the safety programmes being implemented by the commission, it included but not limited to the standardisation of protective schemes.
“It includes public enlightenment on safety, engagement of government agencies on Right of Way violation and a review of an operational procedure for Distribution System Operators on fault clearing, ‘’ it added.
