Bryan Stockwell remembers the moment when a routine power restoration job nearly turned dangerous. Before joining KAMO Power 14 years ago, Stockwell was working to restore service after an ice storm for a municipality when a power line was re-energized without warning.

Stockwell, now a substation supervisor for KAMO Power's Missouri operations, says such experiences explain why leaders at the Vinita, Oklahoma-based generation and transmission cooperative have built a safety culture that emphasizes communication, situational awareness and learning from near misses.

“We want to get the power back on as quickly as we can, but we want to do it as safely as we can," says Jason Wood, director of field operations at KAMO Power. “So, if it takes us a little bit longer to do it safely, that's what we need to be doing."

“Working in the substations is a high-risk environment due to the high voltage and arc flash capability and, on top of that, there's pressurized equipment with moving parts," Wood says. “He always told us, 'If something doesn't look right, take a timeout, look it over, make sure what you're fixing to do is not going to get somebody injured.'"

That awareness can go a long way, Stockwell adds. “If something just sounds a little bit different, a lot of the times that leads you down the path where something is wrong."

Macken also championed open discussions among lineworkers and substation personnel without judgment or repercussions to raise safety concerns and reveal close calls. The G&T continues to hold these forums regularly and encourages other co-ops to do the same.

Openly discussing concerns and near misses is “not necessarily something common everywhere, but Ken really built that culture of, 'Hey, we've got to learn from one another, we've got to learn from each other's mistakes,'" says Stockwell.

This safety culture covers KAMO Power's seven locations and assets in four states—Arkansas and Kansas in addition to Oklahoma and Missouri.

“We give everybody a chance to speak if they've had any near misses or close calls," says Wood. “One of our Oklahoma crews may have seen something that our Missouri crews have never seen happen. So, when we do have a close call or a near miss, we want to share that."

Wood and Stockwell say most injuries occur during outage situations, when crews seek to restore power quickly. They stress the importance of communication and coordination between system operators and crews, even if it takes longer to complete the job.

“In ice storms and events like that, the coordination has to be spot on because you have so many crews working at so many different locations," says Stockwell.

They also stress that no matter the conditions, crews should not skip their “tailgates," where supervisors and lineworkers review events of the previous shift, discuss conditions and identify potential hazards before the next shift begins.

“There's a lot of different things that can happen in these situations. Let's just take a deep breath, slow down and get the job done safely," says Wood.

“You want to make sure you're adhering to proper lockout-tagout procedures. But even sometimes when you're doing everything right, something can still go wrong."

The same risks exist inside the substation.

“It's easy to get complacent when you're in the substation working every day and things are going good," says Wood. “If you're just doing your work, it's easy to forget how dangerous the environment is until you see something go wrong."

He recalled when his team was installing a new transformer at a substation and connecting leads from an open switch when an insulator broke, igniting a fire.

Everyone escaped injury, but Wood says, “you've just got to keep in the back of your mind that something can go wrong at any time." But if staff consistently follow safety rules and procedures, they greatly mitigate the chance of any injury occurring.