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

John Beirne

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


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  • 0
    Hi John,

    I’m not clear on how many of the 1000/25 incidents involve arc-flash, what is the proportion?  And why is it believed to be higher than that figure?  Also, are the system voltages known for these incidents so that the data can be better understood?  There may be specific sectors of work where most of the incidents occur – I suspect that not many occur in your ‘everyday’ commercial low voltage network.

    Are these arc flash incidents due to switching or some other mode, such as those which might occur while working on live switchgear? 

    Regards arc-flash incidents due to switching, perhaps the root issue might be that switchgear with internal arc containment had not been installed.  In that case it reasonably ought to be asked, why not?

    Where arc containment could not be reasonably achieved at the switching device, it would be useful to know if the those proportion of incidents, occur as result of the existing standards and guidance being ignored.  For example, had a reasonable assessment of risk been carried out per IEC 61641? Or were the risk assessment / PPE requirements ignored?

    “How can we reduce the risk of arc flash?”

    If the equipment and guidance are already available to manage the risk, perhaps effort is required to be expended in training and awareness, and understanding where to focus that effort.  I suspect that the target audience would be specific segments of the facilities maintenance market, but I’m open to being corrected.

    As an aside, I have noticed growing emphasis on arc flash in various places in the industry but I’m not sure what has stimulated it – any ideas?  Has there been a recent rise in arc flash incidents?

Reply
  • 0
    Hi John,

    I’m not clear on how many of the 1000/25 incidents involve arc-flash, what is the proportion?  And why is it believed to be higher than that figure?  Also, are the system voltages known for these incidents so that the data can be better understood?  There may be specific sectors of work where most of the incidents occur – I suspect that not many occur in your ‘everyday’ commercial low voltage network.

    Are these arc flash incidents due to switching or some other mode, such as those which might occur while working on live switchgear? 

    Regards arc-flash incidents due to switching, perhaps the root issue might be that switchgear with internal arc containment had not been installed.  In that case it reasonably ought to be asked, why not?

    Where arc containment could not be reasonably achieved at the switching device, it would be useful to know if the those proportion of incidents, occur as result of the existing standards and guidance being ignored.  For example, had a reasonable assessment of risk been carried out per IEC 61641? Or were the risk assessment / PPE requirements ignored?

    “How can we reduce the risk of arc flash?”

    If the equipment and guidance are already available to manage the risk, perhaps effort is required to be expended in training and awareness, and understanding where to focus that effort.  I suspect that the target audience would be specific segments of the facilities maintenance market, but I’m open to being corrected.

    As an aside, I have noticed growing emphasis on arc flash in various places in the industry but I’m not sure what has stimulated it – any ideas?  Has there been a recent rise in arc flash incidents?

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