Electrical Safety Regulations

What qualifications does one need to open enclosures? Not for servicing, but for scanning. Help appreciated!

in the USA all must comply with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70E, Standard for safety in the electrical workplace. The requirements for opening live equipment are very specific. I suggest you get a copy (online for a fee) and then the training needed to implement it; there are many excellent courses, both online and in person, to help you understand the Standard.

Jesse,

While I concur with Mr. Snell’s  response, particularly about “requirements for opening live equipment are very specific”  and may, in fact ,  require Licensing  for the location you are working in, there are other Hazards involved.

Depending on the enclosures you are working with, their age and physical condition I have seen Doors Fall Off and Into the live circuit, rats, snakes, lizards, spiders and other forms of wildlife jump across the phases and cause considerable damage and faulty safety bypass devices cause system shutdowns.

Not only can You and the folks standing around you get seriously injured, if you are the cause of a Production Shutdown you could be held responsible for the monetary losses.

My suggestion would be to have the Clients Electrician escort you on your inspection route, have the electrician Open & Close the enclosure and remove yourself from the line of fire while the electrician is performing these tasks.

At  minimum, after you have been properly trained, as Mr. Snell suggested,  have a meeting with the Resident Electrician,  do a walk through and find out all the proper procedures to operate any Safety Release Mechanisms involved with the enclosures you will be working with.

Shutting down a clients production line is not only embarrassing but could be costly and as noted below could ruin  your day.

Always use the appropriate PPE be safe not sorry, good luck,

NOTICE BREAKER WAS IN OFF POSITION

This is an excellent question, and one that I think many people would like to ask and for whatever reason do not.

As John mentions, the NFPA-70E is the Handbook for Electrical Safety in The Workplace, and it give very specific guidance for opening of enclosures and what safety measures must be taken, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  What it says about qualifications though is somewhat less comprehensive.  The employer decides who is qualified for particular tasks, including opening of energized panels.  It is my opinion that anyone performing electrical testing or maintenance of any kind should own this standard and become familiar with it.

Further though, we have additional guidance in the qualifications for personnel who are assigned to render electrical equipment exposed for inspection.  The American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard E1934 is the Standard Guide for Examining Electrical and Mechanical Equipment with Infrared Thermography, and it has very specific guideline for what is referred to as "The Qualified Assistant".  This standard states that the qualified assistant is the person designated by the end user (the recipent of the inspection) to perform the duties required by the thermographer, and are to be "knowledgable of the operation and history of the equipment to be examined and of all safety practives and rules of the end user."

At a minimum, anyone who is opening electrical enclosures should be familiar with electrical safety concepts, be able to identify the equipment being opened and knowledgable of the equipments' operation.  Following the guidelines in the two above mentioned standards is a good place to start.

I hope I've helped.

Hi Jesse:

Since you are in Canada and not the USA the document that you actually want is CSA Z462-12 (this just released version replaces CSA Z462-08) which is the Canadian equivalent to NFPA 70E.

You can obtain a copy from http://shop.csa.ca

Everything else that was stated by John and Dave applies except in the USA occupational health and safety related to this topic is governed by Federal OSHA 1910 regulation while in  Canada that is a provincial not federal responsibility.  This means that the interpretation of who is a Qualified Person defined by CSA 462-12 can actually vary from province to province.  Federally we have Bill C-45, a criminal code legislation, which could apply if an employer (director, officer, supervisor) knowingly endangers an employee.  Blatantly ignoring CSA Z462-12 might be interpreted as knowing endangerment but to my knowledge this has not (yet)  been tested in court .

In my opinion every thermographer, whether you are defined as a qualified person or not,  that stands in front of live exposed energized electrical equipment should have a copy of and understand NFPA 70E (or CSA 462-12) and take a class on electrical safety which includes a discussion of Arc Flash AND relevant local regulation and interpretation or the relevant standards.

Kind Regards

Greg

Thanks for the resources! As always, very helpful. This is a standard that I am going to become very familiar with.

Seems like the CSA standard is a little more vague about whom is qualified when compared to the ASTM standard (E1934-99a). ASTM E1934-99a specifies more specifically that only an electrician (or professional engineer) is qualified. Anyone have anything to say in regards to this?

Jesse,

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with your most recent statement.   I've not seen anywhere in the ASTM-E1934-99a the specification that an electrician or PE are the only people qualified to open electrical equipment.  Could you tell me what paragraph or section gave you that impression?

"5.2 Unless he/she is a licensed electrician, professional

engineer or has other equivalent qualifications, the infrared

thermographer:

5.2.1 Shall not perform any tasks that are normally done by

these personnel. Unless so qualified and authorized by the end

user, the infrared thermographer,

5.2.2 Shall not remove or replace covers or open or close

cabinets containing electrical or mechanical equipment,"

And, of course, it goes on...

This section is discussing the responsibilities (and limitations) of the thermographer.  There are seven (7) other sections describing the "responsibilities" of the "qualified assistant", and in those sections there is no requirement listed for licensure.  I believe the intent of the verbiage mentioned in sections 5.2, 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 is to separate the responsibilities of the thermographer from that of the qualified assistant.  Some of our senior staff was involved in the generation of this standard, so hopefully one of them will jump in this thread and grant us some enlightenment.

I do hope you're right. It says quite clearly:

...UNLESS you are an ELECTRICIAN (or some equivalent), you SHALL NOT open enclosures.

Maybe I am overlooking something. I would be very happy if I was.

The way my company ( an investor owned utility of some scale) interprets this regulation/verbiage is that you are qualified to open cabinet doors IF your supervisor or manager has recommended that you perform this task AND you have successfully completed the required training including arc flash training AND wear the proper rated clothing for the equipment in question. This applies to licensed or non licensed electricians, operators, mechanics and yes even the lowly thermographer.......

Jesse,

  NFPA 70B Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, covers some of the same topic in Chapter 7, Personnel Safety. Check out 7.2, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.2.1, and 7.2.2.2 Qualified Personnel... then it goes on talking about Personnel Training. I'd write it all, but it is a couple of pages.

I just took a day-long training session covering CSA Z462-2012 from www.electricityforum.com/.../one-day-csa-z462.html and I highly recommend it. They run courses in the U.S. for NFPA 70E as well.

After taking that course, and since I know enough about electricity, I would be satisfied with calling myself a qualified person for electrical safety for thermography when it comes to the CSA standard.

That said, I would want to be working with a partner who was more qualified and extremely safety-conscious, preferably an electrician, to remove and replace covers, and preferably one who works on-site and therefore knows the system well.

I appreciate the feedback, everyone! I'm trying to cover all our bases to ensure that we are not doing anything that would considered improper. The ASTM standard still seems to be pretty specific about who should or shouldn't open enclosures. There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on this.