After Action Reviews
Confined Space and Excavation Safety
Distributed Generation
PPE Inspections
Recloser Controls and System Protection
Transformer-rated Metering
Unconscious Priming for Lineworkers
Underground Troubleshooting
Working with Capacitors
2025 SAFE Talks
400

This is what we must be wide open to if we are going to improve in anything in life, including our jobs.

What is criticism?

400

This is the number one reason (direct cause) that fatalities occur in confined spaces.

What is lack of oxygen?

400

This is the configuration that most solar panels are configured in: 

a. Series 

b. Parallel 

c. Series Parallel

What is a. Series?

400

This is the action that the cooperative must take whenever the tag on a harness is no longer legible.

What is immediately take the harness out of service?

400

This is true of the benefits of hot line tag (HLT) over non-reclosing:

a. No time current curve (TCC)

b. As quick a trip as possible

c. When system locks out, it cannot be re-energized with HLT still on.

d. All of the above are true

What is d. All of the above are true?

400

For all practical purposes, a metering PT operates the same as this device which most distribution linemen work with on a regular basis.

What is a poletop transformer?

400

This is the best description of the term "soft skills"

a. Persuading your crew leader you're too soft to pick up a digging bar.

b. The ability to work on a computer and go paperless.

c. All skills that are easy to develop, not hard skills.

d. Personality traits that you have developed throughout your life.

What is d. Personality traits that you have developed throughout your life?

400

This is the item that is typically used to help create an EPZ at a URD enclosure.

What is a grounding mat or bonding mat?

400

When working properly, an internal discharge resistor will drain the capacitor down to this many volts or less within 5 minutes following de-energization.

What is 50 volts?

400

This is what a hitchhiker did to rescue two women when a crazed driver struck the back of a bucket truck, attempting to kill an African American lineworker who was working on a 3-man crew.

What is strike the crazed driver over the head multiple times with the blunt end of a hatchet? (Feb 2025)

800

This is the institution where After Action Reviews originated from.

What is the military? (Army 1970s)

800

This is what is NOT permissible for workers to do during digging operations.

What is get down in the ditch?

800

Net metering accounts are of this type of system. 

A. Co-mingled

B. Intermingled

C. Stand-Alone

D. Both a and c

What is A. Co-mingled?

800

This is considered a part of the inspection criteria for a harness's webbing:

a. Cuts

b. Fraying

c. Excessive wear

d. All of the above

What is d. All of the above?

800

This is why we must we go to the upstream recloser to close in a GH type sectionalizer when we are unsure if a fault is on the line.

a. Not constructed to interrupt fault current.

b. Will often blow the lid and launch if closed under fault conditions.

c. Only capable of sensing a fault, then counting operations, and then opening accordingly when the line is dead.

d. All of the above are true.

What is d. All of the above are true.?

800

This describes the proper position of the shunt on a CT during normal operation.

a. open

b. closed

What is a. open?

800

Unconscious priming can best be described as this.

a. A psychological phenomenon that can influence a person's behavior and judgments without their awareness.

b. An action - where you can prime something like a chainsaw without even thinking about it.

c. A physical condition - when someone has been knocked unconscious and you ask them their name when they wake up.

d. An action that induces someone into an unconscious state.

What is a. A psychological phenomenon that can influence a person's behavior and judgments without their awareness?

800

When using a traditional hi-pot tool with phasing sticks, this is what must be present at the site in order to test the cable.

What is voltage or power source?

800

This is the amount of current that a 100kVA capacitor energized at 7200V will continually draw whenever energized.

What is 13.8A?

800

This indicates the wind speed at the time of the accident where a large tree fell onto a worker in a bucket and crashed the boom to the ground when a PUD was working out west at the tail end of a winter storm that included wind gusts of 90mph.

a. 20 mph

b. 30 mph

c. 40 mph

d. 60 mph

What is d. 60 mph?

1200

When we as humans have a setback or failure, this is the process that our mind naturally goes into:

A. Denial

B. Cognitive bias

C. Decision-making

D. Counterfactual thinking ("what if" and "only if")

What is D. Counterfactual thinking ("what if" and "only if")?

1200

This is the required distance that spoil piles are to be kept from the edge of an excavation.

What is 2 feet?

1200

Even if wired properly, it is still possible for an auto-disconnect to allow this back into the system when main power system is de-energized if parts are faulty.

What is electrical backfeed?

1200

This is the maximum permitted free falling distance prior to a FALL PROTECTION SYSTEM arresting a fall.

What is six feet?


1200

When working behind a fuse in a fuse-saving scheme, the line will typically operate on this operation (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.).

What is the third operation?

1200

This is the most important characteristic that a current switch inside of a transformer-rated meter socket.

What is automatic shunting?

1200

On average, studies show that this is how many errors humans make in just one hour (hit any number within the range).

What is 5-7?

1200

This is a proper method of troubleshooting when testing for absence/presence of voltage on an underground elbow that lacks a capacitive test point.

What is using a feed-thru with test rod and overhead voltage tester?

OR

What is using a feed-thru with a phasing meter and URD adaptors?

1200

This is the device that tests the capacitance of a capacitor.

What is the microfarad test?

1200

While in the process of replacing a pole, four contract workers perished in Eden, North Carolina when this public vehicle struck the intersection and worksite at a high rate of speed.

What is a city of Eden garbage truck driven by a 66-year old city worker?

1600

Following any introductory items, this is the first action to take during an after action review.

What is identify what went right and how to ensure that it is repeated?

1600

An attendant is forbidden to enter the permitted space unless this is the situation at hand.

What is except in case of emergency?

1600

This is the work practice that is required whenever working on a de-energized line with a contractual utility interactive system attached.

What is establish a visible open?

1600

This is the entity that determines the pre-set service life of a hard hat under a variety of conditions that the hard hat will be used in.

Who is the manufacturer?

1600

If a fuse has been exposed to a fault but did not operate, this is typically what will happen to the fuse, causing it to not operate normally with the upstream device the next time it sees a fault.

What is weaken the fuse element?

1600

This is the NESC and OSHA work practice required when working with CT's prior to removing the meter in an energized situation.

What is shunt the CTs?

1600

High workload, fatigue, in a hurry, distracted, stress, complacency and repetition are all considered as this.

What is an error trap or error precursor?

1600

This is one of two reasons why the "fuse-blowing" method of troubleshooting underground primary systems is not the preferred method of troubleshooting.

What is the lifespan of the cable and underground system is reduced?

OR

What is the safety of the lineworker due to the potential for arc flash?

1600

This is the electrical measurement for reactive (non-working) power. 

What are VARs?

1600

This device (name it) is what caused the backfeed to be relentless and instantly reappear after the crew temporarily installed grounds on a burned up elbow and then removed the ground without isolating the cable to install a new elbow, causing a fatality.

What is a common core Wye/Wye padmounted transformer?

2000

Various studies have indicated this as the number one reason that AARs sometimes lack success.

What is people are not willing to own their failures?

2000

This is the code on the positive response system that indicates a high profile facility.

What is 006?

2000

It is necessary for a UL 1741 inverter to have this to function properly:

A. Cell signal

B. Resistance

C. AC Sign Wave

D. All of the above

What is C. AC Sign Wave?

2000

This is the maximum permissible free fall distance when connected to a "POSITIONING DEVICE SYSTEM" such as OSHA would consider a Bucksqueeze or secondary lanyard.

What is 2 feet?

2000

When making contact with 7200V to ground, the resistance of a person will be reduced to this many ohms, causing about 14,400 mA to flow through the human body, often through the heart.

What is 500 ohms? (medical community = 300)

2000

When simply opening the neutral test switches (usually white) in a transformer-rated meter socket, this is what happens.

What is nothing?

2000

This would be considered as ONE of several critical actions when responding to an emergency on the job site.

What is the call for help, the rescue, or emergency first aid? (any one of the three)

2000

When using the "isolation" method for working on URD systems, this is what must be disconnected AFTER testing and grounding the cable(s). 

What is effectively separate the primary neutral conductor from the system?

2000

This is the reason that most companies do not require new capacitors to be shunted during storage, even if stored under a transmission line.

What is the only way that the capacitor will build up voltage is if the internal discharge resistor is no longer intact and effective?

2000

During the Eastern Airlines Flight 212 (sterile cockpit rule genesis), the crew failed to keep close tabs on their altitude and speed while they were talking about one of these two things which caused 82 people to perish (including Stephen Colbert's father and two brothers).

What are politics?

OR

What are used cars? (Mar 2025)



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