Tangedco rolls out safety app for electricity maintenance staff to prevent electrocution during rectification work

Tamil Nadu's Tangedco launches safety app to protect electricity staff from electrocution.

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has rolled out a safety app to enhance the safety of hundreds of maintenance staff engaged in rectification work for any power disruptions. The safety app called ‘Tneb Safety’ has been created with the prime objective of preventing electrocution, which is a major cause of worry to the electricity staff and power managers. 

A senior official of Tangedco said the safety app developed by the Information Technology wing, which was launched in December last year, involves the supervising staff of the maintenance team to mandatorily download this app for protective purposes. Normally, a maintenance team headed by a supervisor engaged in electricity rectification work would have a foreman, lineman, wireman and a helper. All these days it would be hard to verify whether the maintenance team engaged in any rectification work was wearing protective gear and had taken all safety precautions. The safety app would ensure that protective gears are worn and safety precautions are undertaken before executing the job through the app, the official added. 

The mobile application of the safety app would enforce the usage of necessary safety appliance, especially the fixing of the earth rod, which is a must, before commencing any electrical field work by documenting the usage through capturing of an image in the mobile application . Also the application having an easy- to- do work on a single screen would capture the supervisor’s name, designation, office details, and team of staff working for future record purposes. The application allows the user to take two photographs of the work spot, which are geotagged, and includes a photo depicting the earth rod fixing, and the other showing the connection of the earth rod with the earth pipe.

The app, which has the option to function in offline mode, is user-friendly and takes less than a minute to function and automatically records the data and time stamp of the photograph to avoid any manipulation and location details.