The purpose of our Electricity Safety Management Scheme (ESMS) is to demonstrate safety and reliability by outlining the operating systems and management practices implemented to identify the hazards associated with the operation of the electricity distribution business.

The scheme also establishes controls to minimise the risks as far as practicable. This includes:

• the safety of the public, staff, contractors and customers;
• the risk of damaging property;
• the risk to interruption of electricity supply;
• compliance with all relevant regulatory and legislative requirements; and
• facilitation of continual improvement in safety and performance of assets.

Our Electricity Safety Management Scheme describes the management of our electricity distribution network, in accordance with and to satisfy requirements of, applicable legislation – specifically AS 5577-2013 (Electricity Network Safety Management Systems), the Electricity Safety (Management) Regulations 2019 and the Electricity Safety Act 1998.

We monitor the performance of our Electricity Management Safety Scheme using Key Performance Indicators.

The Key Performance Indicators include areas such as:

• Bushfire Mitigation;
• No Go Zone breaches;
• Maintenance Plan Compliance;
• Vegetation Clearance Program Compliance;
• Fire starts from electricity assets;
• Injury to a person;
• Person contact with an energised network asset;
• Energised bare conductors on the ground; and
• Network related minor electric shocks

Our electricity network is located in Melbourne’s north-west. The supplies are a mix of industrial, commercial and residential areas, established inner suburbs, some major transport routes as well as the Melbourne International Airport.

Our network environment comprises of mainly flat land with exceptions such as Greenvale and Reservoir (though with minor undulations), and includes Maribyrnong River, Merri Creek, Darebin Creek and Steele Creek as waterways, and is bordered by Yarra River in the east and Port Phillip Bay in the south.

Our area, which is defined by the electricity distribution licence, covers the suburbs of Gisborne South, Clarkefield and Mickleham in the north to Williamstown and Footscray in the south; and from Hillside, Sydenham and Brooklyn in the west to Yallambie and Heidelberg in the east.

The sub transmission network consists of 46 lines (382 km) operating at 66 kV or 22 kV that transmit bulk electricity from terminal stations to zone substations.

There are 30 zone substations, and these are connected to seven terminal stations.

Our High Voltage (HV) network consists of 1700 km overhead conductor and 900 km of underground cable and comprises of 231 HV feeders.

The HV distribution network operates mainly at 22kV but with substantial 11kV and a lesser amount of 6.6kV distribution circuits. The network configuration consists of a series of interconnected radial feeders to supply distribution substations that provide voltage transformation for local reticulation at Low Voltage (LV).

Our 6700 distribution substations convert the distribution of HV to LV. A distribution substation is, an indoor substation (located within a building), a kiosk substation, a ground substation or a pole substation.

The LV network delivers electrical energy at 400/230 volts from distribution substations into customers’ premises.

A service connection is from the LV network to the customer premise. 65% of the connections are overhead, with the remainder (at 35%) being connected to the underground LV network.

A range of asset failure modes and causes, together with external factors, have been identified as contributing to network related bushfire risk.

Environmental hazards associated with network assets that contribute to bushfire risk include:

• Lightning;
• Growth from trees which intrudes inside clearance zones;
• Human intervention (arson, No Go Zone breaches); and
• Debris such as broken branches blown onto conductors due to high wind.

Employees, contractors, or members of the public may be injured by electrical shock if they come into contact with energized electrical equipment that forms part of the distribution network.

Electricity supply can be disrupted due to asset failure or non-network incidents, such as unintentional contact with conductors, earths, substations, or as a result of environmental conditions.

These unwanted disruptions of electricity may damage the integrity of the network. A prolonged disruption during extreme temperatures (hot or cold) may directly impact the community, essential services and major commercial clients.

The risk of encroachment by third parties involves:

• People not keeping a safe distance from electricity (overhead and underground assets) when using mobile plant, earthmoving equipment, scaffolding, digging, vegetation clearing etc.;
• Vandalism and theft of network assets;
• Entry into asset enclosures including zone, indoor, kiosk substation; and
• Unauthorised access to the network such as illegal works (e.g. relocation / removal of meters and services).

We are compliant with Asset Management System ISO 55001:2014.

Jemena has four (4) asset classes, covering:

• Electricity primary plant;
• Electricity distribution;
• Electricity secondary plant; and
• Electricity measurement (metering)

An Asset Class Strategy sets out how an asset class contributes to delivering asset management objectives, considering their age, criticality and condition profile.

The Asset Class Strategy demonstrates how asset management activities for the asset class are to be prioritised or optimised to achieve asset management objectives.

In other words, the Asset Class Strategy documents the process of reviewing the capacity, operational and maintenance requirements throughout the asset lifecycle (from creation through to disposal) to achieve the key objective of minimising risks, to asset and public safety, while maintaining acceptable reliability levels as far as practicable.

Our Construction Management Procedure describes the activities necessary to manage all on-site construction and installation activities undertaken during the following stages:

• Construction planning;
• Commence and manage construction;
• Construction completeness review; and
• Project substantial completion.
• All construction work where Jemena has management or control of the worksite
• All design and project management associated with construction service delivery.

Our Managing HSE Risks Procedure defines the HSE requirements for works and projects involving construction, and provides guidance for identifying and managing HSE risks.

Capturing, recording and utilising accurate data is critical to support all facets of business activity whether it be day-to-day operations or during crisis management.

Our business systems provide information on asset type, asset location, interaction between assets and the assets condition. These systems facilitate high quality decision making in the areas of network design, operation, maintenance and risk management.

Our Asset Inspection Manual specifies the instructions on what data to collect and what defects are to be reported along with issues that are required to be escalated for the information of and direction from higher management.

Our Emergency Management Plan supports the actions of an established Emergency Management Team and Incident Management Team when responding to Jemena electricity operated assets and includes guidance on:

• Effective decision-making for emergency events;
• Effective identification, assessment and escalation of events;
• Effective recording of actions, decisions and management of the supporting systems available to activated teams;
• Supports the post-event review of activations for future improvement; and
• Outlines the requirements for training and exercising.