There has been a marked increase in businesses and large facilities looking for guidance on arc flash compliance . As knowledge grows around this dangerous and often life threatening electrical hazard, facilities strive to ensure they are fully compliant with health and safety legislation. Maintenance managers, engineering managers and safety officers outsource to us because they are looking for three things:
- Information
What is arc flash? What causes arc flash? What’s the difference between arc flash and electrical shock? How do I know if my facility is at risk of arc flash? Is this something we really need to be concerned about?
- Assessment
How do I ensure our facility is compliant? Is there a one size fits all approach? Does my facility need to be individually assessed? How long is this going to take? How much is this going to cost? Is this something we can do by ourselves?
- Benefits
Why spend budget on this? Is this the best use of our resources? Will be fully compliant? Will we have to reassess?
To answer some of the questions and fears our clients often have, we have outlined ten good reasons why having your facility assessed and professionally audited will provide a number of benefits and consequences for your facility. This information is based on feedback from the clients we have worked with over the past fifteen years in Ireland, UK and Europe and from our training and professional arc flash seminars.
10 great benefits of outsourcing arc flash compliance
1. Understanding the unknown and protecting workers from electrical injury
For employers to protect their employees from risks at work it is an absolute necessity that they know what they are protecting them from. Arc flash, a largely unknown and little understood electrical hazard, must be measured before it can be managed. By implementing arc flash protective measures at your facility, you will help prevent electrical injury, burns and shock and most importantly, protect your workers’ lives.
2. Calculations will be correct
A professional electrical model of your entire facility will help determine the severity of the arc flash hazard at specific distances away from the equipment. This is vital in preventing and/or mitigating against arc flash incidents.
3. Paperwork will stand up to scrutiny
Arc flash consultants can provide legally binding paperwork, as well as documents and model plans for your facility. This will help ensure your facility meets all its electrical and health and safety requirements.
4. Your health and safety officer will be happy
Health and safety officers are experts in implementing detailed procedural plans, but sometimes may require guidance on a particular aspect of a plan, such as electrical safety. Arc flash consultants can help take international safety guidelines within a multinational facility and help implement them at a local level.
5. Your equipment and facility will be protected
Worker safety aside, arc flash incidents can cause severe damage to equipment and expensive machinery. Preventing against an arc flash hazard or reducing the magnitude of such an event will see less downtime or complete shut down due to arc flash accidents.
6. You will meet your legal requirements
As health and safety and electrical legal requirements become more stringent, many facilities are seeking expert advice to ensure they are fully compliant. Arc flash consultants help integrate arc flash hazard calculations into existing electrical risk assessments to bring the facility in line with latest EU and national guidelines.
7. Peace of mind while saving costs and time
With increased workload and decreased resources, many facility, maintenance and engineering managers find themselves stretched. Outsourcing electrical safety/arc flash compliance will help ease the burden of workload, while ensuring the most up-to-date and professionally sound electrical safety work is practiced at your facility.
8. You will have correct labelling
Signage is a key factor in meeting electrical safety compliance. Arc flash consultants can guarantee correct calculations and in turn switchgear labelling, which is of high importance when tasked with working on or near live electrical equipment.
9. You may identify other issues
Accurate modelling used during arc flash assessment can identify other potential electrical risks/issues such as discrepancies between build documentation and installed equipment or poor electrical system design and/or reliability. These problems can be resolved at an early stage to contribute to a smoother safer running plant overall and reduce potential future downtime.
10. You will be ahead of the competition
Companies who invest in arc flash hazard assessments are known to be at the forefront of facility management. By tackling the electrical safety and reliability issues early on and introducing proper mitigation procedures, arc flash sound facilities remain at the top in terms of production, streamlining, worker safety and meeting legal requirements.
For more on arc flash read our blog article Everything you need to know about arc flash or visit our webpage arc flash overview.
Premium Power, Our commitment
Premium Power is committed to ensuring that Arc Flash is at the forefront of discussion on workplace safety in Ireland and the UK especially in the context of the industrial manufacturing and data centre environments. Find out about some of the services we provide in arc flash assessment, analysis and training.