March 6, 2014 – Ontario’s Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA) has been granted approval from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and members of its Standardized Task Evaluation (STE) program to act as AP3-compliant administrators, making IHSA the sole third-party provider in Canada, it says, to demonstrate compliance with EPRI’s Administration Protocol for Portable Practicals (AP3) in STEs. Which means what, exactly? Read on…

Of interest to IHSA and Ontario’s energy suppliers is EPRI’s development of an STE process that provides a method of evaluating and documenting the requisite knowledge and skills required by supplemental workers to perform specific tasks for qualification within the nuclear power industry and other electric power stations. IHSA will use this process to evaluate worker requisite knowledge and skills required for ‘portable’ qualifications.

This would enable firms using supplemental workers at their facilities—qualified through IHSA—to be assured the workers are knowledgeable and skilled in the performance of the specific tasks to which they will be assigned.

EPRI conducts research, development and demonstration (RD&D) relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public, explains IHSA. An independent, non-profit organization, EPRI brings together scientists and engineers—as well as experts from academia and industry—to help address challenges in electricity.

One of these challenges is ensuring supplemental workers have the requisite skills required for specific tasks without duplicating training that may have been already administered, says IHSA.

IHSA is now able to proctor written cognitive examinations and evaluate practical performance demonstrations for supplemental workers needing to attain qualification and show proficiency in the performance of specific tasks to which they will be assigned when performing related work on behalf of utilities. Successful results will become part of an EPRI Task Qualification Registry accessible by participating organizations and utilities.

IHSA will continue to expand its number of available STEs in the coming months.