Arc Flash Risk Assessment Is Critical To Ensure Worker Safety

Incident Energy Analyses, commonly referred to as Arc Flash Risk Assessments, are offered by Electrical Safety Specialists, as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 1910.332(d)(1) and NFPA 70E.  The safety study will determine the incident energy risk level for all areas per the IEEE 1854 in which your employees perform work. This is critical to ensuring worker safety. The purpose of these ESS services, including Infrared Thermography and Lockout Tagout, are to increase safety in the workplace while increasing your team’s uptime, efficiency and margins.

 

A comprehensive Arc Flash Risk Assessment is completed in a phased approach which includes on-site data collection, engineering analyses, delivery of arc flash labels, reports and single line drawings.

 

An ESS field technician will collect the necessary information to complete the arc flash risk assessment.  The data included in our study will begin at the point where your team takes ownership of the incoming electrical feed from the utility provider.  For most, this is on the secondary side of the 480V transformer, however some may own their own high voltage equipment or may be fed from a pole-mount transformer.  In all cases, our team will begin collecting your data at the highest point where you have ownership, and will work downstream through your system to include all points deemed capable of producing an arc per the IEEE 1854 standard.  Our data collection will include, but will not be limited to, transformers, main switch gear, motor control centers, distribution panels and branch panels, switchboards, bus duct and corresponding bus plugs, machine control panels and local disconnects.  Every piece of equipment will have its own unique, individually calculated arc flash label created based on the data we collect during phase 1.

 

Once the data collection process is complete, ESS will use the data gathered during phase 1 to build a comprehensive SKM model of your electrical system.  These single line drawings will be the foundation on which each of your engineering studies are completed.  Once the model is in place, our engineers will conduct a short circuit analysis, an interrupt rating analysis, a coordination study and an incident energy analysis.

 

After all the analyses are completed, our team will use the calculated information to create and print the corresponding arc flash labels for your project.

 

 

The third phase of our arc flash risk assessment includes a return trip to your facility for the installation of arc flash labels and a (4)-hour NFPA 70E awareness training.  Our installation process is a thorough and complete process; we will not leave your team with any arc flash labels to apply yourself.  This is done for 2 critical reasons; first, we want to ensure all electrical points are properly labeled.  By installing the label in the correct places, your workers are certain to know the potential hazard on the equipment which they are addressing.  Secondly, by affixing all labels ourselves, our team is allowed to complete a quality check on the original data collection, completed in phase 1.  This also allows ESS to identify changes and updates that your team has conducted in the time between the data collection and the label delivery.

 

ESS is the only arc flash provider in the industry that uses phase 3 as an opportunity to update your report and single line drawings per the findings during delivery of arc flash labels.  In doing this, our field technician will report any changes / updates back to our engineers upon completion of phase 3, allowing the engineer time to update your report and drawings where necessary.  If needed, new labels can also be created during this phase.  Once all reports and drawings are confirmed to be 100% accurate, the report and drawings will be provided to your team. 

 

●      Arc Flash Risk Assessments

●      NFPA 70E / Arc Flash Training

●      Qualified Electrical Worker Training

●      Creation of corporate electrical safety programs

●      Electrical Safety Audits

●      Preventative Maintenance tasking

●      Infrared Thermography / Thermal Imaging

●      Lockout Tagout Procedures and associated training

●      Circuit Tracing

 

For more information about arc flash risk assessments or any other services, call ESS at (816) 925-0443. For a quote, click here.