Health and safety
The importance of safety
Safety remains our highest priority and we seek new ways to instil a safe, secure, healthy and environmentally-friendly workplace.
Despite our best efforts in upholding such high standards, it is with great sorrow that we must bear the loss of three lives in separate accidents on our construction and operational sites. These tragedies affected the entire ACWA Power family and are still keenly felt.
Following this tragic setback, we set up an Executive Safety Committee, comprising C-Suite executives as well as Head of Safety, to ensure that our full focus is applied to this fundamental value. Our new Safety Task Force reports to this Committee. We also engaged an independent third-party to conduct a rigorous review of our policies and procedures. Furthermore, we are investing more in training our staff to be more conscientious about their safety and that of their colleagues in the workplace, at all times. We believe these steps will transform our safety culture and contribute towards achieving our goal of zero harm. We also work to ensure the well-being of our people and to support their growth. We updated and harmonised several HR policies to improve performance, ensure consistency and follow best practice. The exercise was also designed to improve our people management processes, including talent acquisition, performance management, learning and development, and remuneration.
In 2022, we accumulated 80 million working hours and a lost-time incident (LTI) rate of 0.02 with over 27,000 workers involved at our 52 assets (construction and operational sites) across the globe.
HSSE strategic framework
Inspired by our desire to contribute towards the zero harm goal and guided by our values, we are designing a HSSE strategy framework that creates maximum impact and provides sustainable solutions.
To ensure a consultative process, we have embarked on a strategy formation journey including multiple interventions. These assisted in generating meaningful dialogue, creating a safe space for people to not only contribute but also take responsibility and commit towards our shared strategy framework. The objectives are to:
- Define a detailed strategic framework for the region laying out our strategic pillars (the why), defining sub objectives for each pillar (the what) and designing interventions to implement (the how), and
- Create inter-functional and regional ownership and shared goals.
Diagnosis was conducted by a third-party with one-on-one interviews with all functional and regional heads to create a roadmap to identify our strategic pillars and address opportunities collectively.
This strategic framework, guided by ACWA Power’s vision, mission and values, helps define our long-term direction, milestones, objectives and the required actions.
By regularly tracking our KPIs, the ACWA Power HSSE team can determine whether its interventions are having the desired impact and adjust as needed.
Having a well-defined strategy framework will help us to be more structured and proactive. However, we require structured processes of stakeholder engagement, leadership assurance and commitment, robust systems and a well-defined digitalisation process. We have initiated the development of the strategy in 2022 and will implement it during 2023.
Digital transformation of HSSE performance reporting
One of the key objectives in ACWA Power’s HSSE Policy is to standardise, monitor and benchmark HSSE performance regularly at all our sites to ensure continuous improvement. We have been relying on Excel based HSSE performance reporting whereby data consolidation requires extra time and effort for trending and analysis. We have now transformed our HSSE performance reporting to digital reporting.
With digital tools sites can generate their HSSE Performance reports using Synergi Life automated report generation feature eliminating the need for manual reports, reducing the possibility of errors, and freeing up team time to do analysis. Global HSSE Dashboard will provide management teams with a 360 degree real-time view of accurate data anywhere, any time.
Third Eye
Given the scale of effort needed over the next five years, the implementation of the transformation programme will require prioritisation thus:
- Prioritise digital programmes with highest impact
- Take into account the business-logic dependencies of digital programmes
- Ensure fair coverage of programmes across the business units
We are investing in digital solutions to enhance workers’ safety. Our AI based digital solution, used in the field, analyses unsafe behaviour in a fast and timely manner to prevent incidents. Processing in real-time, the power plant camera video feeds analyse workers behaviour through the adoption of computer vision algorithms and platforms, while respecting their privacy (no video is recorded and no biometric information is collected). This improves safety on our premises.
The Third-Eye AI plant infrastructure opens up a number of possible future use cases, from vehicles speed-tracking to AI driven drone inspections. In addition, third-party vision algorithms can be implemented in the existing software platform without increasing spending for further software.
We have successfully concluded a pilot project at one of our sites, and we are undergoing an industrialisation review to implement this AI-based digital solution across our portfolio in 2023.
Safety Task Force (STF)
As part of ACWA Power’s continuous drive towards safety enhancement, the Company’s leadership has established a Safety Task Force (STF) reporting to the Safety Executive Committee. The STF is conferred with developing a specific set of safety culture step change initiatives. The STF has a mix of members from construction, operations, corporate safety, and business functions from across the portfolio. As part of the Safety Task Force onboarding, the team has conducted several background sessions to review the findings in ABS Group’s 360° construction site review, historical cultural surveys conducted across the business, trends of incident/accident reports, and outcomes of the recent audits conducted. The STF conducted a face-to-face session over two days in June 2022 when nine key areas were agreed as primary focus points in our drive to zero harm:
- Procedures
- Permit To Work (PTW) system
- EPC contract
- Leadership engagement
- Training and competency assurance
- Structured communication
- Recruitment and integration
- Accountability
- Digitalisation
We are highly committed in implementing these nine elements action across the Company in 2023 and progress is monitored directly by the Safety Executive Committee. We are confident the implementation of the STF initiative will bring a positive change and drive the culture to achieve zero harm.
ACWA Power’s life-saving rules
ACWA Power is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment. Life-saving rules are intended to supplement and support existing Company management systems, programmes and policies.
Ergonomics & display, screen equipment
Ensure correct posture and safe sittings when using the office workstations and the display screen equipment.
Electricity
Do not use frayed, cut or cracked electrical cords, and report any damages.
Energy isolation
Verify Process/Mechanical/Electrical Isolation and Zero energy before work begins and use the specified life-protecting equipment.
Slips and trips
Protect yourself against tripping and slipping hazards and keep walking areas dry and clear from clutter or obstructions.
Fire & emergency
Evacuate immediately to designated assembly point and follow the emergency procedures.
Manual handling
Avoid twisting the back or leaning sideways when lifting an object.
Safe driving
Follow safe driving rules, wear your seatbelt, do not use phone while driving and do not exceed speed limits.
Security
Obtain authorisation before entering premises, report any threat and follow all security instructions.
Line of fire
Keep yourself and others out of the line of fire. Observe the hazards around you and apply SWA. Be safe and work safely.
Fit for duty
Ensure you have the required knowledge for the job, ensure your health and fitness for work. No alcohol or drugs while working or driving.
Food safety & hygiene
Check the expiry date of food items and wash hands properly before handling food and before eating.
Stairs & elevators
Do not use the elevator during an emergency. Take the stairs and use handrails.
*No smoking/vaping/e-cigarettes allowed except in the designated areas.
Work authorisation
Work with a valid work permit when required.
Conduct gas test when required
Verify gas tests conducted to avoid exposure to explosive, flammable, toxic or life threatening vapours.
Energy isolation
Verify process/mechanical/electrical isolation and zero energy before work begins and use the specified life protecting equipment.
Confined space
Obtain authorisation before entering a confined space.
Bypassing safety control
Obtain authorisation before overriding or disabling safety controls.
Working at height
Protect yourself against a fall when working at height more than 1.8 m (6 ft).
Safe driving
Follow safe driving rules, wear your seatbelt, don’t use phone while driving and don’t exceed speed limits.
Security
Obtain authority before entering premises, report any threat and follow all security instruction.
Line of fire
Keep yourself and others out of the line of fire. Observe the hazards around you and apply Stop Work Authority (SWA). Be safe and work safely.
Safe mechanical lifting
Plan lifting and control the area, establish, maintain, and honour barriers and exclusion zones.
Fit for duty
Ensure you have the required knowledge for the job, ensure your health and fitness for work. No alcohol or drugs while working or driving.
Excavation
Verifying a safe means of access and egress, Establish, maintain, and honour barriers and exclusion zones.
*No smoking/vaping/e-cigarettes allowed except in the designated areas.
Safety Executive Committee
Having set up an Executive Safety Committee, comprising C-Suite executives as well as VP Corporate HSSE, to ensure that full focus is applied to this fundamental value. In 2022, more than 20 Safety Executive Committee meetings were held to review Group-wide HSSE performance and drive safety culture change initiatives, committee discussed critical events and challenges in details as part of agenda and stressed on the enhancement of safety culture in ACWA Power.
Lost time incidents
The overall LTI rate was 0.02. This was achieved by adopting industry best practice, advanced monitoring tools, notably Synergi Life, compliance assurance programmes (such as OHSE (Occupational Health, Safety and Environment) and process safety audits), sharing of lessons learned and ongoing HSSE (Health Safety Security and Environment) training and development.
Enhancing Process Safety Maturity
A Process Safety Management (PSM) system identifies potential hazards in day-to-day operations and puts measures in place to prevent major incidents occurring. To build greater awareness of process safety, and to ensure its effective implementation, we developed a process safety video and delivered training to O&M projects on PSM. The system includes:
- 100% implementation of internal process safety reviews
- Training for the PSM champions
- Permit To Work enhancements
