430.102(B)(2) Exception (b)

[sparkyguy545]

Exception clearly notes "In industrial installations . . ."
Not to be picky, but since it is not defined in Article 100, what is an "Industrial installation"?

It's obvious that a plant that manufactures widgets is an Industrial Installation, but what about other facilities that are not as clear. Specifically, would a Water Treatment Plant or a Wastewater Treatment fall into that category? Most often, these do not have an AHJ, as such. They loosely fall under local self-policing bodies.

In my case, our design and construction projects never have an Inspector of any type involved. It falls on the Design Engineer (in my case me) to make the NEC Code decisions. You want to do what is right, but often there just isn't anyone to ask, except for sources & forums such as this. If a Wastewater Treatment Plant restricts electrical service to only qualified staff, and if they follow a written safety procedure for LOTO (such as 70E), then would they be eligible? I don't want to conclude a local disconnect can be omitted if my analysis is fundamentally flawed.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

That is a good question. I would not have considered a water treatment facility an industrial setting but it doesn't matter what we think. That may be an AHJ call.

 

[augie47]

From my experience as an inspector, when I encounter a situation where the E/C desired to use that exception and I ask the facility to provide documentation of their LOTO and confirm they want to exclude the disconnect. To date, none have requested to be listed under the exception and desired the disconnect be omitted.

 

[jim dungar]

As a reference only, 240.2 contains a definition of 'supervised industrial location' for use in article 240.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Industrial=manufacturing or assembly
Commercial=sales, office or service

Kind of the short version.

 

[jim dungar]

Industrial=manufacturing or assembly
Commercial=sales, office or service

Kind of the short version.

So what is the 'physical' plant in a medical complex?
How about a 5000sqft metal fabrication building with a 400A single phase service?

 

[kwired]

I think the AHJ gets to decide what they accept as "an industrial establishment operating under conditions of maintenance and supervision that ensure that only qualified persons monitor and supervise the system" which is mentioned in many places in the NEC.

Around here they only recognize places that have full time electrical maintenance crews as a start to determine if the place qualifies. This means the electricians are employees of the company and not contractors, they also must be qualified electricians not just a mechanic or janitior that happens to know a few things about electricity.

There are not too many places allowed to use this particular exception to many rules within 100 miles of me that I am aware of.