ESC NEWS The Electrical Safety Council: raising electrical safety awareness, made possible by funding from NICEIC Welcome to a new section of Connections, dedicated to news from NICEIC’s parent charity, the Electrical Safety Council (ESC). To view a copy of the ESC’s Switched On magazine please visit the charity’s new website at www.esc.org.uk, where you can access all previous editions of the magazine. You can also receive an email alert when a new issue is published on the website.
Contractors help vulnerable groups Registered contractors are carrying out vital home improvement and fire safety work as part of an initiative by the ESC, in partnership with 47 consumer safety organisations, to support vulnerable groups. The ESC’s two key funding initiatives – the home improvement grants scheme and fire safety fund – aim to improve electrical safety and awareness in the home. Both schemes have distributed a combined fund total of £182,000, which has been shared between 26 projects in England, 11 in Scotland, seven in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.
ESC unveils new website The ESC has given its website a fresher, more contemporary look. Electrical contractors can get information about the ESC’s latest campaigns alongside other guidance and advice, at www.esc.org.uk.
The home improvement grants scheme allows the ESC to work in collaboration with home improvement agencies across the UK to provide a much-needed source of funding to carry out urgent essential electrical work. Grants are awarded to individuals who are householders over 60 years of age and on means-tested benefit or state pension (with no other income). Partnership agencies are responsible for finding the beneficiaries, identifying and organising the electrical work – which needs to be undertaken by a registered contractor – and for ensuring it is completed to required safety standards. One beneficiary is Wandsworth Council, which will use its award to help deliver a range of children’s awareness-raising activities and events. The council has already used funding to run a children’s poster competition highlighting the dangers of electricity. Lorraine Carney, head of campaigns at the ESC, helped local
councillors from the area select the winner. Nine-year-old Kasia Procter, from Holy Ghost Primary School, designed the winning poster (above), which will feature in a widespread outdoor poster campaign in Wandsworth. For further details on the home improvement grant scheme and fire safety fund projects, visit www.esc.org.uk/stakeholder/.
ESC advises on design for smart electricity meters The ESC has written to Ofgem making recommendations concerning the functional design requirements for smart electricity meters. The charity is recommending that a manual isolating switch is incorporated in all smart electricity meters to provide a safe and convenient means for electricians to isolate the supply to domestic premises when working on consumers’ installations. This would avoid the need for them to arrange for the supplier or meter operator to remove the cut-out fuse, as is the current unsatisfactory situation, saving time and money. An integral isolating switch would also help address the risk that meter tail connections at the main switch in consumer units may be loosened when meters are replaced, which can create a fire hazard. The ESC believes the meter installer should be responsible for checking the tightness of these connections before re-energising an installation and leaving site. However, there is clearly reluctance on the part of some meter operators to do this, and so the party to be made responsible for this safety check has yet to be determined. It also recommended to Ofgem that the functional design requirements permit the outgoing (load side) terminals of the meter
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to be accessed by electricians, enabling the meter tails to be replaced (for example, when a unit is relocated) without needing to call in the meter operator. In response to these recommendations, Ofgem called for qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the case for changing the smart meter specification which, with the support of the electrical trade associations and contractor registration bodies, was quickly provided. Based on Part P notification statistics, it was estimated that electrical contractors carry out almost 400,000 jobs in domestic premises in England and Wales every year that necessitate the temporary disconnection of the incoming supply for safe working. Further evidence was provided by local authorities in Scotland regarding the very substantial cost to them of having separate isolating switches installed between meters and consumer units.
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