Analysis of Human Factors for Enhancing Safety and Security Management System in Fossil and Renewable Power Plants

Abstract

While Safety and Security Management System (SSMS) in the energy industry has recently improved in the last decades, it remains a hazardous working environment where fatalities and serious accidents still reoccur. Human Factors (HFs) and worker Safety-Related Behavior (S-RB) have been identified as the underlying causes of the majority of occurred accidents. Hence, this work aimed to identify those HFs which affect the SSMS from the most to the least significant, through the impact rate of these factors on workers S-RB at workplaces of twenty-one power plants (PPs), including Fossil Fuel Power Plants (FFPPs) and Onshore Wind Farms (OWFs) that are located across nine countries. Likewise, to give adequate countermeasures for the SSMS enhancement and accidents prevention. To do so, the data were collected through the survey questionnaire of a five-point Likert scale. The study has led us to conclude that, all the analyzed HFs have influenced the SSMS of all the evaluated PPs with an impact rate of 3.3/5 on Likert scale. Whereas the enhancement of the SSMS can be achieved if the job factors are improved and if the employees’ “Workload” is well managed at the workplace, as well as if the management clearly demonstrates their H&S commitment and leadership.