ESS Are Your Arc Flash Study Experts

An arc flash study (also known as an arc flash risk assessment) is required by OSHA and the NFPA 70E to determine the risk level for all areas in which your employees perform work. This is essential to ensuring worker safety, and helps save lives and money by minimizing the risk of injuries and lost time due to accidents. Electrical Safety Specialists (ESS) have a proven process for a turnkey, peace of mind arc flash solution.

As part of a company’s safety protocols, an arc flash study provides insight into steps the employer must take to ensure that workers are protected. With the results of these studies, employers can follow the NFPA 70E steps to eliminate or substitute de-energization, use labeling to raise awareness, provide training, and select the proper equipment for the job. The study typically takes four to six weeks to complete, depending on the size of the facility. It is imperative that an arc flash study is completed before workers are exposed to electrical hazards. An arc flash study should be completed every five years or any time a major modification is made to the facility that may result in increased risk or severity of an accident. 

ESS protocol for arc flash risk assessment includes the following:

• Data Collection: Collect necessary data about the facility’s power distribution system, including details of all three phase electrical components, nameplate specifications and lengths and cross-section of all cables.
• Engineering Analysis of the Data: Perform a short circuit analysis followed by a coordination study and feed the data into NFPA 70E equations to determine the minimum PPE requirement.
• Protective Device Coordination: Coordinate PPE to ensure selection and arrangement are sufficient for mitigating arc flash hazards.
• Arc Flash Calculations: Determine incident energy levels and flash protection boundaries and complete calculations of all relevant equipment busses.
• Arc Flash Study and Analysis Report: Once the calculations are done, deduce the results of the report carefully.
• Label Installation: Create and install warning labels pinpointing incident energy and working distance, arc flash boundary, and nominal system voltage. Include Limited and Restricted approach boundaries, date, upstream protective device and recommended personal protection equipment (PPE) as well.

ESS arc flash Engineering Technicians have extensive experience in commercial and industrial electrical installations and maintenance. They also have substantial training on the intricacies of the data collection process for an arc flash study. Our studies use 100% verified information via boots-on-the-ground information gathering. Our processes are detailed and thorough, ensuring that the integrity of our studies are the best in the business!

For more information about arc flash studies provided by ESS, call (816) 925-0443. To request a quote, click here.