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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
    I would support a lot of what is said here - there's a general ignorance of arc flash in LV systems, the forms of our switchgear and majority of working practices should render an arc flash incidence a remote possibility these days, and perhaps some guidance could be given in terms of prospective fault current vs fault time and working distance, as Mike has said.


    Battery storage systems might well be the game changer here, although good system design can help reduce the risks.


    I also agree that cal/cm2 is not really the sorts of SI unit that we are used to in the UK - but the issue is that conversion to Joules is not linear with temperature, and most arc flash PPE is manufactured for those units - so that's another learning curve to get over.


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  • 0
    I would support a lot of what is said here - there's a general ignorance of arc flash in LV systems, the forms of our switchgear and majority of working practices should render an arc flash incidence a remote possibility these days, and perhaps some guidance could be given in terms of prospective fault current vs fault time and working distance, as Mike has said.


    Battery storage systems might well be the game changer here, although good system design can help reduce the risks.


    I also agree that cal/cm2 is not really the sorts of SI unit that we are used to in the UK - but the issue is that conversion to Joules is not linear with temperature, and most arc flash PPE is manufactured for those units - so that's another learning curve to get over.


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