WP1323 - Working Near Overhead and Underground Electric Lines

Electricity Entity Requirements:
Working Near Overhead and Underground Electric Lines

4.      ABOUT THIS GUIDE
This guide to working near the Electricity Entity network is designed to assist any person
working, contemplating work or operating plant near any Electricity Entity overhead or
underground electric lines to meet their duties under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011,
Electrical Safety Act 2002, Electrical Safety Regulation 2013 and relevant Codes of Practice
including Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2010 Working Near Overhead and Underground
Electric Lines and help to identify the steps needed to ensure risks are minimised for all who
work or are likely to be affected by the work in these situations.
The Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2010 Working Near Overhead and Underground Electric
Lines, provides practical advice on ways to manage electrical risk when working near electric
lines including the exclusion zones that apply. An electronic copy of this Code of Practice as
well as, Electrical Safety Act and Regulation is available at the Queensland Government
Electrical Safety Office web site at https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/electricalsafety. You should
obtain a copy and read this material, to enable you to fully understand your obligations, and
prospective means of complying with them.

4.1. Who does the Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2010 - Working Near Overhead and
     Underground Electric Lines and Electricity Entity Requirements apply to?
A person, worker or Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) at a workplace is
required to comply with the requirements of Electrical Safety Regulation 2013 Part 5 Overhead
and Underground Electric Lines and Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2010 Working Near
Overhead and Underground Electric Lines to ensure that no person, plant or thing comes within
an unsafe distance (exclusion zone) of an overhead electric line. Compliance with these
regulatory requirements is essential to reduce the risk of electric shock and contact with
Electricity Entity electric lines and other assets which can have deadly consequences.
Examples of work activities where risk of person, plant or equipment coming near or into
contact with overhead electric lines include but are not limited to:
       Pruning or felling trees or vegetation near overhead electric lines, including the service
        wire into a building;
       Carrying out building work, scaffolding or demolition adjacent to overhead electric lines;
       Painting fascia, replacing roofing, guttering or external cladding near service line point of
        entry to a building;
       Operating cranes, tip trucks, cane harvesters, elevated work platforms, fork lifts, grain
        augers, excavators, irrigators, etc near overhead electric lines;
       Erecting or maintaining advertising signs or billboards near overhead electric lines;
       Dam or levee bank construction.
Examples of work activities that could involve risk of damage to underground cables or earthing
systems include but are not limited to:
       Digging holes, excavating, sawing, trenching, under boring, sinking bore holes,
        earthworks or laying cables, pipes, etc or driving implements into the ground (e.g. star
        pickets, fence posts) near where underground cables or earthing systems may be
        located.

4.2. Are you working or planning to work near overhead or underground electric lines?
Electrical Safety Regulation Section 68 requires that before carrying out any work at a
workplace where there is a risk of any person, plant or thing encroaching the exclusion zone of

Check this is the latest version before use.                Page 5of30                                        EGX WP1323 Ver 2
9 June 2015                                                                                               EE BS001405R107 Ver 2
                            Joint Reference Document between Energex and Ergon Energy
                    Energex Limited ABN 40 078 849 055  Ergon Energy Corporation Limited ABN 50 087 646 062