Learn more about ECCS

About the Energy Coalition for Contractor Safety
The Energy Coalition for Contractor Safety (ECCS) is a group of North Dakota companies working together to achieve workplace safety excellence through standardized workplace safety practices, training and screening of contractor employees. See ECCS Guidelines for complete details.

The ECCS mission is:
Working together with our contractors, we will achieve safety excellence by providing a safe and healthy workplace.

ECCS members include:
Basin Electric Power Cooperative* – Antelope Valley Station, Leland Olds Station, Laramie River Station, Dry Fork Station, and Distributive Generation Facilities; Bobcat Company; Dakota Gasification Company*; Great River Energy* – Coal Creek Station; Minnkota Power Cooperative*; Montana Dakota Utilities* – Heskett Station; North American Coal – Falkirk and Freedom Mines; and Otter Tail Power* – Coyote Station.

* Founding members.

Proven Success
There is much activity occurring in North Dakota which has led to an increase in injuries and fatalities for many industries. However, because of our combined efforts to achieve safety excellence, incident rates among the ECCS coalition members are decreasing overall, while man hours are increasing.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Here is an example of a 13-year period comparing manhours vs. incident rates

History of the Coalition
September 1996, the Energy Managers Association recognized the need to improve contractor safety at their facilities. They formed a task force comprised of dedicated safety professionals and challenged them to find a way to create a standard for workplace safety excellence. The task force gathered input from contractors and identified a need for consistency among area companies for contractor policies and procedures. By joining forces with other facilities, the Energy Coalition for Contractor Safety was formed in January 1997 and they began pursuing their mission of ensuring the safety of contractor employees on their worksites.

The North Dakota Safety Council is the administrator of the ECCS database.