Electrical Panels built outside of US

[mtomkins]

Hi Folks,

I'm from little old New Zealand, and I have a client who is looking to build a piece of specialized transportable process plant here in NZ for export to the US where it will be used in various states to demonstrate their specialized technology. The obvious question is, what about electrical compliance? Here in NZ, we have our own standards for electrical equipment and installations, which are all essentially derived from EN, IEC and BS standards and tweaked for local conditions. And of course we are a 230VAC/415VAC 50Hz MEN electrical system, again similar to and based on Euro or BS standards. I understand of course that the US has NFPA70 in its various renditions and of course 110VAC 60Hz as primary LV supply.

The question I have is, is there a mechanism in the US to grant exemptions to panels (switchboards, motor control centers, control panels) built overseas, to recognized overseas standards, to allow those panels to be legally used in the US ? Or is it that they must be built to NFPA70 ?

 

[jaggedben]

Equipment here is listed to UL product standards, not NFPA 70 (the NEC).

There is no common mechanism here to recognize equipment listed to overseas standards. Although I understand that there has been some harmonization of standards, so it may be less difficult to modify equipment to meet UL standards than it used to be. But you'd likely still need to produce a unique version for the US market, for various reasons.

I don't know why you couldn't use US panelboards or switchboards to power your equipment. There may be some confusion regarding terms there. A 'control panel' is not an NEC term and broadly speaking a 'control panel' for process equipment could probably be listed to a standard.