Contractor Safety Management (CSM)

CSM is the sum of a client organisation’s efforts to guide, inspire, motivate and correct its chosen contractor companies with regard to their safety performance.

Elia’s main objectives:

• Become Europe’s leading TSO
• Be guided by our moral compass (no-one gets injured)
• Build long-term relationships with our contractors

How?

• By being aware of the risks when working with contractors
• By understanding the market
• By controlling and managing risks
• By reducing damage when working with contractors
• By changing mindsets within our company to achieve change outside our company

Elia runs both large (infrastructure) projects and periodic maintenance activities in a bid to meet users’ needs and keep the high-voltage grid in good condition. We regularly bring in external experts to help us with our work.

The legislation on working with third parties is based on the Welfare Act of August 1996, which sets out a number of obligations for clients and contractors. The General Regulations for Electric Installations (RGIE/AREI) contain a number of additional rules designed to guarantee safety when working near or on electrical facilities (especially Articles 47 and 266 on codification).

Elia has devised a structured prevention system to inform, educate and assist our partner companies in their work on or near electrical facilities.

The system’s adaptable nature leaves room for us to expand our prevention policy with our partners and adjust it to incorporate the best available techniques (BAT) and take account of new insights. We hope that this will enable us to avoid unwanted incidents when we carry out work. Let’s Go for Zero together!

Work leader audits are a prevention tool. They are used to check whether improvement programmes are being implemented in day-to-day activities on the worksite.

This means:

• Increasing our partner companies’ awareness of safety to achieve our goal of zero accidents (for everyone); 
• Continuously improving risk recognition;
• Checking that the lessons learned in the ‘work leader’ training course are applied in the field;
• Encouraging a change of mindset and inspiring efforts to climb the Safety Culture Ladder;
• Ensuring that the relationship between Elia and the contractor is an open, constructive partnership.

Safety is a priority for Elia, our employees, external contractors, distribution system operators and the general public. Elia’s ultimate goal is to have no accidents at all.

To that end, we incorporated the Go for Zero programme into our in-house safety policy and are now aiming to increase awareness among our contractors with the Safety for Contractors campaign.

Elia’s main objectives:

• implement our CAPEX and maintenance programme safely;
• increase our effectiveness in asset management and maintenance.
• These objectives influence the work of our in-house and external technicians. Working habits in the field must therefore be adjusted to improve safety, quality and efficiency.

Elia has four priorities in this connection:

• Building competencies – Enhancing social and technical skills 
  Develop and maintain, in a structured way, the skills (both hard and soft) required to achieve our main objectives.
• Establishing operational dialogue
  Operational dialogue plays a vital role in embedding changes in our organisation as it makes it easier for employees, supervisors and contractors to consult one another.
• Further encouraging continuous improvement    
  Elia is working towards a culture in which everyone is constantly seeking to improve, so we are always receptive to suggestions for improvement from our employees. Some suggestions have already been rolled out to all Elia teams.
• Involving everyone in efforts to enhance safety
  Go for Zero is for everyone – Elia employees, temporary workers and contractors alike. Safety is our top priority in everything we do.