Eleectrical Safety Program

[nhee2]

The new company I have joined has a pretty detailed health and safety manual - however it does not address electrical safety. I've mentioned that it should and have been rewarded with an opportunity to develop the new portion of the manual.

We are a small engineering firm, mostly civil/mechanical/process engineers, (I am electrical/controls) so most personnel should not be working near any electrical components. However during construction/startup there are opportunities for people to be in the area of open, energized cabinets and motor controls. I am wondering if anyone has a good template or example of a basic electrical safety program applicable to this type of audience.

 

[mgookin]

A well worded question will yield a great answer on this forum. Let me see if I understand what you are dealing with...

An engineering firm.
Site visits compel employees to visit a site and you want them to be safe while on site?

So we're not worried about receptionist, customers, etc.? There are no projects in-house where the hazards exist?

 

[kwired]

The new company I have joined has a pretty detailed health and safety manual - however it does not address electrical safety. I've mentioned that it should and have been rewarded with an opportunity to develop the new portion of the manual.

We are a small engineering firm, mostly civil/mechanical/process engineers, (I am electrical/controls) so most personnel should not be working near any electrical components. However during construction/startup there are opportunities for people to be in the area of open, energized cabinets and motor controls. I am wondering if anyone has a good template or example of a basic electrical safety program applicable to this type of audience.

Did this manual address other mechanical /process hazards that may be encountered at such a site visit?

The site may have their own safety program they expect visitors to follow as well is something else to consider and I'm sure you probably have run into.

 

[nhee2]

thanks for the replies.

We're an engineering firm in an regular office environment. Engineers will often go off site to customer sites in an industrial / process setting. For startup or field data collection, it is likely that our engineers would be in the vicinity of exposed, energized equipment (probably 480 VAC motor controls, or 120 VAC control circuits). Certain customers will / do most certainly have their own safety rules/programs, for electrical, confined space, fall protection, etc. However our company does not have any formal 'program' written down for electrical safety. The guidance for most personnel in our company should be - stay away from exposed energized components and let the qualified techs/electricians work this equipment. However even if our folks are not working the equipment, they might be with the qualified techs and can provide a peer check for the tech if familiar with things like live-dead-live verifications, approach boundaries, PPE requirements, etc.

NFPA 70E Annex E describes the concepts/contents of the program - I am just curious if any other smaller engineering firms on the forum have established any formal electrical programs into their safety programs, based on the guidance of 70E.

 

[nhee2]

mgookin

we are not concerned with home-office hazards (other than general office considerations). We don't have any shop floor/test labs or other areas with exposed energized equipment. Any office 'repairs' or maintenance would be performed by an EC.

thanks