Hot work or not?

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Joshewing02

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Las Vegas, NV, USA
This is new for me so bare with me. I was working along side a contractor who was in the rear door of a cabinet of a 480V switchgear getting ready to pull wire in a underground conduit. The main bussing was energized but was almost completely covered by the Glastic insultor panels. I say almost because you could get to the live parts if you wanted to through the cracks or poke a fish tape in the holes. Anyways I pointed out to him he really should shut the gear down as I would consider this to be live electrical work. He waived me off and tried arguing saying the section of gear is not live. I brought it up to his supervisor that I think something needs to be corrected here, he also tried explaining the exposed bussing was dead therefor the wire pull is not considered hot work. This really got under my skin and I am now starting to think I am wrong.... Would this not be considered hot work? I can't really find a direct answer in the NFPA-70E and OSHA just keeps saying "exposed live parts". What is exposed? If the main bussing is 95% covered by insulator plates would this still not be considered exposed?

thanks for any feed back
 
Take a look at the definition of "Arc Flash Hazard" in 70E. Even totally enclosed equipment can still present a danger under the wrong conditions.

Also while the conductors may be technically totally insulated, also look at the "Insulated" definition: It does not apply to abnormal operating conditions such as potentially exposing conductors to high force and impact that can come from a wire pull.

The way I look at it: 35kV bus in metal-clad gear is also totally insulated. Yet I think we can all agree it would be suicidal to pretend pulling into that gear isn't hot work.
 
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