CEO Innovation Award
The CEO Innovation & Entrepreneurial Award was instituted in 2013 to honor the most innovative and impressive advancements made by Quanta employees. Since 2013, Quanta has collectively awarded more than $600,000 to the winners of this competition, and many of the ideas have been integrated into field processes. The purpose of this program is to continually encourage entrepreneurial drive and creativity — and to benefit our customers and the overall industry with ongoing innovation.
Handrail system
Quanta developed a handrail system that provides fall protection to employees while utilizing a bucket truck. The automated handrail system deploys when an employee sets the outriggers and prepares to enter the bucket and utilize the boom. The rail also self-stores once the employee is in the bucket and engages the boom controls. This helps prevent any unplanned contact or damage.
This innovation has since been expanded for use outside of Quanta, to the industry as a whole.
Lanyard Interlock
Quanta perfected this innovation to ensure an employee is safely attached prior to the truck beginning to move — preventing falls and adding to a safe working environment. The bucket cannot be operated without the lineworker being secured to the truck. In the case of a non-responsive operator, the controls on the ground can be used to override the controls in the bucket.
This innovation has since been expanded for use outside of Quanta, to the industry as a whole.
EPZGrounder trailer
Quanta invested more than $500,000 to develop and build the innovative EPZGrounder training product, in order to deliver advanced training that improves the entire industry.
This mobile training simulator provides equipotential bonding and grounding scenarios at four overhead distribution stations, eight switchable underground stations and eight scaled-down transmission stations. Each is designed to replicate real-world scenarios and allow workers to create and test different equipotential grounding and bonding setups. The overhead and underground distribution lines can be energized independently.
The trainee’s work can be evaluated through the Lineman Meter, a touch-screen panel that simulates a worker’s heartbeat. If the work is done improperly, the heartbeat will flatline, allowing trainees to fail safely. At the overhead stations, trainees can install grounds from an elevated position while belted off to the pole. This allows them to develop correct work positioning and learn sequential installation of grounds.
Trainees will also have access to a custom-built mobile app, which features high-quality 3D graphics that guide them through grounding and bonding scenarios for different structures.
Personal voltage detectors
In 2020, Quanta invested approximately $50,000 to purchase Personal Voltage Detectors (PVDS) for each crew member working on storm response. These innovative tools allow our employees to remain safe should they encounter an energized conductor when they arrive at a new site to restore power. During the 2020 storm season, Quanta experienced seven incidents where these devices alerted the crew to the presence of energized conductors in the work area.