By Gaby Grammeno Contributor

SafeWork NSW has accepted the undertaking offered by a business engaged in the design, construction and maintenance of renewable energy projects such as solar farms, after a worker received serious injuries.

The incident occurred in November 2021, when the drill rig operated by a contract worker touched an overhead high-voltage powerline and the worker received an electric shock and burns.

After investigating the incident, SafeWork NSW alleged that the company had contravened sections 19(1) and 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, for failing to ensure the safety of the worker, as far as reasonably possible.

 

Post-incident WHS improvements

Following the incident, the company – which had no prior convictions – spent around $255,000 on rectifications and changes to its WHS systems and practices. It:

  • reviewed and implemented controls to prevent inadvertent contact or flashover with powerlines in accordance with the Code of Practice Work Near Overhead Power Lines, and developed a procedure for standardising and communicating these controls across its various sites
  • measured the heights of the mobile plant on site, assessed the risks of plant coming into contact with overhead powerlines and updated relevant documents
  • reviewed its SWMS (Safe Work Method Statement) for the movement of mobile plant on site to make sure the relevant controls were sufficiently highlighted, and the signage on designated crossing points
  • reviewed its induction structure and content, and
  • made arrangements that will incur ongoing costs of around $100,000 a year for the licensing of the health, safety and environment induction software.

 

Strategies set out in the enforceable undertaking

Training

The employer proposed to develop and deliver a three-tiered ‘Safety Leadership for Solar’ training program – at a cost of over $335,000 – aiming to decrease the rate of significant WHS incidents on projects.

The training will address WHS due diligence, the risk management process, critical risks and safe working practices across the project lifecycle. It will also encourage field staff to know they are entitled to stop work they believe is unsafe, and report incidents and near misses.

Workshops for field staff will cover factors known to influence safety culture such as behaviours driving decision-making, as well as the challenges inherent in remote or regional projects.

 

Animated solar farm safety videos and guidance

The company will develop animated videos to communicate key hazards associated with solar farm projects, and translate these videos into other languages to meet the needs of the company’s diverse workforce. These videos are to be shared with the wider industry.

It will also develop a suite of guidance materials for working in solar farm construction and release these on a publicly accessible website, at an estimated cost of over $170,000.

 

Managing psychosocial risks

As part of the undertaking, the business will carry out a comprehensive risk management process to identify any psychosocial hazards associated with solar farm construction that could potentially cause harm. The scope of the enquiry will encompass hazards from sexual harassment and bullying to job control, workload, stress and exposure to trauma.

Over 300 employees and contractors will be encouraged to voluntarily take part in a staff survey to identify these types of hazards. The business will assess the psychosocial risks identified through the survey and review control measures to address them. The estimated cost of this strategy was $80,000.

The company will also publish a notice advising of the enforceable undertaking with the regulator, and disseminate information about the undertaking within its workplace including to its workers, the health and safety committee, representatives, subcontractors and other relevant parties.

The total cost of the undertaking was estimated to be $711,770.

The company expressed its regret about the incident and extended it sympathy to the injured worker and their family, as well as to others who may have been affected by what happened.

The employer also stated its commitment to ensuring the ongoing health and safety of its workers and others and acknowledged that it was responsible for demonstrating its compliance with the undertaking, and that SafeWork NSW could initiate additional compliance monitoring as it saw fit.

 

Benefits to the workplace, industry and community

SafeWork NSW was able to accept the undertaking because the incident was not a Category 1 offence (the most serious, involving recklessness) or an offence of industrial manslaughter. The regulator assessed the actions proposed by the company as appropriate to the circumstances and ‘likely to deliver long term sustainable safety improvements in the workplace, industry and community’.

Contact between mobile plant and powerlines is a significant workplace risk. Three months after the incident that prompted this enforceable undertaking, a worker was killed when the spray boom tip of the tractor he was driving came into contact with overhead powerlines on a farm, and more recently, two workers were electrocuted and died on NSW worksites while working near powerlines in May and June 2025.

SafeWork has investigated over 50 such incidents since 2011, and provides extensive guidance on its website at safework.nsw.gov.au.

 

View the enforceable undertaking

Energy Solutions Pty Ltd enforceable undertaking