Electrical Upgrade Procedures

[Michael15956]

Hi all,

My electrical company is currently writing operating procedures. The written procedures will cover service upgrades for residential installations.

One of the main focuses will be the disconnections at the service supply wires where they attach to the service entrance conductors, usually at the drip loop. During upgrades we disconnect the service supply wires while they are live/hot. This disconnection is considered the most dangerous part of the job. The written operating procedures will cover steps on how to do this in the most practical and safe way.

Some of the procedures that will be covered are the use of ladders, hand tools and protected clothing and securing the hot supply wires and making them safe before reconnection.

I would appreciate any input from the members of this forum because of the wide knowledge of the membership so that I may be able to write a complete detailed standard operating procedure plan.

Thanks in advance.

Michael

 

[andinator]

Although i've done this before it is surely one of the easiest ways for a resi electrician to get killed. The only reason not to have the POCO diconnect at transformer (safely) is A: no permit, or B: no time. If someone told your guys or the homeowner that there was a 95% chance this act could be don safely but a 5% chance death and mayhem would occur what would be the decision. I've switched to commercial with a large shop in ATL and that kind of procedure is grounds for instant termination.

 

[480sparky]

I'd agree you shouldn't do it this way. If you are going to schedule a date & time with a homeowner to change out their service, you could just as easily call the utility and have a line crew come out and shut things off for you. If you are going to require your people to work on live services, I'll bet OSHA would have a field day. I have always said one thing about that portion of the electrical service: "There's nothing between you and Hoover Dam that's going to protect you."

 

[peter d]

Unfortunately, the two main poco's in my area permit this to be done. In fact, it's quite rare for them to even come out to cut and reconnect a service.

I believe that this is a job for a lineman, not an electrician. They are permitted to work live and are trained for it. We are not. But that's not how it works around here. The burden is on the electrician to do this dangerous work.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Any one or any company that puts in writing how to install a service change under normal circumstances while the power is still on is asking for the court system to put them either in jail or the poor house or both. OSHA has requirements against this kind of work, and putting it in writing is just plain crazy...a lawsuit waiting to happen. I would even say a clever attorney could use this even without any work being performed, let alone someone getting hurt/killed.

The POCOs here also permit the work as such, only they do not condon it to be performed live.

 

[Michael15956]

Thanks and I agree with both of you.
But, on two occasions I asked for a disconnection at the transformer and both times was told many days wait and much cost for the disconnect. And then there is the wait for reconnection and no electric for the customer.

Never been a permit problem, we are state licensed.

 

[Michael15956]

Unfortunately, the two main poco's in my area permit this to be done. In fact, it's quite rare for them to even come out to cut and reconnect a service.

This is what I have run into.

 

[mdshunk]

OSHA has requirements against this kind of work,...

Um... no they don't.

They do have requirements that would need to be followed to perform this type of work safely.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Marc,

They do have requirements that would need to be followed to perform this type of work safely.

No...this type of work is prohibited by OSHA rules. The general rule says "no hot work" and there are a few exceptions, but none would apply to disconnecting or connecting a house service.

1910.333(a)(1)"Deenergized parts." Live parts to which an employee may be exposed shall be deenergized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that deenergizing introduces additional or increased hazards or is infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground need not be deenergized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.
Note 1: Examples of increased or additional hazards include interruption of life support equipment, deactivation of emergency alarm systems, shutdown of hazardous location ventilation equipment, or removal of illumination for an area.
Note 2: Examples of work that may be performed on or near energized circuit parts because of infeasibility due to equipment design or operational limitations include testing of electric circuits that can only be performed with the circuit energized and work on circuits that form an integral part of a continuous industrial process in a chemical plant that would otherwise need to be completely shut down in order to permit work on one circuit or piece of equipment.
Note 3: Work on or near deenergized parts is covered by paragraph (b) of this section.

Don

 

[mdshunk]

Marc,

No...this type of work is prohibited by OSHA rules.

Dog-gone it, it is not. 1910-269 clearly lists the requirements under which this may be done.

 

[infinity]

As I read that OSHA material I see nothing about the owner of the company actually doing the work. You may not be permitted to disconnect and reconnect but your boss certainly could.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Dog-gone it, it is not. 1910-269 clearly lists the requirements under which this may be done.

Marc
For the workers in the company (the handbook is not being designed for the owner), there are very restrictive requirements in OSHA that will not permit this type of work to be performed by the workers. I am not too sure if there would be any cases that OSHA would see as permissible.

 

[Michael15956]

OK, I'll try this.

Has anyone who has installed residential over head service upgrades contacted the local power company and have them disconnect the supply power? If so, how were the results?

Thanks,

Michael

 

[mdshunk]

I am not too sure if there would be any cases that OSHA would see as permissible.

Yes, there are!!!

Work done in accordance with 1910.269 overrides many parts of 1910.332 through 1910.335.

Resist the groupthink and read the section.

Subpart S is for electrical work. 269 is for generation, transmission, and distribution. Cut the drop on the POCO side of the taps, and you're doing distribution.

 

[mdshunk]

 

[peter d]

Regardless of whether OSHA permits this or not, it's still dangerous work that should be done by utility company linemen only. That is strictly my opinion and I realize that the "real world" is far different.

 

[mdshunk]

Regardless of whether OSHA permits this or not, it's still dangerous work that should be done by utility company linemen only.

Why not properly trained and equipped employees of electrical contractors?

 

[Michael15956]

Why not properly trained and equipped employees of electrical contractors?

Well thanks Marc,

You presented a good case for not being an OSHA problem. That info. will be helpful.

If there was a practical way to have the power supply shut off, I would gladly follow the power company's procedures. I guess anybody would rather work with a dead service drop, but again that doesn't seems to happen in the real world.

What we do at the start of an upgrade is turn off all the CBs in the old panel, then remove the meter. At lease there is no load on the drop at this time and it eliminates arcing at the loop. This is the kind of stuff I was looking for help with on this post.

Guess I shouldn't have made the post in the first place, sorry.

 

[mdshunk]

You presented a good case for not being an OSHA problem. That info. will be helpful.

Well, it still is a problem to the extent that many people believe that it is.

Lack of proper training and equipment still makes it something you can't do. Comply with the requirements, and you can. There are many large and small electrical contractors who have a division of the company that does linework. It is these men that receive the training and the equipment to do this work. I think it is safe to say that most inside wiremen, which includes most of the guys who do service upgrades, do not have the necessary training and equipmen to do so and be in compliance.

 

[infinity]

Regardless of whether OSHA permits this or not, it's still dangerous work that should be done by utility company linemen only. That is strictly my opinion and I realize that the "real world" is far different.

We have never had the POCO connect and reconnect a residential service on an upgrade. Personally I have no problem doing this work myself, I don't feel that, for me, it's unsafe or highly dangerous.