Maximum Busway disconnect height

[sevlander]

I have a customer in a manufacturing facility that wants to circuit multiple production tables with cord drops from busways mounted to the bar joists. There would be a 3pole 30A busway plugin breaker enclosure above each table with 3 single pole breakers supplying (3) 120V cord drops with female twistlock cord bodies to each table. Each busway will be supplied by a 100A fused disconnect switch at production floor level. The kicker is that they ceilings ae 35' high. The reason for mounting the bus this high is they plan to build a second floor and raise the entire production table set up to that level in the future.
My concern is that the original floor level design with 35' cord drops may not satisfy the NEC 368.17C requirement to have the disconnect operating means for the branch circuit cord drop to be accessible via stick or chain , etc from floor level (there is no plan to have any system like this in place). Their argument is that it is an industrial process serviced by authorized personnel only and the ability to shut the entire busway off from the floor level disconnect switches would make this acceptable.
My interpretation is that the branch circuit would still need a disconnecting means for each circuit accessible without going up on a lift to service the cord drop. The cord and plug connection satisfies the disconnecting means for the table equipment, but not the branch circuit itself.

I would like to hear others interpretations and comments on this issue. Thanks!

 

[CodeCheck]

Busway height

Busway height

(From the viewpoint of an inspector)
If I were inspecting this installation, and the approved plans did not specifically address the 368.17C issue, I would fail it.

If I were plan-checking it, I would go to the customer's statement about this being a supervised facility and ask them to submit a proposal under the provisions for alternate materials and methods. If their documentation was sufficiently convincing that the safety intent of the code would still be met, the building official might approve it.

Another alternative would be to have an overcurrent device in a box at the bottom of the drops, rather than the breakers at the busway, and to use exception 1 to 368.17C.

Douglas Hansen

 

[sevlander]

Local AHJ will allow

Local AHJ will allow

Results of discussions with the local AHJ have resulted in the design going forward as requested with the breakers at 35' since authorized personnel only able to maintain the system via on site lifts owned by the company. No paperwork was requested by the AHJ. Thanks for your input Doug. The fact that the codes are open to interpretation and final say is from the individual AHJ is what creates half of the questions on the forum.