Substation Quality, Safety and Environmental Management in Korea: A Field Guide

Quality, safety and environmental management on Korean substation projects means setting up three plans — quality, occupational safety and health, and environment — and running the job to them from start to finish. Substations involve many works that are buried once complete, such as foundations and earthing grids, and regulated materials such as SF6 gas and insulating oil. If you do not decide up front what to check and when, there is no way to go back later. This guide covers three stages: quality, safety and health, and environment.

Contents

• Common Pre-Work Review
• 1. Quality Management
• Selecting Works for Priority Control
• 2. Occupational Safety and Health
• 3. Environmental Management
• FAQ
• Reference Standards
• Summary

Common Pre-Work Review

Before construction, review the design documents, specifications, and the client’s quality management manual and safety rules. Where the client (often KEPCO) provides templates — construction quality checklists, quality assurance procedures, equipment risk checklists — build your plans on them. At contract stage, confirm that safety and environmental management costs are actually included in the price, or the plans cannot be carried out.

1. Quality Management

1. Prepare a construction quality plan based on the quality policy and objectives in the client’s quality manual.
2. Draw up a detailed inspection plan for each unit process.
3. Prepare an Inspection & Test Procedure (ITP) to verify materials and workmanship.
4. Write a quality assurance specification as the basis for judging compliance.
5. Define inspection marks and mandatory check points for each inspection item.
6. Set key quality controls and measures for each construction stage.
7. Register inspection results — scanned records with photos — in the client’s system for approval.
8. Submit contractor quality documents to the client’s quality department for review before starting work.
9. Identify likely weak points in advance and agree countermeasures with the client.
10. Designate buried or hard-to-inspect works as hold points and inspect them stage by stage.

Contractor-supplied materials must be approved by the client through a material inspection request before use, and the reference and measured values on each unit-process checklist must be recorded and kept.

Selecting Works for Priority Control

Criterion	What to look for on site
Defect rate of materials and workmanship	Materials and works with a history of defects
Difficulty of correction	Works that are costly to redo, such as foundations and buried earthing
Accident rate by work type	Work at height, heavy lifting, work near live parts
Check timing	When safety, quality and environment are verified (hold points)
Designated by client or site manager	Any other work they consider needs priority control

The NCS recommends treating works that are easily neglected, frequent, or hard to fix afterwards as priority items and controlling them ahead of other works.

2. Occupational Safety and Health

1. Prepare a safety and health plan reflecting the characteristics of substation work, based on the design documents.
2. Set up and run a safety organization suited to the site size and scope.
3. Plan safety inspections for each process in line with the relevant laws.
4. Survey the site and surrounding facilities in advance and plan hazard controls.
5. Prepare a plan for the occupational safety and health budget and spend it on time and effectively.
6. Plan and deliver worker safety training as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
7. Prepare emergency response plans, plus plans to protect worker health and prevent recurrence of accidents.
8. Plan safety measures and safety facilities for the hazards of each work process.
9. Check risk points before work using a substation risk checklist.
10. Keep first-aid supplies on site and install safety signs such as No Entry, Electric Shock, Fall Hazard and Do Not Operate.
11. Compile an overall safety and health plan covering the hazards and controls for every stage of work.

Keep minutes of pre-work safety meetings, and record the hazards identified with the risk checklist before work begins.

3. Environmental Management

1. Prepare an environmental management plan covering organization, daily checks and environmental training, as required by the Construction Technology Promotion Act.
2. Analyze and forecast the environmental risks of the project and plan improvements in advance.
3. Plan measures to keep construction noise and vibration within legal limits.
4. Plan measures to prevent water pollution from wastewater generated on site.
5. Use only equipment tested and verified by an accredited body when recovering or filling SF6 gas.
6. Test insulating oil for PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and plan its disposal, including reporting to the local environmental authority.
7. Set up an emergency organization and response plan for environmental incidents.
8. Confirm at contract signing that costs for preventing environmental damage are included.
9. Sort and dispose of waste in line with the Wastes Control Act.

FAQ

Reference Standards

• Electricity Business Act (전기사업법) — law.go.kr
• Electrical Safety Management Act (전기안전관리법) — law.go.kr
• Electric Technology Management Act (전력기술관리법) — law.go.kr
• Electrical Construction Business Act (전기공사업법) — law.go.kr
• Occupational Safety and Health Act (산업안전보건법) — law.go.kr
• Korea Electro-technical Code (KEC, 한국전기설비규정) — law.go.kr
• Technical Standards for Electrical Equipment (전기설비기술기준) — law.go.kr
• KEPCO design standards and substation construction practice; Korean Industrial Standards (KS)
• Construction Technology Promotion Act (건설기술진흥법) — law.go.kr
• Persistent Organic Pollutants Control Act (잔류성유기오염물질 관리법) — law.go.kr
• Wastes Control Act (폐기물관리법) — law.go.kr
• Noise and Vibration Control Act (소음·진동관리법) — law.go.kr
• Clean Air Conservation Act (대기환경보전법) — law.go.kr
• NCS competency unit Substation Quality, Safety and Environmental Management (품질안전환경관리, 1901070302_22v2; NCS is Korea’s National Competency Standards) — ncs.go.kr

Summary

The most common mistakes are writing plans only as paperwork and failing to fix check points for buried works. Quality depends on the ITP and hold points; safety on risk checklists and proper use of the safety budget; and environment on certified SF6 equipment and a PCB disposal plan. Related guides: Substation Construction Management, Substation Site Execution Management, Substation Inspection & Completion. A Korean version of this guide is available here.

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This article restructures the Korean NCS competency unit ‘Substation Quality, Safety and Environmental Management’ (품질안전환경관리, code 1901070302_22v2) as a practical reference. Actual work must follow applicable standards and the judgment of qualified professionals; always confirm specific values, deadlines and criteria against the latest regulations and client standards.

Written/reviewed by VOLT · Last updated 2026-10-26