We have switchgear that has a main breaker rated as a level 4 for ppe if you were to operate it. The feeder that needs to be racked out is listed as DANGEROUS after a arc flash survey. We open and close the breakers remotely . Now after opening this cb listed as DANGEROUS would the main switchgear breaker need to be opened before racking this to the disconnect or remove position ? There has not been any PM on gear in over 4 years or more. I would like to ask some of your opiniuns on how you would handle it. This would be fielded to electrical contractor.
would the main switchgear breaker need to be opened before racking this to the disconnect or remove position ?
By this I take you to mean switchgear main breaker.
If this is a single bus arrangement with feeder breakers fed from a main breaker then yes.
The safest way is to remotely open the feeder breakers, then open the main breaker.
With the feeder line and load side stabs dead you can safely rack out any feeder breaker.
The point being you want the line and load stabs dead before any racking is done.
Then energize switchboard in the reverse order.
If you need to rack out the main and cannot shut down the line side of it then I would recommend the remote racking device mentioned earlier to minimize risk to personnel.