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Emergency Lighting

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Is it a requirement for High Voltage Switchrooms and internal Substations to be equipped with Emergency Task/Emergency Escape Lighting or does this represent a fire hazard in this environment?


Thanks
  • 0
    Why would it represent a fire hazard?
  • 0
    I am not aware of any regulation that says in so many words that "emergency lighting must be provided in substations" However good practice and a general duty of care under general regulations suggests that it should be provided, at least at larger or more complex sites.


    Most small DNO substations that I have seen do not have emergency lighting, They are simple and typically contain only an 11 KV ring main switch, a single transformer, and an LV fuse board. Any staff attending should be equipped with handlamps or other lighting equipment.


    Larger or more complex substations and switchrooms that I have seen DO have emergency lighting. Provision of same greatly simplifies fault finding, alterations and repairs, and facilitates escape if it all goes horribly wrong.


    I fail to see that properly installed emergency lighting would be a fire risk. Standard self contained battery operated emergency lights are often the cheapest and easiest to install. A better quality solution IMHO is a small central battery system but with the output switched by the same control as the room lighting. This avoids the needless discharging of the battery during a prolonged external power failure.
  • 0
    According to the IET Electrician's Guide to Emergency Lighting, 3rd Ed, p55:


    "BS 5266-1 advises that emergency lighting should be provided for .... (e) Motor generator, control, plant and switch rooms. Battery-powered emergency lighting should be provided in all motor generator rooms, control rooms, plant rooms, switch rooms and adjacent to main control equipment associated with the provision of normal and emergency lighting to the premises."
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    broadgage:

    Larger or more complex substations and switchrooms that I have seen DO have emergency lighting. Provision of same greatly simplifies fault finding, alterations and repairs, and facilitates escape if it all goes horribly wrong.


    I fail to see that properly installed emergency lighting would be a fire risk. Standard self contained battery operated emergency lights are often the cheapest and easiest to install. A better quality solution IMHO is a small central battery system but with the output switched by the same control as the room lighting. This avoids the needless discharging of the battery during a prolonged external power failure.


    Larger substations often have significant battery capacity anyway (for the protection relays, recharge motor mechs, SCADA etc) - emergency lighting is often supplied via these batteries as it presents a fairly small proportion of the standing load on the batteries


    Regards


    OMS


  • 0
    You need to do a risk assessment. With the smaller DNO type substation broadgage refers to, it can be more of a hazard. You arrive with no supply, and don’t take a torch because the emergency lights are on. You also don’t operate the light switch as the emergency lights are on.


    The older fuse racks can have a significant amount of exposed live LV metalwork on them. Your restore the supplies, which livens up the fuse rack, then the emergency lights go out and you are left in the dark trying to remember the respective positions of the light switch and the fuse rack . . . 


    Regards,


    Alan.
  • 0
    Not if its a maintained emergency light
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Hi there I'm working on a project at the moment and looking for Cable Conduit of the LSZH Type which is of the strip-type conduit.Do you have any types in mind?.

  • 0

    Switching emergency lighting from the normal lighting switch is quite tricky but I once did it by having the normal lighting switch close to energise a N/C relay that turned the lights off, one pole for normal, one pole for the emergency lights. This meant that when the switch opened or when the normal supply failed, the relay would close and the emergency lights came on.

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