Electricity Safety Management Schemes (ESMS) are a non-prescriptive form of regulation that enables industry to improve on the efficiency of its operation without compromising safety standards.

Legislation

The Electricity Safety Act 1998 (The Act) enables voluntary ESMSs to be submitted to Energy Safe Victoria by:

• employers of electrical workers,
• occupiers of specific premises and
• owners of complex electrical installations.

The Act also requires that all Major Electricity Companies, which run electricity supply networks, have an accepted ESMS.

The Act is supported by the Electricity Safety (Management) Regulations 2019, which came into effect on 29 November 2019.

Guidelines

ESMSs

Guidelines support the administration policy by explaining to MECs what content they should provide when submitting ESMSs to ESV for acceptance.

Ideally, if the scheme addresses the key elements required by the Act, ESV should not be required to seek additional information.

The relevant guidelines are the Electricity Safety Case (ESMS) Preparation and Submission Guidelines for MECs.

Incident and safety reporting by MECs

Regulations 28 and 29 of the Electricity Safety (Management) Regulations 2019 require MECs to report serious electrical incidents within time frames and in forms in reporting guidelines published by ESV.

These are the Incident and Safety Performance Reporting Guidelines for MECs.

These reporting guidelines do NOT apply to voluntary ESMSs.

More information

Contact ESV about ESMSs by calling (03) 9203 9700 or emailing the team directly at esms@energysafe.vic.gov.au.