Electrical Safety
Survey 2011
Forward
A message from the Managing Director
Electricity is an essential service relied upon for a strong economy and the basic necessities inside our
homes. Distributing electricity through the network is a highly hazardous business with the electricity
network switched on 24 hours a day seven days a week.
At Ausgrid, we've made sure that our crews and the public are as safe as possible from the hazards of
electricity. We've locked away our substations and continuously monitor our high voltage cables so
that public hazards can be quickly made safe.
However, total protection inside and outside the home requires safe behaviour from all of us. Last
financial year, there were more than 344 reported electric shocks on private properties across our
network. Even more concerning is that one in five people report having received an electric shock and
one in three say they know someone who has received a shock.
Ausgrid's Public Electrical Safety Awareness Plan (PESAP) educates and informs the community
about safe behaviour around the electricity network and inside the home.
Our Electrical Safety Survey 2011 will help inform our PESAP team to better educate the community
on electrical safety and remind every member of the public of the need to take simple steps to stay
safe around electricity.
George Maltabarow
Managing Director
Ausgrid
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Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
www.ausgrid.com.au/safety
Executive summary
Methodology
The New South Wales Electrical Safety Survey 2011 was undertaken by Ausgrid’s Public Electrical
Safety Awareness Plan to investigate public perceptions of electrical safety.
A total of 1353 residents across Ausgrid’s electricity network in Sydney, Newcastle, Hunter Valley and
Central Coast were surveyed as part of the online study. The respondents also included a sub-group
of 68 tradespeople including electricians, plumbers and carpenters.
Key findings
Human error and the dangerous use of electrical equipment was the major cause of electric shocks
among residents surveyed (36 per cent). The vast majority of respondents correctly identified
examples of “unsafe” behaviour involving electrical equipment. However, most residents often ignored
the dangers and risked their lives by carrying out unsafe activities around electricity.
Electric shocks were most likely to occur during everyday activities or the conventional use of electrical
appliances. Males were more likely (23 per cent) than females (17 per cent) to have received an
electric shock around the home.
Most residents and tradespeople continue to risk their lives by not checking for underground power
cables before digging or excavating. This is despite three quarters of residents being aware of the Dial
Before You Dig public service.
Tradespeople, including plumbers and electricians, were more likely to carry out electrical
maintenance and repair work in their own homes. The majority of tradespeople carrying out Do-ItYourself activities had undertaken electrical work at home in the past 12 months.
Safety switches are present in the vast majority of residents’ homes (82 per cent). However, few
residents often or always checked that electrical appliances met Australian Standards or were the
correct voltage before plugging them in.
Parents are the primary source of electrical safety advice for children. However, the majority of parents
believe their children are unaware of basic safety messages regarding electricity.
Conclusions
The results of Ausgrid’s Electrical Safety Survey indicate that while the public is well-informed,
residents and tradespeople are continuing to risk their lives by knowingly carrying out dangerous
behaviour around the electricity network.
The public’s general awareness of electrical safety has increased in the past twelve months with more
residents and tradespeople correctly identifying dangerous situations involving electricity. However,
there were 344 reported incidents of electric shock on private properties across Ausgrid’s electricity
network during the same period with the majority of shocks reported in the survey the result of human
error. Ausgrid’s Public Electrical Safety Awareness Plan will continue to educate the community about
the dangers of electricity and reinforce the message that the electricity network is switched on 24-7.
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Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
www.ausgrid.com.au/safety
Results
Electric shocks
One fifth of respondents have experienced an electric shock at home. About a third of those surveyed,
33 per cent, knew of someone who had received a shock.
Human error was the major cause of electric shocks, with 36 per cent of residents attributing the shock
to inadvertently or incorrectly touching an electric object or not switching power off. Old or faulty
wiring/appliances were responsible for a further third (30 per cent) of all electric shocks.
Case study 1: A 50 year old female from Kirribilli suffered an electric
shock after she used a knife to try and free a piece of bread stuck in
the toaster.
Case study 2: A 40 year old male from Bondi was trying to plug a
UK appliance into an Australian adaptor when he suffered a shock.
Case study 3: A 60 year old male from Maitland was replacing a
power point without turning the mains power off when he suffered an
electric shock.
Do-It-Yourself electrical work
Do-It-Yourself activities were responsible for more than a quarter, 28 per cent, of all reported electric
shocks. About half the residents surveyed (53 per cent) had carried out maintenance or repair task
around the home including trimming branches around powerlines, replacing power points and
installing light fittings.
Males were more likely than females to be involved in Do-It-Yourself activities around the home with
67 per cent of males and 39 per cent of females surveyed carrying out DIY activities at home. About
85 per cent of tradespeople surveyed, including plumbers and electricians, had carried out home
maintenance and repair work at home.
A fifth of non-tradespeople surveyed have engaged in at least five dangerous electrical repair or
maintenance activities in the last 12 months.
Most common potentially dangerous DIY activities
1. Climbing a ladder while holding a mains-operated electrical tool – 42%.
2. Drilling or nailing into a wall without checking for electrical wires – 36%.
3. Entering a roof space without turning off the mains power – 34%.
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Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
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Misconceptions of electricity
Rubber soled shoes or gloves are still wrongly perceived to protect against electric shocks with about
40 per cent of residents unsure or wrongly believing domestic rubber boots/gloves protect against
electrocution. About 40 per cent of residents were unsure or wrongly believed it was safe to use a
ladder near powerlines.
Most common misconceptions
1. Showering during an electrical storm is safe.
2. It is safe to use a washing machine on a wet floor wearing rubber shoes.
3. It is safe to unplug an appliance still switched on at the power point.
Electricity network
About one in four respondents are risking their lives by not checking for underground power cables
before digging or excavating (Figure 1). This was despite a 76 per cent of non-trades people and 78
per cent of tradespeople being aware of the Dial Before You Dig public service.
Residents have a high understanding of the dangers associated with approaching fallen powerlines
with three quarters of respondents correctly identifying that fallen powerlines are not dead and
therefore unsafe to touch. However, almost a third of residents, 29 per cent, wrongly believe it is safe
to use wooden or non-metal objects near powerlines.
About 60 per cent of outages across Ausgrid network are caused by external factors like trees coming
into contact with powerlines. About a third of residents reported having tree branches dangerously
close to powerlines outside their home.
Figure 1: Percentage of residents
Unsure
Should not call
Should call
0
20
40
4
60
80 Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
www.ausgrid.com.au/safety
Home electrical safety
The majority of residents, 62 per cent, do not often check that electric tools or appliances met
Australian Standards. About three quarters of residents, 74 per cent, do not often check appliances
are the correct voltage before plugging them in.
Safety switches are common in most homes (82 per cent), as are surge protectors (76 per cent). Only
a third of respondents switched off all electrical equipment and appliances during a blackout to help
protect the device.
Children’s awareness of electrical safety
Children’s awareness of electrical safety largely derives from their parents with about 90 per cent of
parents nominating the parent as the main source of electrical safety advice such as turning
appliances off and checking the voltage of appliances.
About a quarter of parents surveyed, 27 per cent, believe their children do not know about the lifethreatening dangers of reaching through fencing at electrical substations, or the importance of
checking the voltage of new appliances before plugging them in (81 per cent).
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Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
www.ausgrid.com.au/safety
Survey Methodology
Ausgrid’s online survey was conducted during Sep/Oct 2010 with a sample of 1353 respondents in Ausgrid’s
network. The sample included a sub-group of 68 respondents working in construction trades, including
electricians and plumbers. Additional analysis was conducted to see how this group differed from the general
public. As in earlier surveys in this series, the data were weighted by area, gender, age, education, household
size, ownership/rental of premises, and dwelling structure, based on ABS statistics for Sydney, Gosford/Wyong
and the Hunter area.
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Ausgrid Electrical Safety Survey 2011
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