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HEALTH&HABITAT

December 2011/January 2012 www.esb.ie/em

ESB PRIVATE DRIVERS’ HANDBOOK will be available in 2012!

A New Year’s resolution - safe driving message for 2012

GRAINNE COOGAN

SAFE DRIVING

TO DRIVE THE ROAD safety message for 2012, the Safe Driving Bureau has now developed a Private Drivers’ Handbook for use by all staff and their families. Following on from the distribution of the Fleet Drivers’ Handbook earlier this year, the Private Drivers’ handbook will be launched in the New Year and will be distributed to all staff.

As part of the current safe driving programme ‘Achieving Road Safety Excellence,’ ESB Safe Driving policies are consolidated in the Private Drivers’ Handbook.

A DVD will also be distributed with the handbook. The DVD will give advice for all road users, from pedestrians to motorists to cyclists. We will look at the effects of speeding, drink driving, mobile phone use, as well as some of the Safe Driving Bureau policies.

The Private Drivers’ Handbook ensures that staff who drive, particularly if they drive on ESB business, are aware of and have access to ESB Safe Driving policies. The information is useful for all drivers. If you keep the handbook in your car, you make it available for all users. The handbook includes ESB Safe Driving Policies such as:

Vehicle Safety Checks policy – all drivers should undertake a daily “60 second” vehicle safety check and a more detailed vehicle safety check on a weekly basis.

Wearing of Seatbelts policy – seatbelts must be worn by every person in the car.

Speed policy - All drivers are required to adhere to the legal speed limits on Irish roads, and to adhere to the maximum legal speed limits for certain vehicle types on Irish roads, e.g. towing vehicles have a maximum speed of 80km/h.

Daytime running lights policy – To maximise visibility, you are encouraged to switch on dipped headlights while driving during daylight hours.

Reverse-in / Drive out policy – where it is not possible to avoid reversing, it is ESB policy that staff driving on behalf of the company or anybody on company premises should reverse into car spaces/bays where appropriate, allowing them to drive out subsequently.

Carrying of driving licence policy – all drivers are obliged to carry their driving licence, and all staff driving on ESB business are obliged to submit their licence to their manager for annual audit.

The handbook details what is required of a driver in terms of his/her journey, vehicle and driving behaviours, as well as how to deal with emergencies. Other information is also included in the booklet, for example, advice on driving abroad, driving on snow and ice and general safe driving practices.

Both the handbook and the DVD have been developed in consultation with members of the Safe Driving Steering Group, the Safe Driving Bureau, ESB Drivers, the Road Safety Authority and Health and Safety Authority.

As road safety awareness is an important issue for all of us, we strongly urge you to take it home and show it to all the family and friends. Whether we’re on the bike, running or walking, or in the car, even as a passenger, we all have a part to play in taking responsibility for road safety.

For more information email safe-driving@esb.ie or visit the Safe Driving Website: http://esbnet/safedriving/.

Try the Safe Driving Word Search!

Page 30

A NEW PARADIGM

ELECTRICITY ABROAD

DAVID CRANE is the chief executive of NRG Energy, a Fortune 500 company with more than 25GW of generation capacity, coming from 29 carbon-fuelled power plants. He is, however, also distinguishing himself as a visionary in renewable energy, an industry leader who views climate change as “the fundamental issue of our day”.

In November, he told Yale Environment 360 he believes the world is about to undergo a paradigm shift comparable to the revolution in communications, which has almost entirely replaced landline telephones with wireless devices. This transformation will be lead, he believes, by three technologies: solar, electric vehicles, and a new generation of smart meters that can easily move power between customers’ homes and facilities, their vehicles, and the power grid.

“It’s almost unheard of for an energy company to truly market its energy, because it didn’t need to,” he says. But the transformation of the industry in recent years – driven by both commercial and environmental factors, leading to competition between suppliers and between sources – has changed all that. And the changes have only begun.

Calling smart metering “the biggest issue… over the next 10 to 20 years,” Crane sees a future in which customers, using solar energy to power their homes and vehicles, will avail of smart metering to supplement their solar supply or feed power back into the grid, dependent on demand, time of day, load factors, etc., trading that electricity back and forth at rates that shift dynamically to reflect the minute-by-minute energy market balance. How Crane will turn this vision into opportunities for a traditional power company like NRG is still evolving. But whether his prediction proves accurate or not, the message is clear: Power companies will need to be innovative and nimble to remain ahead of the curve. The German Nuclear Gap

Last May, following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the closure of all Germany’s 18 nuclear power plants by 2022. Eight have already been taken offline, but with 28 per cent of Germany’s power supply coming from nuclear, the shortfall must be made up urgently.

The euro crisis has caused many priorities to change, and a massive shift to renewables would drive up energy prices in the short term, damaging Germany’s exportled economy. So, despite the German Development Bank’s commitment to fund $137billion in green energy investments over five years, the government has also announced that it will build or subsidise a dozen coal-fired and natural gas plants as well.

The new realities have disappointed environmentalists who saw, in the aftermath of Fukushima, an historic opportunity to shift Germany dramatically toward renewables.

Morocco Scales Greater Heights
MOROCCO is preparing to build the world’s largest hybrid wind and hydroelectric plant, with a capacity of 1GW. The African Development Bank is investing $329million in the project, in which water will be pumped uphill with wind-generated electricity at times of low demand, which can then be released to power hydro turbines at peak demand.

The project will double Morocco’s existing hydropower resources, currently rated at 1.2MW.

The total cost of the new plant will be $2.16billion, with the African Development Bank seeking additional investors for this unprecedentedly large tandem development.