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Arc Flash: ‘It Will Never Happen to Me’ - One of the UK’s Most Overlooked Safety Risks

The HSE states that around 1,000 workplace electrical incidents are reported to them each year including circa 25 fatalities a year. However, it is also believed that arc flash incidents are far higher than officially reported.

I would like to think that you would all agree that the above mentioned amount of incidents is not acceptable. Therefore, how can we reduce the risk of arc flash? I am working with IET Safety Panel reviewing the ‘Arc Flash Protection Fact Sheet’ and I need your help to understand why we have so many incidents and fatalities and investigate barriers to reduce such incidents and fatalities.

Some of my thoughts are:

PPE Regulations (EU) 2016/425.

Does PPE Regulations (EU) 2016/425 satisfy your requirements? (yes we need to drop the EU).

Do they need amending and if so where and why?

Reporting.

Is there a requirement to improve the incident reporting format, to provide greater clarity and understanding of how such incidents occur, thus allowing us to look at the human factor elements?

Training.

Is there a requirement to improve training and or standards with respect to arc flash?

There is a various amount of literature about control measures and how to mitigate arc flash, which can be confusing. Is there a generic risk assessment for Switching (Either LV or HV) that identifies arc flash?

Is the arc flash risk assessment understandable and easy to follow?

Personal Experience.

You may have witnessed arc flash and wish to inform us why you believed it occurred.

Thank you for reading this forum and trying to promote a safer working environment for your fellow electrical engineers. I look forward to your constructive replies.

Kind regards,

John

Parents

0 Former Community Member over 4 years ago

These are the figures I found. The 15004 figure includes short circuits and overloads, rise in voltage above statutory limits, collapse of structures, unauthorised access etc.

Regards

BOD

https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/tables/index.htm#esqcr

Safety-related electrical incidents reported to HSE in Great Britain 2015/16 - 2019/20p

Source: Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations (ESQCR)

Year

Incident type (a)

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19r

2019/20p

Fatal injuries

Serious (non-fatal) injuries

434

351

315

252

231

Other Events (b)

14,921

14,588

13,478

14,993

15,004

Table reference

Explanation

Incident type' (a)

An incident can cause more than one fatality or injury. The total number of injuries are presented in the table

Other events' (b)

Examples of reportable 'other events' include: any short circuit or overload; death of domestic pets or livestock that would indicate the existence of potential current flow sufficient to kill a person; public access to exposed live conductors or any contact with live conductors by persons, plant or equipment used by members of the public; events where the failure of a protective multiple earthing (PME) neutral causes a rise in voltage above statutory limits; reverse polarity on customer’s premises or street furniture where the error is found to be located in connections under the control of a duty holder; partial or complete collapse of structures including buildings and wind turbines; unauthorised access to any high voltage equipment including substations; theft or attempted theft of operational apparatus e.g. the removal of earth conductor from a pole or in a ground-mounted type substation

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