Energy-Based Observations: Identify Critical Hazards and Verify Controls
February 2, 2026
5 minute read
If you ask a safety professional about their observation data, you’ll often hear the same thing: there are plenty of observations, but it’s hard to know what to do with the information.
Most of the information from observation, hazard ID, or behavior-based safety programs focuses on easy-to-spot issues like PPE or housekeeping.
There is value in these programs and the information they collect, but if we want insights and actions that address high-energy hazards — the things that typically result in SIFs or pSIFs on the job site — we need a more structured approach.
Traditional observations ask open-ended questions like: “What hazards do you see?” and people usually answer with what’s easiest to spot.
What are energy-based observations?
An energy-based observation (EBO) is a data-collection methodology based on the High Energy Control Assessment (HECA) framework developed by the Construction Safety Research Alliance and Edison Electric Institute.
At a high level, EBOs focus on identifying all high-energy hazards in a job task and measuring what percentage have Direct Controls — safeguards directed at the energy that mitigate or eliminate the risk and still work if someone makes a mistake.
This structured approach to monitoring gives companies a clear, measurable way to assess safety in their job tasks. By focusing on hazards that are known to cause the most SIFs, the process shifts from counting injuries, observations, etc. to measuring if appropriate controls are in place for critical hazards.
Related Article Energy-Based Safety: A New Approach to Preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities
The process involves four steps:
Step 1: The set up
Energy-based observations are conducted when monitoring job tasks.
You pick one task and one crew to observe, and then you monitor the work and make your energy-based observations for that one crew performing that one task.
Step 2: Identify high-energy hazards present during the task
High-energy hazards, which are those over 1,500 joules of physical energy, are most likely to cause serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) according to research.
To simplify this concept for in-field assessments, 13 high-energy hazard icons were developed by the Edison Electric Institute. These icons represent the 13 hazards that account for 85% of all SIFs.
Step 3: Assess whether each high-energy hazard has a Direct Control
Direct Controls must meet three criteria:
- Specifically targeted to the energy source
- Effectively mitigating the hazard when properly installed and used, and
- Effective even when someone makes a mistake.
Examples of Direct Controls: Fall arrest systems, lockout/tagout, and engineered barricades.
Not Direct Controls: Training, signage, and situational awareness are not considered Direct Controls as they fail when human error occurs.
Step 4: Calculate the score
The percentage of high-energy hazards with Direct Controls becomes your energy-based observation score.
For example, if you control seven out of ten hazards, that’s 70%. If you control three out of ten, that’s 30%.
Each organization can define what a “good” score is after collecting energy-based observations and setting an initial benchmark.
Why energy-based observations matter
Energy-based observations change how you measure safety.
- Instead of counting injuries that already happened (lagging indicators), or counting the number of observations you have collected (leading indicator, but not very actionable), you’re measuring whether adequate safeguards are present for your most critical hazards.
Furthermore, you can use the metric (calculated score) from the energy-based observation as a KPI to help your organization understand safety capacity in the field.
Properly using energy-based observations helps organizations put Human Organizational Performance principles into practice. It lets you measure safety by looking for the presence of controls, not simply the absence of incidents.
Or, as Todd Conklin says, “Safety is not the absence of events; safety is the presence of defenses”. Energy-based observations and the metrics it delivers align perfectly to the HOP principle.
The actionable intelligence advantage
When you analyze EBO data, you immediately see where controls are strong and where they’re vulnerable. You can break down this information in different ways to help focus your improvement efforts:
- For example, maybe “Electrical Contact with Source >50 volts” consistently shows Direct Controls, but “Falls from Elevation >4 ft” does not. That tells you exactly where to focus improvement efforts.
If you analyze by task type, you might discover that certain operations have significantly lower scores than others. Investigate why. Are there specific challenges controlling excavation hazards during pipeline work? That’s strategic intelligence traditional observations don’t typically provide.
Reduce serious workplace injuries and fatalities
Intelex has incorporated similar energy safety principles into our platform.
Contact us to see how Intelex can help your organization systematically identify and control the hazards that lead to serious injuries and fatalities.
References
Oguz Erkal, E.D. & Hallowell, M.R. (2023, May). Moving beyond TRIR: Measuring and monitoring safety performance with high-energy control assessments. Professional Safety, 68(5), 26-35.
Hallowell, M.R. (2021, December). The art & science of energy-based hazard recognition. Professional Safety, 66(12), 27-33.
