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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
    That leaflet would be more use to the average sparks if instead of just saying wear cotton undies (*) for irradiance energies up to 4 cal/cm2 or whatever,   it added a 'typical case' column that related that in some way to a representative  situation  for each class - it is not easy without a lot of extra knowledge and calculation to say if that equates to working on a circuit protected by a 13A fuse, or working on a bus bar protected by a 100A mains fuse, or climbing a pylon...


    Calories per square cm probably sound to most folk like a measure of the diet ratings for sandwich fillers,  now some of us can do the hard sums  but to say ' equivalent to working 100mm from conductors protected by an XYZ fuse  at PQR voltage' would be far more informative and avoid serious decimal point errors- or better still add a few worked examples. as appendices.

    regards

    Mike


    (& perhaps add advice to bring a spare pair of said cotton undies if you have a  nervous stomach. I know at least one high power RF designer who always vanishes to the gents for 5mins just before 1st switch on of any new system ?)


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  • 0
    That leaflet would be more use to the average sparks if instead of just saying wear cotton undies (*) for irradiance energies up to 4 cal/cm2 or whatever,   it added a 'typical case' column that related that in some way to a representative  situation  for each class - it is not easy without a lot of extra knowledge and calculation to say if that equates to working on a circuit protected by a 13A fuse, or working on a bus bar protected by a 100A mains fuse, or climbing a pylon...


    Calories per square cm probably sound to most folk like a measure of the diet ratings for sandwich fillers,  now some of us can do the hard sums  but to say ' equivalent to working 100mm from conductors protected by an XYZ fuse  at PQR voltage' would be far more informative and avoid serious decimal point errors- or better still add a few worked examples. as appendices.

    regards

    Mike


    (& perhaps add advice to bring a spare pair of said cotton undies if you have a  nervous stomach. I know at least one high power RF designer who always vanishes to the gents for 5mins just before 1st switch on of any new system ?)


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