Bringing Electrical Safety Education to the Next Generation
Geoffrey Greene is Manager at Con Ed subsidiary, Orange and Rockland Utilities.
When we talk about the future of our industry, the conversation usually centers on load growth, grid modernization, and new technology. All of it matters. But some of the most important work a utility can do rarely shows up in a strategy presentation, and it costs almost nothing: teaching the public, and especially young people, how to stay safe around electricity.
I came to this along a winding path. I started my utility career in power plants, moved into safety, and then into emergency preparedness at Orange and Rockland Utilities (O&R), the group responsible for our response to storms, floods, and every other kind of emergency. That is where I built the program that I describe here, and it is still running today.
The Gap I Kept Seeing
For years, our team met twice a year with the first responders in our service territory; the firefighters, police officers, and EMS crews who needed to understand the hazards of working around electricity. They came away better prepared, but it left me with a nagging question. We were reaching the first responders, who already understood the risks, but what about everyone else, our customers, their families, and especially their children?