ACC has developed an Electrical Safety Program in accordance with NFPA 70E. All authorized and affected employees will receive training in the program, their responsibilities under the program, the appropriate procedures and personal protective equipment (PPE). The size of the written program (85 pages) is prohibitive to post it on this page however it is available to any employee, faculty or staff via a link on the intranet.
The following are a summary of the program’s key points:
- This program provides the minimum electrical safety knowledge necessary where there is potential to exposure to electrical hazards.
- It establishes safety requirements and safe work practices for the design, operation and maintenance of electrical systems for ACC
- It applies to all ACC faculty, staff and students as well as all contractors
- ACC’s policy is to do all electrical work in a de-energized. De-energizing that is inconvenient must not be confused with that which is infeasible.
- Exceptions are limited to:
- When working de-energized introduces additional hazards (i.e., deactivation of emergency alarm systems or shutdown of hazardous location ventilation equipment)
- It is infeasible to do (i.e. diagnostic testing or troubleshooting that requires equipment or parts to be operational)
- When the energized electrical conductors or circuit parts are operating at less than 50 volts
- Any work done where the employee may be exposed to electrical conductors or circuit parts that have not been placed in an electrically safe work condition and locked out/tagged out is considered energized work.
- In the rare instance where work must be done energized, an Energized Electrical Work permit must be authorized by the Director of Buildings and Grounds or the Executive Director of Environmental, Health and Safety.
- To be “qualified” under the Electrical Safety Program requires knowing how to anticipate and recognize electrical hazards, know how to protect yourself from those hazards and be trained on the equipment. (i.e. an electrician wouldn’t necessarily be qualified to work on HVAC equipment because they may not have the training on that specific equipment)
- Appropriate PPE will be worn when doing work within shock and/or arc flash boundaries. This includes resetting breakers.
- Lockout-Tagout Program
- Electrical Qualified Persons
- Training
- Additional Resources and Handouts for Employees/Supervisors
- Lockout-Tagout Powerpoint Presentation
- Safety and Health Topics Control of Hazardous Energy
- Controlling Electrical Hazards
- DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-123