480V Electrical Cabinets

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BiomedTech

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Biomed Tech
Calling all you High Voltage Experts!

I have worked with Electrical Equipment for over 26 years now, but I have a High Volt question.

When you are working with High Voltage, I know you are to have the proper PPE - Shoe, Cloths and Glove.

Specifically, a Cabinet that is energized and cannot be de energized. When OSHA States a "qualified person" what is the rule? A Certified Electrician? Looking for the rules in OR, NV, UT, AZ, CO, ND and NE. In CA it has to be a Certified Electrician, is it the same in every state? Thank you in advance for the information.
 
ron said:
OSHA has specifics as to who is qualified. I know licensed Electricians and Engineers that are not Qualified Persons, and I know unlicensed Electricians and Engineers that are Qualified Persons per OSHA.
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That is not always the case.
In most cases, especially NFPA70E, it the employer that gets to decided which person(s) are qualified to perform specific tasks.

Even as a consulting engineer many companies considered me as a qualified person for performing some tasks associated with exposed energized equipment/conductors.
 
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jim dungar said:
That us not always the case.
In most cases, especially NFPA70E, it the employer that gets to decided which person(s) are qualified to perform specific tasks.

Even as a consulting engineer many companies considered me as a qualified person for performing some tasks associated with exposed energized equipment/conductors.
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But you are education on what job is being performed? Correct? Are you a Licensed Electrician? Or grew up working on it and was adopted in, whichever the case maybe.
 
BiomedTech said:
But you are education on what job is being performed? Correct? Are you a Licensed Electrician? Or grew up working on it and was adopted in, whichever the case maybe.
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No, I was never licensed as an electrician nor grandfathered in. I am an engineer.
 
BiomedTech said:
Calling all you High Voltage Experts!

I have worked with Electrical Equipment for over 26 years now, but I have a High Volt question.

When you are working with High Voltage, I know you are to have the proper PPE - Shoe, Cloths and Glove.

Specifically, a Cabinet that is energized and cannot be de energized. When OSHA States a "qualified person" what is the rule? A Certified Electrician? Looking for the rules in OR, NV, UT, AZ, CO, ND and NE. In CA it has to be a Certified Electrician, is it the same in every state? Thank you in advance for the information.
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Federally and most states employer domentation of knowledge, skills and training make a qualified person not just a Certified Electrician for live work
But in other states like California license may also required
OSHA rules on live work nfpa 70e followed in all states
 
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BiomedTech said:
Specifically, a Cabinet that is energized and cannot be de energized
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In addition to everything else it must be justified energized work. It is not common when you can meet the requirements to justify energized work. However, there are provisions to permit troubleshooting on energized equipment.

Exactly what cannot be shutdown?

In the plant I spent a lot of time at, there was NO energized work, other than troubleshooting. They did have an energized work permit, and it required the signature of the plant electrical engineer and plant manager, but it was never used because the word from corporate was that if they signed that permit and something went wrong both of those persons would be fired.

There were a lot of projects where we did the preliminary work, and then waited months for an outage to complete the work. Even landing conductors for 120 volt controls was not permitted if the panel was energized.
 
Deltaforce said:
In manufacturing plants like aluminium smeltering, cement rotary kiln, glass manufacturing etc no option for shutdown
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If they do not have UPS or on-line cogeneration they will have shut downs whenever the utility is lost during a natural disaster.

The reality is most plants have portions of their facilities that can be shut down while other areas are left energized. If not there is propably no need to have a large maintenance department.
 
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jim dungar said:
If they do not have UPS or on-line cogeneration they will have shut downs whenever the utility is lost during a natural disaster.

The reality is most plants have portions of their facilities that can be shut down while other areas are left energized. If not there is propably no need to have a large maintenance department.
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Types of manufacturing plants, shutdown cause equipment damage and financial loss, necessitate live work
 
Working at large hospitals there were shutdowns of every area and systems at times. Scheduling was usually after midnight and provisions were made for emergencies that may occur during the shutdowns. Patients were relocated and personnel were onboard and ready if something should happen.

One hospital had an unplanned outage (switchgear fire) and MASH type tents were erected in the parking lot for emergency rooms while patients were relocated to other hospitals.

The point is, every facility can be shut down if scheduled and provisions are in place.
 
rambojoe said:
What is biomed?
I is not education neither.
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Spent my last 10 years working in a large hospital and was only allowed into the Biomed Kingdom twice. They were the best equipped department. I needed a resistor to repair a board so I asked them for one. They had drawers filled with them. They were in the opposite corner of our large basement where only lost soles walked near. For some reason nobody talked about them.
 
Deltaforce said:
Such
Types of manufacturing plants, shutdown cause equipment damage and financial loss, necessitate live work
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But if there is an accident, they have to prove the risk was worth working energized. Thats where lawyers come in. Mainly if risk to human life due to shutdown, is the only reason you can really get away with it. Financial loss will be not be a good excuse in a court case.
 
hillbilly1 said:
But if there is an accident, they have to prove the risk was worth working energized. Thats where lawyers come in. Mainly if risk to human life due to shutdown, is the only reason you can really get away with it. Financial loss will be not be a good excuse in a court case.
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Risk to human life under greater hazard test
The other exception the task infeasible in deenergized state and third testing and troubleshooting.
These three exceptions for live work with documentation allowed in court
 
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