Let’s talk about energized work permits. I’ve seen some extremely long and detailed forms outlining what needs to be in the energized work permit that were up to 6 pages. To make things worse, they duplicate a lot of the information that would be in the work order (WO) and job specific risk analysis for […]
Electrical Safety Program
Electrical Safety Program Requirements in Canada
Something that I have been thinking about lately is: What are the electrical safety program requirements in Canada. OSHA covers all of the USA, and the minimum Electrical Safety Program requirements can be found here – 1910 Subpart S. In Canada, the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, part VIII mentions written procedures a couple […]
Arc Flash Mitigation techniques – Administrative
The second to last line of defence with arc flash mitigation, according to the Hierarchy of Hazard Mitigation, is administrative controls. Administrative controls are implemented after a facility is designed and built, and equipment has been purchased and installed. What the administrative controls really boil down to is your electrical safety program. I’ll break down what that […]
Arc Flash Mitigation Techniques – Engineering
If you can’t eliminate the hazard completely, and you can’t substitute the problem areas of your system with more appropriate methods, then engineering controls are your next best bet for arc flash hazard mitigation. There are many ways that engineering design can mitigate arc flash. You could even argue that every method of arc flash […]
Arc Flash Mitigation Techniques – Substitution
If you can’t eliminate an arc flash hazard, the next best arc flash mitigation technique is substitution. Unfortunately there are not a lot of ways to perform substitution to mitigate arc flash: electrical energy cannot simply be replaced by some other form of energy to provide power to equipment. Substitution of Electrical Equipment You can, however, […]
Arc Flash Mitigation techniques – Elimination
Arc flash mitigation is important: to ensure the safety of a worker, every possible step must be taken to mitigate the arc flash hazard. Following the generally accepted hierarchy of controls, Elimination is the best way to mitigate an arc flash hazard. De-Energize Equipment When thinking about arc flash mitigation, this is the most straightforward […]
What is CSA Z462? (Plus: 2 Huge Assumptions You Might Be Wrong About)
Laws vs. Standards: Who Cares? Last week I talked about how CSA Z462 may not be written law in Canada, but it is still the industry standard. So – if there is an incident at your workplace, it will be the standard that the courts will use to evaluate the workplace electrical safety program. Simple and […]
Importance of Hierarchy of Hazard Mitigation
There is a hierarchy of hazard mitigation that many people in the electrical industry don’t think about, either because of perceived cost, or complexity, or simply not knowing. A hazard will always be a risk to the worker until it has been eliminated, and this is the goal in a perfect world. Design products and […]
6 Reasons to Have an Electrical Safety Program
When I first started researching and writing about electrical safety, I didn’t really know what an electrical safety program was or why someone would need it. I had a gut feeling that if you were someone working with electricity, an electrical safety program would keep you safe. I felt like that was enough. However, all safety […]
Electrical Safety Program Wrap Up: Documentation, Evaluation and Corrective Action
Now that you’ve finished with Implementation, you electrical safety program is almost complete. The only things left to do are to figure out how to keep track of your electrical safety program, and how to improve it. You can do this with Documentation, Evaluation, and Corrective Action. Documentation Unlike our article on Document Housekeeping, Documentation […]