Do you require electrical protective equipment for UPS battery maintenance (i.e. voltage testing, etc..) up to 600V DC

If so what are the minimum PPE requirements and any special techniques used?

I know this is late, but I will try and answer it for future readers.

You will have to conduct a analysis to determine your PPE. I know if you search this site, you will have a few hits on where and how to conduct the analysis on DC.

We've not calculated the exposure from DC supply, however; we did calculate the arc flash exposure available due to the incoming 480VAC supply and also the incoming 120VAC bypass supply.

Last week I went to isolate a UPS and when I opened the AC Brekaer feeding it and the Breaker feeding the Bypass, two of the batteries faulted and blew the tops off. It looked like you took a saw and cut the top 1 1/4" off. Fortunately the batteries were in a cabinet and contained the acid.

While cleaning up, we found that two of the batteries (AC Delco 12 volt, 3.5 years old) had the connections between the cells fail internally. Once the load was applied, the spark lit the Hydrogen gas contained inthe cabinet (as it was not vented).

For working on battery banks, your PPE can be found on the MSDS sheet for Sulphuric Acid.