Health and safety at our core
We’re committed to keeping people healthy and safe. Whether it’s supporting the field crews who maintain and renew our assets, ensuring a safe network through our asset management plans, supporting our team, or educating the customers who live and work in the communities we serve. 

 

Safety

Explore how to stay safe around our gas and electricity networks.

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Goals and targets FY26

Here's what we want to achieve for Pou hauora over the short, medium and long term.

Short term (1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026)

  • Health and safety systems risk management - Achieve Workplace Safety Interaction targets at three levels: Directors (15) Executive Leadership (80) and Powerco team (450).
  • Health and safety systems risk management - Achieve 25% positive incident reporting rate (near misses, push backs and hazard IDs).
  • Keep our people safe - Deliver quarterly workshops to all of our gas network service providers to improve our safety relationships with our contractors.
 

Medium term (1-3 years)

  • Keep our people safe - Establish a Psychosocial Risk Management metric, target and report monthly.
 

What we've done FY25

  • We achieved or exceeded all of our Workplace Safety Interaction targets - Directors (15) Executive Leadership (82) and Powerco team (657)
  • We achieved 48% positive incident reporting rate (near misses, push backs and hazard IDs).  This exceeded our target of 25%
  • During FY25 we met with all of our service providers three times with a direct focus on safety. These included "stop for safety" sessions, a review of safety performance for the year and back-to-work safety sessions.  We also attend service provider's monthly toolbox meetings, covering all of the regions we distribute gas to.  These meetings discussed incident findings, KPI's, changes in standards, proactive reporting, new tools & operations, machinery, working around other's assets, interaction with customers, working around gas and driving.
 

 

  •  Limited work was undertaken during FY25 to establish a Psychosocial Risk Management metric, but this is still a goal for our company. 
     

What we've done FY24

  • We achieved an 11% improvement in our Safe Plus Assessment score, compared to our original assessment 8 months prior. This was significantly over the target of 5%.  This was achieved through targeted interventions and an embedding of safety behaviours within the business.   The recommended reassessment timeframe is every 2-3 years, and so a likely reassessment is scheduled for FY26.
  • We achieved our workplace safety interaction targets for all three levels - Directors (15), Executive Leadership (80), and Powerco staff far exceeding the target of 180, with 437 workplace safety interactions during FY24.
  • We exceeded our target of 25% positive incident reporting rate (near misses, push backs and hazard IDs) in FY24, with a combined figure of 29% across both electricity and gas.
  • During FY24, we held monthly meetings with all of our Gas Service Providers.  Toolbox meetings are also attended throughout all of the regions.  These sessions included discussions on incidents, KPI results, works plans, audit results, training, system changes and the future of gas.

What we’ve done FY23

  • Good progress has been made on Powerco’s safety programme, but this was not reflected in our lagging metrics.  TRIFR was 8% lower than the three-year rolling average (not quite reaching target) and LTIFR exceeded the target. 
  • "Working better together" workshops were undertaken with our largest contractor Downer throughout FY23, with several improvement workstreams set up as a result. 
  • Our target for a 5% improvement in positive incident reporting (near misses and push backs) on FY22 numbers was narrowly missed after being on track nearly all year. This is an onging area of focus for Management in FY24.

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Orchard safety

The first shock killed him. The second brought him back to life. Troy Hall survived two electric shocks after getting too close to overhead lines while working in an orchard. Watch his story.

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The pillars of our work