Southern Company subsidiaries among the first to use AI to enhance worker safety

Through its investment in Energy Impact Partners (EIP), Southern Company supports some of the most innovative new technology companies in the energy ecosystem. Southern Company subsidiaries also actively engage with many of these emerging companies in a mutual quest for new ways to improve their business processes.

One such company is Urbint. Urbint uses artificial intelligence in combination with real-world data to predict threats to workers, communities, critical infrastructure and the environment, and to help stop accidents before they happen. Such predictive solutions are potentially game-changing in Southern Company’s pursuit of its core value of Safety First.

• Urbint technology has been successfully applied to identify the risk of leaks or third-party damages to underground utilities. Urbint worked with Southern Company Gas to develop the damage prevention solution which was first deployed at Nicor Gas and eventually expanded throughout the enterprise.
• More recently, Urbint has developed solutions for enhanced worker safety, identifying safety hazards and threats in advance in order to prevent incidents that can result in life-altering injuries or even fatalities.

Georgia Power is currently engaged with Urbint for a Worker Safety pilot at two distribution centers. Urbint is developing a “smart” electronic job safety briefing (JSB) with hazard analysis that will be deployed on field crews’ iPads.

Using information about incidents and “near misses” gleaned from Georgia Power, Urbint’s risk engine will harmonize facts about work site conditions and project data with Urbint’s task and hazard library to identify specific risks, the hazard potential for each job task, and recommend preventive measures. And, as more users embrace the Urbint solution, data gleaned from the experience of others across the nation will provide even greater insights for safety precautions.

“We are excited about this partnership with Urbint,” said Michael Middleton, director of safety and health for Georgia Power. “As we combine our actively-caring safety culture with new technology, data, analytics and artificial intelligence, this partnership has the potential to lead us to a safer tomorrow.”

“Ultimately, our IBEW partners are the end users of this technology,” added Middleton. “They've been engaged from the beginning to provide real-time feedback to our leadership team and to Urbint. They know the work and understand the hazards. Their influence will help us create a robust electronic job safety briefing that should ultimately help prevent injuries.” 

“We’ve designed a job safety brief that will provide an interactive and engaging experience for the worker. If that doesn’t happen, the JSB won’t optimize for safety and will never achieve full adoption in the field,” explained Urbint CEO Corey Capasso. “By leveraging Urbint to integrate safety science into an engaging tailboard meeting, Georgia Power is making it easier for their teams to identify hazards and implement appropriate controls which can ultimately prevent injuries and even save lives.”

The Worker Safety pilot is ongoing for the duration of 2023.