Utility Tagouts

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eric9822

eric9822

Senior Member
Location
Camarillo, CA
Occupation
Electrical and Instrumentation Tech
One of the utility service feeds to our facilty has no means for us to attach a lock once it has been opened by the utillity. After the utility opens the overhead knife switches they hang plastic hooked tags on the switches. I have been looking everywhere for these tags so we can purchase some to use as a tagout means when we need to perform work that requires the utility to isolate our power. Anyone know where I can find them?
 
Went down this road at a plant I worked at a good number of years ago. The solution was for the plant to pay the utility to pay to have pole top cutouts installed that where operable from the base of the pole. Such switches have a place to accommodate a padlock. As I remember, the 13.2 was right around 20 amps, and it did cost the plant right around $1600 bucks to have the switch style changed out. Small potatoes.
 
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eric9822 said:
One of the utility service feeds to our facility has no means for us to attach a lock once it has been opened by the utility. . . Anyone know where I can find them?
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You have no business doing any work on the utility side of the service point. The serving electric utility has a dispatcher that controls the switching from a central location and tells or gives permission for switching to be done. Just in case someone calls and a trouble-man shows up, the tag is a warning to the trouble-man to verify before closing the cutout.

If this customer is renting the overhead facilities, the rules may be different. Nevertheless, Marc is correct. Your customer needs a ground controlled, gang operated switch for this situation. :)
 
eric9822 said:
One of the utility service feeds to our facilty has no means for us to attach a lock once it has been opened by the utillity. After the utility opens the overhead knife switches they hang plastic hooked tags on the switches. I have been looking everywhere for these tags so we can purchase some to use as a tagout means when we need to perform work that requires the utility to isolate our power. Anyone know where I can find them?
Click to expand...

Your LOTO policy will have to be modified to address this procedure per OSHA 1910.269. Many requirements there regarding your written policy, OSHA is very strict about using tags, make sure you read 269.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

The solution was for the plant to pay the utility to pay to have pole top cutouts installed that where operable from the base of the pole. Such switches have a place to accommodate a padlock.
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I agree this would be the best long term solution and I plan on persuing it. The other utility yards we have all have this arrangement and we can secure the utility switches with padlocks. What we have been doing is attaching our "Do Not Operate" tags to the utility's tags and having the utility hang our tags. Taping a "Do Not Operate Tag" on the utility's tag does not strike me as very professional which is why I am trying to procure some we can personalize.

You have no business doing any work on the utility side of the service point.
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We don't do any work on the utility side and we don't do any of the switching. We perform PM's on all our switchgear on a 2 year frequency. The only way to perform maintenance on our main breaker is to have the utility isolate power. All switching is done by the utility and then locks or tags are applied by us under the supervision of the utility.

Your LOTO policy will have to be modified to address this procedure per OSHA 1910.269.
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We usually prohibit the use of tags in lieu of locks. In this case we currently have no choice. What we have been doing is building a "virtual lockbox". A tag is hung on the 3 individual knife switches by the utility. Three matching release tags are then placed in a lockbox that all workers then place a lockout padlock on. The utility will not remove our tag from the switches and/or close the switches unless I personally tell them they can. I will not tell the utility they can until everyones lock is removed from the box and I have the corresponding release tags in my hand.

Again thanks for the replies. Anyone have a source for the plastic tags with hooks?
 
eric9822 said:
We don't do any work on the utility side and we don't do any of the switching. We perform PM's on all our switchgear on a 2 year frequency. The only way to perform maintenance on our main breaker is to have the utility isolate power. All switching is done by the utility and then locks or tags are applied by us under the supervision of the utility.
Click to expand...

They should ask you to sign on to thier tagout, we do it all the time. They also should require a double visible break.



eric9822 said:
We usually prohibit the use of tags in lieu of locks. In this case we currently have no choice. What we have been doing is building a "virtual lockbox". A tag is hung on the 3 individual knife switches by the utility. Three matching release tags are then placed in a lockbox that all workers then place a lockout padlock on. The utility will not remove our tag from the switches and/or close the switches unless I personally tell them they can. I will not tell the utility they can until everyones lock is removed from the box and I have the corresponding release tags in my hand.
Click to expand...

Either way, your LOTO written procedure needs to reflect this, one of the most common OSHA fines.

eric9822 said:
Again thanks for the replies. Anyone have a source for the plastic tags with hooks?
Click to expand...

www.lss.com
 
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