Installation standards and work practices complement each other. Before any arc flash discussion can be made about the National Electric Code (NEC), it’s important to realize that NFPA 70E , Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace provides necessary guidance to protect personnel by requiring electrical safety programs to include shock and arc flash risk assessments per article 110.1(H). Elements of a risk assessment include the following: Identifying hazards Assessing risks Implementation of risk control methods. The hierarchy of risk control in NFPA 70E requires the following six risk control methods to be implemented: Elimination, substitution, engineering controls, awareness, administrative controls, and PPE. Article 130.5 goes on to describe how to perform an arc flash risk assessment and recognizes that documented additional protective measures are not only permitted, but required depending on the type of arc flash mitigation being used. Recent ri...
