Questions/Answers

There are 77 provinces in Thailand – with the population of 66 millions people. This includes suburban and urban communities. The differences can be seen amongst these communities regarding educations, occupations, incomes, and informational and learning sources. The main problems in the suburban areas are the lack of good life quality and assistance from governmental sectors, which are followed by fire incidents. According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, there are 3,253 households that have faced such incidents, with 188 injured people, and 80 deaths. This has cost the country 1,873 million baht yearly. This is because the people possess insufficient knowledge in electricity. To eliminate such unfortunate events, Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) as a responsible governmental sector, which provides the service for those 74 provinces – 19 million households or 57.97 million people, has been running PEA Electricity for Safe Community Project. This project aims to provide youths, students and people with knowledge in using electricity properly, economically, and safely. Moreover, it includes the electrical maintenance for the communities and builds up volunteering networks, community protection, and risk management of accidents.

The PEA Electricity for Safe Community Project aligns with the selected award as it has one main responsibility in providing and serving the people for 74 provinces throughout the country. There are 19 million households or 57.97 million users in total. Apart from that core task, PEA is also subjected to taking care of the people in using the electricity with the utmost safety which is the most necessary and essential for the people in both regional and national perspectives. In order to summate the effectiveness of the project, PEA has formulated the strategy towards the support and cooperation so as to distribute the project responsibly. PEA has, additionally, applied ISO 26000 — social responsibility standard — to evaluate the competency and sufficiency of the system. This is to flourish its responsibility towards the society and environment. PEA has also increased the cooperation network between the governments and private sectors in order to eliminate electricity accidents and so as to sustain the project.

Regarding the statistic of electrical accidents, PEA is administrating in the alignment of 2013 Agenda to promote safety to people and to provide electricity for every household. PEA is cooperating with other alliances in the governmental sectors – Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Office of the Vocational Education Commission, and Subdistrict Administrative Organization. This project aims to provide students with knowledge in both theories and practices to use electricity properly and safely. Moreover, the first aid and electrical system maintenance are lessoned in the project. With these, the students are able to apply into their occupation to increase their income

The positive significance towards the people are those in 74 provinces, 57.97 million people. The people know how to use electricity properly and safely, and are able to apply their knowledge into their daily life, which reduces risk in electrical accidents. The youths are to gain knowledge on how to use electricity properly and safely, which they can use on the sites and are able to maintain and repair electric appliances within the household so as to reduce electrical accidents. Moreover, they can earn more incomes for the family which creates stability for their life. The results of the project are able to eliminate the number of death and loss of properties amongst the households, for instance, less electrical shocks, less fire incidents, less problems for the governmental sectors in using manpower and budgets, less usage of fire trucks, fire officers, water supply, fuel, and budget. Moreover, this project is able to decrease problems for Subdistrict Administrative Organization from lacking expertise in electricity, and budgets and problems for hospitals and budgets from the government. Besides, it is able to eliminate the problems for Office of the Vocational Education Commission in lacking electrical teachers and budgets from the government.

The project’s innovation is a process to solve the electrocute and fire problems. PEA provides officers to teach the people and vocational students so that they can inspect and repair electrical appliances for the communities, schools, and buildings. Moreover, PEA has been coordinating with many governmental sectors in MOU in order to eliminate the electrical accidents. Students can work as certified electricians for the community, and is designating Best Practice for certain communities as a role model for others.

Original idea - Building model communities. PEA has chosen Tha Maka Community in Kanjanaburi Province to run the project as Tha Maka Model. This is to act as a role model for other communities. The model has been well participated by the people and students are able to practice on sites. PEA has also built up leaders and volunteers to inform of any incidents in the community, and set up Safety Center for electrical safety of the people. There are 3,400 inspected households in Tha Maka, which reduces the accidents by more than 50% and people’s satisfaction rate is 4.53/5.

PEA has used Tha Maka Model’s results into other communities throughout the country. Now the project is running in every area of the country. There are 1,314 educational institutions which have gained from this benefit, 32,850 students receiving the training, and 1,146,700 households benefiting from the project. All of these are closely observed by the project for a sustainable safety for the people’s quality of life.

There is a 4-year social and environmental responsibility plan (2013 - 2016 and 2017 - 2021). The plan is revised yearly, making it as an annual plan. There is 20-million-baht budget annually for the project. As for human resources aspect, PEA has assigned its engineers as instructors for trainings, staff to follow up with the results and to collect data. Most importantly, there is a cooperation among every sector especially the people who think, work, and give suggestion for the project.

The project is sustainably developing in many aspects. Social Aspect: There is less number of life and property loss from electrical accidents. Economical Aspect: Students and people apply their knowledge into their occupations and become community electricians, which creates more incomes for the family. Environmental Aspect: Youths and people realize and acknowledge the value of using electricity safely, reducing global warming, and promoting renewable energy.

Yes

The PEA Electricity for Safe Community Project has been evaluated by the State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO). The evaluation was via questionnaires determined by SEPO with the site inspection in project’s communities. PEA was then offered the Public Sector Excellence Awards in Public Service Category Excellent Level, 2017. The PEA Electricity for Safe Community Project has been also evaluated by the Office Of The Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC). The evaluation was via questionnaires determined by OPDC with the site inspection in project’s communities. PEA was then offered the Public Sector Excellence Awards in Public Service Category Excellent Level, 2018.

The indicator of the evaluation is that the communities become safer in electricity use. The accidents statistic has fallen down. The students are trained to be community electricians which create more incomes. Household electric systems are inspected and maintained. The people are satisfied with the project.

Since the project covers 74 provinces in cities and remote areas, collecting data for evaluations is rather difficult. The project, therefore, focuses on the model community – Tha Maka, Kanjanaburi Province. The results show that there is more than 50% decrease in electrical accidents, more community volunteers, students apply their knowledge in helping the community, and 12% increase in incomes. The results show that there is 63% decrease in electrical accidents in households, from 50% expectation; electrical accidents in the households decrease to 0.4325 times, from 0.7749 expectation; behavior in safety electricity usage by 69%, from 60% expectation; and people and students’ satisfaction rate of 4.53 out of 5 scores. The community is a role model for other communities, which creates more economic flows and more incomes in the community.

To drive the cooperation, PEA has agreed on an MOU with Office of the Vocational Education Commission, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, communities, and community leaders in setting up roundtable talks to seek needs and expectations from students and people in the community. This has reflected in cooperation from other concerned governmental sectors to administrate in the same way to achieve the goals. Moreover, the project has been well supported by the people in the community by building up community network, volunteering by students who spread their knowledge to the participants, which makes the project successfully reach the goals.

The main lesson from the project is the cooperation among the people in giving suggestions, driving a great impact for project improvement. The cooperation between every sector shows how important the process and responsibility are. Building up acceptance, strengthening networks, and ideas for improvement are the cooperation of the communities towards activities in the community. The method is done by promoting the knowledge exchange among the people, which is used to continuous practice. Moreover, the project has designated volunteering networks, met with community leaders to inform them of useful information, and assigned responsible people in the community to proceed accordingly.