There are reports of a fire in a residential building in the Astrakhan region of Russia on 17 February 2009 in which 18 people died. Is this another lesson not learned? This follows on the heals of another recent tragic fire in a home for elderly persons. Just two days earlier, on 15 February 2009 there was a fire in an old apartment building in Independence, US, where 3 people died. I have mentioned two other examples in this blog, but the potential list is endless. When is all the carnage and destruction going to end?
This will only happen when government and building control authorities start taking more seriously the need for greater levels of fire protection systems and emergency escape systems from buildings. All too often older buildings and buildings that have undergone a change to residential accommodation are set up to house people with no cognisance of the fire safety of the building, or at best with only the most rudimentary consideration having been given to such important safety issues.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Proposal for an Essential Services Act in New Zealand
On 3 and 4 February 2009 parts of Auckland suffered from more electricity blackouts, apparently due to ageing components of the infrastructure. These are unacceptable third world events in what is supposed to be a fine city in a developed country. My proposal to assist the problem is to introduce some new legislation so that obligations of electricity and other commodity suppliers are sheeted home. I hope the engineering fraternity, including IPENZ and ACENZ, will support the proposal.
Objective
An Act to consolidate and reform the law relating to essential services and to provide for better protection and control of essential services with enhanced protection to the public, economy and the environment.
Services to be included within the new legislation
(1) The distribution or transmission by pipeline of natural or manufactured gas, petroleum, or
geothermal energy.
(2) Electricity operators or electrical supply authorities as defined by the Electricity Act 1968.
(3) The distribution of potable water for supply.
(4) The operation of community sewerage treatment and disposal systems.
(5) The stewardship and maintenance of state and provincial highways.
(6) The stewardship and maintenance of bridges on state and provincial highways.
(7) The telecommunications industry.
Why these services should be provided for under the proposed legislation
Most of the supplies of these commodities are natural monopolies. While some of them may be run on increasing free-market commercial models, they can never be operated and controlled fully on the principles of unfettered free market supply and demand, as there is not the opportunity for other competitors to enter the market with a competitive parallel offer. For instance, there is not the opportunity for an entrepreneur to duplicate a given section of state highway and operate it on free market principles.
Even although consumers have the opportunity to change their electricity supplier nothing changes physically. The same electrons flow from the same generator along the same wires to the receiving houses or businesses.
The new legislation would be a factor which would most likely lead to the best protection of the health, safety and welfare of all New Zealanders and to better protect the economy and environment against a future major crisis.
With the implementation of such an Act, there would be better assurance that in future major disruption to society did not occur, in the event of a potential unforeseen happening occurring. It is less likely that Auckland would have electricity crises, such has what occurred in 1998, 2006 and 2009, a hydro-electric dam would collapse, or the contamination of the water supply to a part of Wellington would occur.
The proposed model for the new legislation is the Building Act 2004. The model proposed for the Essential Services Act could be partly based the Building Act 2004. Sections 100 - 111 deal with compliance schedules and building warrants of fitness. These relate to features of all buildings such as lifts, air conditioning and fire control systems. Such features are included in a formalised schedule which is registered with the TA. The features have to be inspected and maintained at specified intervals of time in order to ensure there is continued protection of occupants. Such technical inspection and maintenance work is carried out by Independent Qualified Persons (IQPs), private sector contractors working for building owners.
The proposed Essential Services Act could be controlled by a small statutory body, similar to the former Building Industry Authority (BIA) which controlled the Building Act, over the day-to-day control which is administered by TAs. The Essential Services Act equivalent of IQPs in the Building Act regime would be private sector professionals, who would be commissioned by the network utility operator to carry out mandatory technical audits at prescribed intervals of time. These would be similar to mandatory financial audits which companies have to undertake.
The respective industries in question would formulate their own compliance schedules, which would specify the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures for the continued operation of the essential services. The proposed compliance schedules could be publicly notified to invite submissions to be considered before formal adoption.
In some cases inspection and maintenance requirements will be specific to a particular type of equipment. This will be taken into account in the formulation of the draft compliance schedule for public notification.
Essential Services Authority
An Essential Services Authority (ESA), a Crown agency, would be established under the Essential Services Act, as the sole regulatory authority for essential service controls in New Zealand. It would be responsible for registering the equivalent of independent qualified persons (IQPs) under that Act. The IQPs would be the only persons allowed to carry out the technical audits. Registration would allow an IQP to work over the whole of New Zealand
This crown agency would directly control the relatively small number of essential services throughout New Zealand, without the need to involve the territorial authorities, as they presently are administering sections 100 - 111 of the Building Act 2004.
Objective
An Act to consolidate and reform the law relating to essential services and to provide for better protection and control of essential services with enhanced protection to the public, economy and the environment.
Services to be included within the new legislation
(1) The distribution or transmission by pipeline of natural or manufactured gas, petroleum, or
geothermal energy.
(2) Electricity operators or electrical supply authorities as defined by the Electricity Act 1968.
(3) The distribution of potable water for supply.
(4) The operation of community sewerage treatment and disposal systems.
(5) The stewardship and maintenance of state and provincial highways.
(6) The stewardship and maintenance of bridges on state and provincial highways.
(7) The telecommunications industry.
Why these services should be provided for under the proposed legislation
Most of the supplies of these commodities are natural monopolies. While some of them may be run on increasing free-market commercial models, they can never be operated and controlled fully on the principles of unfettered free market supply and demand, as there is not the opportunity for other competitors to enter the market with a competitive parallel offer. For instance, there is not the opportunity for an entrepreneur to duplicate a given section of state highway and operate it on free market principles.
Even although consumers have the opportunity to change their electricity supplier nothing changes physically. The same electrons flow from the same generator along the same wires to the receiving houses or businesses.
The new legislation would be a factor which would most likely lead to the best protection of the health, safety and welfare of all New Zealanders and to better protect the economy and environment against a future major crisis.
With the implementation of such an Act, there would be better assurance that in future major disruption to society did not occur, in the event of a potential unforeseen happening occurring. It is less likely that Auckland would have electricity crises, such has what occurred in 1998, 2006 and 2009, a hydro-electric dam would collapse, or the contamination of the water supply to a part of Wellington would occur.
The proposed model for the new legislation is the Building Act 2004. The model proposed for the Essential Services Act could be partly based the Building Act 2004. Sections 100 - 111 deal with compliance schedules and building warrants of fitness. These relate to features of all buildings such as lifts, air conditioning and fire control systems. Such features are included in a formalised schedule which is registered with the TA. The features have to be inspected and maintained at specified intervals of time in order to ensure there is continued protection of occupants. Such technical inspection and maintenance work is carried out by Independent Qualified Persons (IQPs), private sector contractors working for building owners.
The proposed Essential Services Act could be controlled by a small statutory body, similar to the former Building Industry Authority (BIA) which controlled the Building Act, over the day-to-day control which is administered by TAs. The Essential Services Act equivalent of IQPs in the Building Act regime would be private sector professionals, who would be commissioned by the network utility operator to carry out mandatory technical audits at prescribed intervals of time. These would be similar to mandatory financial audits which companies have to undertake.
The respective industries in question would formulate their own compliance schedules, which would specify the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures for the continued operation of the essential services. The proposed compliance schedules could be publicly notified to invite submissions to be considered before formal adoption.
In some cases inspection and maintenance requirements will be specific to a particular type of equipment. This will be taken into account in the formulation of the draft compliance schedule for public notification.
Essential Services Authority
An Essential Services Authority (ESA), a Crown agency, would be established under the Essential Services Act, as the sole regulatory authority for essential service controls in New Zealand. It would be responsible for registering the equivalent of independent qualified persons (IQPs) under that Act. The IQPs would be the only persons allowed to carry out the technical audits. Registration would allow an IQP to work over the whole of New Zealand
This crown agency would directly control the relatively small number of essential services throughout New Zealand, without the need to involve the territorial authorities, as they presently are administering sections 100 - 111 of the Building Act 2004.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)