SPIE awarded top honours by its client partner EDF

Exemplary safety performance

Cergy, April 25, 2019 – At the 21st edition of the Operating Plants Innovation Challenge, the Nuclear Generation Division of the EDF Group awarded SPIE Nucléaire the top prize in the “safety” category – a great recognition for the company’s commitment and of the hard work of all its employees.

Every year, the Nuclear Generation Division of the EDF Group organises a challenge to showcase the best innovations implemented at its nuclear power plants. This brings together the teams involved in EDF’s nuclear activities, including power stations, engineering and R&D units, business associations and the Group’s industrial partners involved in maintenance and logistics across the nuclear plants. Considering the services provided in 2018 across the nuclear sites where it operates, SPIE Nucléaire, a subsidiary of the SPIE Group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, was awarded the top prize for safety.

Alongside all the industrial partners of EDF’s operating nuclear plants, SPIE Nucléaire was assessed on several criteria:

· The operational performance achieved over several consecutive years, as measured mainly by the lost time injury frequency rate per million hours worked.

· The absence of significant events at EDF sites in 2018, based on the assessments provided by all of the Electricity-Generating Nuclear Power Stations and by EDF’s Technical Operations Unit (*).

· Managerial initiative around safety, as measured by the number of safety improvement suggestions communicated locally by SPIE teams to EDF.

Patrice Mas, Director of Industrial Policy and Supplier Relations at EDF, explains: “the purpose of the competition is to showcase the work of our industrial partners who achieve exemplary results across the operating nuclear plants. The high number of candidates, which makes the competition all the more challenging. Congratulations to SPIE Nucléaire!”

Safety is in SPIE’s DNA – a constant focus, for both itself and others. The safety policy is based on a set of standards common to all SPIE subsidiaries: the “Health and Safety Code”. As an example of the procedures put in place, employees use a “SCORE” booklet to warn of dangerous situations and share good practice. The same booklet is also used to consult the list of points that need to be checked at every “ritual SPIE minute”: the idea is to observe one minute of stoppage at every shift change or during work to assess the immediate environment and avoid hazardous situations. Performance levels are displayed across all the sites where SPIE operates, including EDF’s facilities.

“This award is a recognition of the importance that SPIE Nucléaire gives to employee safety as well as to nuclear facility safety. I am proud of our employees, who ensure strict compliance with safety standards and are vigilant at all times to avoid any accidents”, says a delighted David Guillon, Managing Director of SPIE Nucléaire.

(*) EDF’s Technical Operations Unit (in French, Unité Technique Opérationnelle, or UTO) is a body responsible for selecting, certifying and monitoring external companies that provide services or equipment to EDF. To this end, it conducts audits of the quality management system of EDF suppliers. It also awards UTO certification, which allows a supplier to operate at EDF production sites.