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Prudhoe Bay power station recognized for safety program First site approved under new Labor Department voluntary protection program Petroleum News Alaska Staff
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.’s Prudhoe Bay central power station was named July 14 as the first participant in a new Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development program to recognize workplaces with exemplary health and safety programs.
The Prudhoe Bay central power station is the first approved site in the voluntary protection program, a state version of a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration program that has recognized more than 500 U.S. workplaces since 1982 for safety and health programs and performance exceeding federal requirements and industry norms.
“The voluntary protection program brings workers, management, and government together in a cooperative approach to improving and maintaining worker health and safety,” said Alaska Labor Commissioner Ed Flanagan in a July 14 statement.
“The employees and managers and the central power station have developed a comprehensive program which has resulted in health and safety performance that other workplaces can and should emulate. In 24 years of operation, the central power station has had only one lost-time injury.”
“Last year the station reached an unprecedented milestone for the North Slope: 12 years without a lost-time accident,” BP said in a statement.
The 165-megawatt facility, which provides power to oil production facilities in the Prudhoe Bay field, is the second largest electrical generation facility in Alaska. It has 24 full-time employees.
Voluntary protection program exceeds OSHA’s minimums Under the voluntary protection program, management agrees to adhere to guidelines that exceed OSHA’s minimum requirements for safety and health programs. Active participation by employees in the development and operation of the program is also required. Prior to approval as a VPP site, a workplace is subjected to a comprehensive inspection by a federal-state safety and health team which also reviews the facility’s program and its injury logs. Managers and employees are interviewed by the review team and recommendations for program improvement or modification to meet VPP guidelines are given to the employer.
A review team of two safety specialists and two industrial hygienists spent four days at the central power station facility last fall.
“We were very impressed by the degree to which CPS employees have taken ownership of the safety program and the application for VPP status,” said Tim Bundy, assistant chief for consultation and training in the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Section and the state lead on the review team. Recommended program adjustments were completed earlier this year.
After designation as a VPP “Merit” site, a work site is exempt from general scheduled safety enforcement inspections. This exception does not apply to employee complaints or accident investigations. VPP Merit sites are re-assessed by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Section annually. If continuous program improvement brings VPP “Star” designation, re-assessment is done every three years.
Participants mentor other work sites VPP participants are required to provide mentoring to other work sites seeking to improve their own safety and health programs. “This leveraging of private sector resources to enhance overall safety and health efforts in an important benefit of the VPP, given our diminishing state funds,” Flanagan said.
Two other Alaska workplaces achieved VPP status under the federal OSHA, which has jurisdiction offshore, including Icicle Seafoods’ Bering Star floating processor and BP Exploration (Alaska)’s Endicott Island production facility.
“We’re honored to be the first site approved for the state’s voluntary protection program,” said Tim Holt, central North Slope business unit leader for BP Exploration (Alaska). “Our employees and managers at the central power station have done a great job and it’s gratifying to see their efforts recognized.”
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