Compliance Solutions:

NFPA 70E — 2015 Edition

from Schneider Electric Services

Make the most of your energy

SM
Industry-Leading Expertise
to Address All of Your Power System Needs
Since 1966 Schneider Electric Engineering Services has completed over 10,000 power system
assessments, studies, and designs for our customers, who include:

Automotive Communications Educational (cont.) Healthcare Pharmaceutical

• Chrysler • AT&T • University of Texas ®
• VA Hospital • AstraZeneca
• Honda of America • BellTelephone • University of (various facilities) • Johnson & Johnson
• Toyota Motor • GTE Washington • Massachusetts • Merck
Manufacturing • Pacific Bell • Wichita State General Hospital • Pfizer
• Ford Motor Company University • Barnes Jewish
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Vanderbilt University Hospital
• General Motors Corp. Data Centers • Baxter Healthcare
• Lowe's • Wyeth
Chemical Food & Beverage Manufacturing
• M&T Bank • Cordis
• Coca-Cola® Company • 3M™ Company
• Pfizer Inc. • The Hartford® • DePuy
• General Foods • Boeing Aircraft
• Union Carbide • Mayo Clinic
• Kraft Foods • Caterpillar Inc.
• INVISTA • Southern California Utility
• Nabisco Foods • Martin Marietta
• INEOS Edison • Commonwealth Edison
• Pepsi® Cola • Lockheed Martin
• Air Products • EMC® • Northern States Power
• Sara Lee® • Kimberly Clark Corp.
• Southern Indiana Gas
Commercial Educational • Nestlé® • Dell™ Computer Corp.
and Electric
• IBM® Corp.
• Disney Corp.
®
• Duke University® • Sunflower Electric
• Home Depot • Harvard University Government • Intel® Corp.
• TVA
• Camp Pendleton • Lucent Technologies
• Hyatt Regency® • Kansas University • Progress Energy
• FAA • Motorola
• J.C. Penney • Ohio State University • Orlando Utilities
• Ft. Campbell • Samsung
• Sears • Penn State® University
• IRS • Texas Instruments™ Water Treatment
• Kroger • Texas A&M
• Los Alamos • Xerox® Corp.
• McDonald’s Corp. • Texas Tech • WWTP Columbus
• Winn Dixie • University of Illinois
National Labs • LTC WWTP Ph2
• Pentagon Oil & Gas
• UPS® Corp. • University of Kentucky • Pelham WWTP
• Social Security Admin. • ExxonMobil™ Expansion
• Food Lion • University of South
Carolina • U.S. Federal • Shell • Four Mile Creek WWTP
• Mercantile Stores
Courthouse • BP
• U.S. Postal Service™ • OXY
• Wright Patterson AFB • Chevron

Any brand. Any industry. Any time.

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Risks associated with shock and electrocution from inadvertent
contact with energized parts have long been recognized as
a threat to electrical workers. It has only been in recent years
that awareness of the dangers of arc flash events have been
incorporated into electrical safety standards.

Over the last ten years, more than

30,000 workers have been injured in
workplace electrical accidents.*

Regulatory agencies soon recognized the severity and urgency of the

situation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
developed laws to protect electrical workers. These laws, in essence,
mandate that work on electrical equipment must be performed in a manner
that does not expose the worker to undue risk of injury.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70E: Standard for Electrical
Safety in the Workplace® is the document most often referenced for electrical
safety. OSHA enforces electrical workplace safety standards outlined in
NFPA 70E. Enforcement may take place following an electrical accident or
during their normal on-site inspection process.

Schneider Electric™ Services advocates compliance to NFPA 70E: Standard for

Electrical Safety in the Workplace not only for worker safety, but also equipment
productivity. An arc flash accident can render equipment unusable and place
the facility in a costly downtime mode, which could last hours or days.

While not the leading cause of on-the-job injuries and

accidents, electrical accidents are disproportionately
fatal and costly.*

The Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety reports that electrical
injuries are the second most costly worker’s compensation claim.

* Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI)

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What a Facility Can Do to Comply
with NFPA 70E — 2015 Edition.
NFPA 70E requires the development and enforcement of an Electrical
Safe Work Practices (ESWP) policy. It also defines the requirements for
safe work practices and requires audits and revisions to keep the safety
policy up to date.

While basic compliance to NFPA 70E requirements is

established with a five-step process, a sixth step assists the Did you know?
facility owner with fine tuning the electrical power system,
NFPA 70E 2015, Section 110.3(A) states that
both for safety and operability.
hiring contractors to perform electrical work
does not absolve the owner of the facility
Step 1: Develop and Audit Electrical Safe Work (host employer) from assuring compliance to
Practices Policy safe work practices.

The facility owner is ultimately responsible for

Step 2: Conduct an Arc Flash Risk Assessment to safety at their site and must document and
Determine the Present Degree of Arc Flash Hazards communicate known hazards covered by
and Apply Associated Equipment Labeling NFPA 70E to the contracted worker(s).

In addition, the owner must report any

Step 3: Ensure Adequate Supplies of Personal Protective contract employee’s safety violations to the
Equipment (PPE) and Proper Tools contract employer.

Step 4: Conduct Regularly-Scheduled Safety Training and

Audits for All Electrical Workers

Step 5: Maintain All Electrical Distribution System

Components

Step 6: Follow Strategies to Mitigate and Control Arc

Flash Hazards

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5
Six-step process

Step 1
Develop and Audit an Electrical Safe Work
Practices (ESWP) Policy.

This is a written document created by the employer that covers all areas of the
company’s electrical safety practices. It includes such things as lock out/tag
out procedures, method of qualifying the workers, selection and application of
PPE, methods of establishing a safe work area, arc flash and shock protection
calculations, equipment labeling, and worker audit procedures.

An audit of the safety policy must be performed on a three-year cycle to

assure continued compliance of the policies and procedures to the standard.
When the auditing determines that the principles and procedures of the
electrical safety program are not being followed, appropriate revisions to
the training program and/or revisions to the procedures shall be made. In
addition, workers must be evaluated for compliance to the standards and the
policy, and any deviations must be documented.

The safety policy is a living document that

must be audited and corrected over time.

Step 2
Conduct an Arc Flash Risk Assessment to Determine
the Present Degree of Arc Flash Hazards.
This is an electrical system engineering study that is overseen by professional engineers familiar with the power distribution and
control equipment and the calculation methods required. The methodology for conducting an arc flash analysis is outlined in IEEE
1584™ Guide for Performing Arc-Flash Hazard Calculations.

NFPA 70E-2015, Section 130.5 states an arc flash hazard analysis shall determine the arc flash boundary, the incident energy at the
working distance, and the personal protective equipment that people shall use within the arc flash boundary.

An arc flash hazard analysis must be updated when a major renovation or modification takes place. At a minimum, it should be
reviewed every five years because changes in the electrical distribution system could affect the results of the arc flash hazard analysis.

Schneider Electric can assist with data collection, analysis, and label
installation to help you comply with the requirements of NFPA 70E.
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Apply Warning Labels to Equipment.
NFPA 70E-2015, Section 130.5(D) requires that equipment that is likely to be examined, adjusted, serviced, or maintained while
energized shall be field-marked with a label containing all of the following information:

1) At least one of the following: 2) Nominal system voltage

• Available incident energy or required PPE Category, but not both 3) Arc flash boundary
• Minimum arc rating of clothing In addition, the calculation method and data to
• Site specific level of PPE support the information for the label shall
be documented.

Understanding the Different Types of Arc Flash Labels

Arc-flash labels shall always be applied to equipment per the company’s ESWP policy. Custom labels or site-specific PPE labels that
comply with the ESWP policy are allowed by NFPA 70E. Schneider Electric offers three predefined label formats which address the
majority of arc flash labeling scenarios. We can also provide custom labels for unique situations.

Schneider Electric recommends simplified arc flash labels because they:

• Reduce the opportunity for PPE selection errors due to the two-tiered system for “energized work”
• Standardize PPE purchases and reduce supply chain complexity
• Eliminate time and costs associated with label changes due to small incident energy changes

1) Simplified Labeling is based upon a two-tiered PPE system, reporting the maximum arc
flash boundary for each case:
• Level 1: ≤ 8 cal/cm2 OR
• Level 2: > 8cal/cm2 and ≤ 40 cal/cm2
Simplified Labels
Using this labeling method results in fewer arc flash boundaries to observe. Therefore, the
PPE that employers must provide for workers is simplified and standardized.

In some cases, this method requires more PPE than necessary as it assumes a minimum
work wear rated to 8 cal/cm2. However, showing the maximum IE and arc flash boundary
may indicate that minor system changes do not invalidate the labels of the PPE category.
This results in simpler label Installation and records management.

2) Actual Incident Energy (IE) Levels (Individual) labels reflect the precise IE and Actual Incident Energy Levels labels
arc flash boundary with the equipment name.
• Having unique labels for each location complicates the installation process.
• Requires workers to interpret discrete IE values to select proper PPE.
• Reflect many different arc flash boundaries within the same power system.
• Any changes in the power system can easily invalidate the label values.

3) Site-Specific (Standard) labels group pieces of equipment within a given range,

based upon IE levels. The same label is used for all equipment within a given range
and align with ESWP policies that indicate site-specific PPE levels.
• An update to 2004-2012 Schneider Electric legacy labels.
• Easier to install than actual IE & arc flash boundary labels. Site-Specific labels

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Six-step process

Step 3 Step4
Ensure Adequate Conduct Regular Safety
Supplies of PPE Training and Assessments.
and Proper Tools.

Employees working in areas where there are NFPA 70E defines a qualified person as “one who has demonstrated skill and
potential electrical hazards shall be provided knowledge related to the construction and operation of electrical equipment
with personal protective equipment (PPE) that is and installations and has received safety training to identify and avoid the
appropriate for the specific parts of the body to be hazards involved.” This training requirement means that the employee must
protected. This can include arc-resistant shirt, pants have received safety training specific to the hazards of arc flash, arc blast,
or coveralls, or a multi-layer flash suit. Additional shock, and electrocution.* Electrical workers are not considered to be
PPE requirements consist of flash hoods, voltage qualified by OSHA until they have received this specific training.
rated gloves, EH-rated safety shoes, safety glasses,
and hard hats. Employees working within the Further, the employer must verify, through regular supervision or through
arc flash boundary are also required to wear inspection conducted on at least an annual basis, that each worker is
hearing protection. complying with the safety-related work practices required by NFPA 70E.

Properly-rated equipment is needed to test

voltages. Insulated tools are required for workers
who are to perform testing and troubleshooting
on energized equipment.

* Schneider Electric instructors are OSHA authorized Outreach Trainers to ensure your employees are formally trained and
aware of arc flash hazards per OSHA and NFPA 70E requirements.

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 Step 5
Maintain All Electrical Distribution
System Components.

The “active” components in electrical distribution systems consist of fuses, performance of the power system. Therefore,
circuit breakers, and protective relays that help protect the system in the event in addition to compliance with NFPA 70E,
of an electrical fault. These over-current protective devices have a critical Schneider Electric recommends that facilities
role in controlling the arc flash energy. Therefore, it is crucial to keep these adopt NFPA 70B: Recommended Practice for
devices in proper operating condition with a regular maintenance program. Electrical Equipment Maintenance. Our qualified
Without proper over-current protection, sustained arcing can subject electrical field services personnel perform on-site preventive
workers to much higher levels of energy. On the other hand, modern, properly and predictive maintenance services for any
adjusted over-current protective devices that have been well maintained are manufacturer’s electrical equipment. Upon
able to detect an arcing fault condition and clear the fault quickly. completion, a detailed report is provided that
identifies potential issues along with corrective
Unless adequate maintenance is performed, the electrical system study and recommendations.
the arc flash analysis will not be a correct representation of the potential

Equipment must be in an electrically-safe condition during

maintenance, testing, and repair.
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Six-step process

Step 6
Follow Strategies to Mitigate and Control
Arc Flash Hazards.
This often overlooked step is one of the most crucial in optimizing the safety heavy flash hood make it difficult, if not impossible,
and performance of the power system. The arc flash study performed in step to perform proper testing and troubleshooting.
two essentially establishes the arc flash energy levels and the required PPE
for the power system in the existing condition. However, the calculated arc The goal of arc flash mitigation is to reduce the
flash energies may be high enough to hinder some normal tasks from being arc flash energy, and thus the PPE, to a level
performed within the arc flash boundary of the equipment. For example, an that permits normal tasks to be performed on
incident energy of 35 cal/cm2 may be calculated for a 600 volt motor control equipment. Arc flash mitigation has been a rapidly
center. To protect the worker from the arc flash levels, PPE such as heavy developing area of research and development for
arc-rated clothing and flash hood will be needed. Yet, workers may view the Schneider Electric. We are constantly working on
required arc flash PPE to actually be a hindrance to the job. The difficulty in new mitigation strategies to promote electrical
movement under heavy clothing and the reduction in eye sight under the workplace safety.

Shown above: Virtual Main Relay System for Arc Flash Energy Reduction
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Arc Flash Mitigation Solutions
Schneider Electric Services provides a variety of arc flash
mitigation solutions for any brand of electrical equipment.

Solution Group 1 Lowers arc flash energy by reducing the arcing time.
Over-Current Protective Device (OCPD) Coordination Study
An OCPD coordination study optimizes circuit breaker and relay settings and can be specified as a
component of the arc flash study. The speed of operation of the OCPD determines the duration of an
arc flash event.

Specialized Relaying Such as Light Sensing Technology

Strategically-placed light sensors in switchgear compartments makes it possible to sense the arc within a
millisecond. Modern relays can sense this condition and trip the appropriate circuit breaker. Other relaying
technologies are zone selective interlocking and differential protection.

Virtual Main Relay

Low-voltage switchgear and switchboards can be subjected to dangerous levels of arc flash incident
energy when fed directly from a power transformer. Upgrading switchgear with a virtual main relay adds
over-current sensing to the low-voltage side of the service transformer and is designed to trip an existing
upstream fault-breaking device.

Solution Group 2 Removes worker from location or places a barrier between worker
and exposed energized parts.
Infrared (IR) Windows
IR windows allow you to obtain condition and status information of electrical equipment
without the need to remove equipment panels. The complete unit is permanently fitted
into electrical equipment and enables infrared inspections to be performed without
downtime.

Remote Racking System (RRS)

A RRS allows medium-voltage circuit breaker racking operations to be performed via
a control panel located away from the cell, removing the operator from manual contact
with the circuit breaker. In addition, a RRS may reduce the PPE Hazard Risk category
because the worker is removed from the flash protection boundary.

Wireless Temperature Monitoring System (WTMS)

A WTMS allows for easy field installation of wireless sensors into low- and medium-
voltage equipment. Sensors can be placed in locations usually not accessible with an
infrared camera. They can be installed on equipment with high arc flash ratings, allowing
equipment condition to be monitored without a risk of danger to personnel or equipment.

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Why Choose Schneider Electric
Engineering Services for NFPA 70E
Compliance Solutions?
Since 1966, Schneider Electric Engineering Services has been proactively
engaged in electrical workplace safety and compliance since arc flash
requirements were first introduced.
Many of our engineers are leaders in IEEE, NFPA, and other power system standard-making
organizations. Specifically, we:

Have over 150 strategically-located professional engineers who are collectively registered in every
state of the U.S. to meet state licensing requirements

Are professional engineers who have in-depth knowledge of power distribution and control
equipment and expertise of the calculation methods required for arc flash analyses

Provide full-scope NFPA 70E compliance support and solutions

©2015 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric and Make the most of your energy are trademarks owned by
Offer arc flash mitigation solutions through a variety of engineering and electrical distribution

Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
services

Established a standardized methodology to complete arc flash analyses along with uniform
reporting standards nationwide

Provide generic arc flash analysis specifications to assist customers with specification development

Have the capabilities to perform the arc flash analysis as well as make recommendations for
corrective action(s)

For more Information:

888-778-2733
Visit www.schneider-electric.us/go/engineeringservices
[email protected]

Any engineering services referenced herein shall be provided by Schneider Electric Engineering Services, LLC, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Schneider Electric USA, Inc. This document is for information purposes only and is not meant to be construed as an
offer to provide engineering services.

Schneider Electric USA

800 Federal Street
Andover, MA 01810
Tel: 978-794-0800
www.schneider-electric.com/us

Document Number 1910BR1204R12/14 February 2015