A Year's Worth of News You Can Use
AEGIS Loss Control is pleased to publish various resources throughout the year, including Quick Tips and white papers. Geared toward members who serve in operations and risk management roles, these resources highlight the importance of inspection, maintenance, infrastructure, and employee and public safety.
Here's a look back at the topics we featured in 2024.
Quick Tips: Caution When Selecting Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Systems
Commercial building managers or project managers considering Lithium-ion Uninterruptible Power Supply (Li-ion UPS) options for new facility rooms or for replacement of existing lead acid, VRLA or NiCad "legacy" UPS systems need to be aware of the inherent risks. When making these decisions, it's important to utilize UL 9540 safety testing and UL 9540A fire testing to inform a safe overall design of the UPS in the planned compartment. However, completion of this testing does not mean the Li-ion UPS is safe to install everywhere. The Li-ion UPS, compartment design and planned hazard mitigation features must be evaluated as described in NFPA 855 and AEGIS' Li-ion white paper to ensure the arrangement adequately reduces risk to building occupants, critical business systems or facility use. Additionally, we recommend the involvement of your risk management personnel as part of this decision-making process.
Quick Tips: An Effective Fire Protection Impairment Program is Critical
Fire protection and other critical safety systems protect lives, property and assets. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the most common reason that sprinklers fail to operate is the system being shut off at some point before the fire. A fire protection impairment, if not managed properly, could render a system ineffective. An impairment program should be in place for all critical safety systems.
Quick Tips: AEGIS Loss Control Publishes New Resource for Natural Gas Operators
The top priority of natural gas operators is ensuring the safe delivery of natural gas to their customers. To achieve this, all gas companies must train and qualify their employees and equip them with the knowledge, skills and ability to perform tasks under normal and abnormal operating conditions. Emergency preparedness is vital to ensure the safety of the public, employees and emergency responders. How will your employees respond to a major emergency? Have you done enough to prepare your employees? These are questions that keep many of our members up at night.
Quick Tips: Turbine and Generator Emergency Oil System Testing
Emergency oil system failures can result in significant property damage and large loss of revenue. The intent of this Quick Tip is to provide AEGIS Loss Control's viewpoint on testing critical lubricating and seal oil systems. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) have various approaches for emergency lubricating and seal oil system testing to ensure reliability and readiness. AEGIS Loss Control's guidance on testing addresses the common failure modes and may be more or less stringent than the OEM.
Quick Tips: Pipeline Safety Management Systems
On July 30, 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued Safety Alert (SA-095), which emphasizes the need for the pipeline industry to implement Pipeline Safety Management Systems (PSMS) to identify and address risks that lead to accidents, injuries and fatalities. AEGIS member companies with natural gas operations have been adopting PSMS since 2017. However, the NTSB reports that many small operators have not yet embraced PSMS. Despite the adoption of PSMS by operators representing over 85% of industry pipeline mileage, the NTSB finds "the pipeline industry continues to have accidents that could have been prevented or the consequences more effectively mitigated had risks been more thoroughly identified and addressed."
AEGIS Resources
Our library is growing! In 2024, AEGIS Loss Control was pleased to provide members with several important updated safety resources. Read an overview of our latest publications below, and click AEGISlink to access these and all our safety resources.
Natural Gas Industry Sample Emergency Exercises
AEGIS Loss Control has released its latest white paper: Natural Gas Industry Sample Emergency Exercises. In the event of a natural gas emergency, preparation is essential. Having a clear delineation of responsibilities and an effective, rehearsed plan of action for all employees called to respond to an emergency is crucial. AEGIS Loss Control's Natural Gas Industry Sample Emergency Exercises are designed to provide members with a customizable structure for training and preparing for various natural gas emergency scenarios.
Flood, Wind and Hail Hazard Risk Reduction Design Considerations for Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Sites White Paper
As more utilities shift their generation mix to reduce carbon emissions, the reliability of solar photovoltaic (PV) to support the electric grid is becoming critically important. Adding to the complexity is an increase in the frequency and severity of storms across the country. It has become apparent that a "one size fits all" approach to designing and operating these facilities is not the best strategy from either a cost or reliability perspective. In the Flood, Wind and Hail Hazard Risk Reduction Design Considerations for Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Sites white paper, we discuss design considerations to mitigate risks to solar PV sites brought on by extreme weather events.
Wildland Fire Hazard Risk Reduction for Solar Photovoltaic Sites White Paper
A rapid rise in solar photovoltaic (PV) sites brings with it an increased risk of wildland fire loss. In its recently updated Wildland Fire Hazard Risk Reduction for Solar Photovoltaic Sites white paper, AEGIS Loss Control reviews contributing factors and outlines steps solar PV asset owners should take to mitigate risk factors of a wildland fire to reduce the risk of a complete loss of a solar PV site as well as minimize the impact from any fire-related damage.
Turbine and Generator Emergency Oil System Testing Quick Tip and Turbine Lubricating Oil Systems – Operation & Maintenance Considerations White Paper
Turbine and generator emergency oil system failures can have catastrophic consequences for both equipment and personnel and result in significant property damage and large loss of revenue. However, these failures are often preventable. AEGIS Loss Control is pleased to provide its members with a Quick Tip on Turbine and Generator Emergency Oil System Testing and a white paper on Turbine Lubricating Oil Systems – Operation & Maintenance Considerations. These resources are intended to guide qualified utility personnel through proactive practices to ensure lubricating oil system readiness and reliability, including testing, operation and maintenance.
Wildfire Overview
The rise in frequency and severity of wildfires has prompted growing concern among our members about the associated risks, driving a mandate to effectively mitigate electric system-initiated wildfires. AEGIS has put together an overview of information on factors contributing to wildfire risk as well as a list of mitigation strategies.
AEGIS Loss Control provides our members with support to help keep systems operating safely, protect workers and the public, and mitigate loss from wildfires. This includes risk assessments for both Property and Casualty and Casualty-Focused Services that specifically address wildfires. We encourage you to access AEGISlink to download our overview on wildfire risk and information on available AEGIS Loss Control wildfire mitigation resources.
About Quick Tips
We send Quick Tips to the managers and operational professionals on our e-mail list, but please feel free to forward this to others in your organization who you feel may benefit. We would be pleased to add their names to the distribution list. Just let us know at quicktips@aegislimited.com.