About Us

Welcome to Safearth

We’re a specialist electrical engineering group providing world-recognized expertise in safe power grounding systems.

Safearth delivers comprehensive grounding solutions and management to safeguard people and infrastructure from electrical faults and lightning. Since being established more than 30 years ago, we’ve designed and tested thousands of grounding systems for high voltage installations, for power utilities, mines, oil & gas sites, and other industries.

ABOUT US

Culture & Values

Fostering Excellence and Innovation

We are “an engineer’s engineering business”. Our team has incredible abilities and ideas, and we strive to create a work environment (both in our workshop and on site) where they can achieve their very best.

We encourage our team to take the next step from having an ‘idea’ by providing a lab and workshop in which they can quickly prototype ideas to see if they are any good. Tight iterative loops of “idea > build it > test it > analyse > develop idea” both result in excellent outcomes, but also encourage our team to always think about improvement. These improvements might come in the shape of new test equipment, a new testing process, better analysis software, or more valuable reports. The mix of technical and practical also results in solutions that will better suit our clients.

Balance

Visitors to our head office often compare us to Google. Yes, we have a gym, beer garden, pool table, foozball table, table tennis, lounges and a very good coffee machine. But we also have things like trailers and workshop tools that people can borrow. All of this builds a wonderful sense of community, which flows into our professional services and solutions.

Partnership

We work with clients, not just for them – this always yields better results

Most of our jobs involve an element of on-site training – we want owners to understand their systems better

We’re open to our clients phoning us up, asking for help or advice.

We firmly believe in sticking to the areas of our expertise (per the Engineers Australia charter), and so we often work in partnership with other engineering service providers in order to deliver the best outcomes.

Commitment to Others

We serve our community by supporting non-profits and charities, as well as our unpaid involvement in industry bodies.

ABOUT US

Our History

We’ve put together a timeline charting key milestones over our thirty-plus year history in the grounding industry.

ABOUT US

Our Team

With more than 25 degree-qualified specialist engineers, Safearth is one of the largest and most experienced team of grounding engineers in the world.

Senior Staff

  • Stephen Palmer

    BEng, GradCertBA, FIEAust, SMIEEE, CPEng, EngExec, RPEng, NER, APEC Engineer, IntPE(Aus), RPEQ #22253, MAICD

    Managing Director

    • Company Director
    • Trainer (International)
    • Standards Committee Rep.
    • Conference Presenter
    • Key industries:
      • Power Utilities
      • Generators
      • Rail
      • Mining
      • Tunneling
      • Construction
  • Keith Wallace

    BSEE, MIEEE

    Engineering Director - Americas

    • Consulting Management
    • Trainer (International)
    • Standards Committee Rep.
    • Conference Presenter
    • Key Industries:
      • Power Utilities
      • Generators
  • Bryan Beske

    B.Sc., P.Eng

    Principal Engineer

    • Consultant
    • Trainer (International)
    • Standards Committee Rep.
    • Conference Presenter
    • Key Industries:
      • Power Utilities
      • Generators
  • Bill Tocher

    BEng, MIEAust, CPEng, SMIEE

    Specialist Consultant

    • Director
    • Consultant
    • Trainer (International)
    • Conference Presenter
    • Key Industries:
      • Power Utilities
      • Defence
      • Construction

ABOUT US

Professional Representation

Safearth is proud to serve on many national and international organizations in our field. We contribute to the improving industry standards and the knowledge of these communities, and also ensure our approaches match the world’s best practice. We are represented on the following committees, some as working group chair.

  • IEEE Std 80 – Guide For Safety In AC Substation Grounding
  • IEEE Std 81 – Guide For Measuring Earth Resistivity, Ground Impedance, and Earth Surface Potentials of a Grounding System
  • IEEE Std 693 – Recommended Practices for Seismic Design of Substations
  • IEEE Std 837 – Standard For Qualifying Permanent Connections Used in Substation Grounding
  • IEEE Std 998 – Guide For Direct Lightning Stroke Shielding of Substations
  • IEEE Std 1048 – Guide for Protective Grounding of Power Lines
  • IEEE Std 1246 – Guide For Temporary Protective Grounding Systems Used in Substations
  • IEEE Std 1268 – Guide For Safety in the Installation of Mobile Substation Equipment
  • IEEE PES Substations Committee
  • Cigre Study Committee B3 (Substations)
  • ENA EG-0 (Power System Grounding)
  • AS2067 (Substations and HV Installations)
  • AS3007 (Electrical Installations in Mining)
  • AS/NZS1768 (Lightning Protection)

We also regularly contribute to a range of major conferences, as presenters and tutorial trainers, including:

  • IEEE ESMO
  • IEEE T&D
  • CIGRE Session
  • CIRED
  • CEATI Stations
  • TechCon
  • CEATI Grounding & Lightning
  • Powertest
  • Down To Earth Conference (Australia)