Apologies if this has already been discussed but I have 300 locations around the country and employees are performing the annual 90 minute testing of emergency lighting by flipping the breakers off (that power the lights) and observing for 90 minutes. These employees have no special training or certifications in electrical safety. These are small healthcare facilities. My question is...is it okay for employees to flip breakers for this kind of activity? I can't seem to find any clear OSHA or NFPA guidance.

Since no one else has replied....Here's my non-engineer opinion.

Table 130.5(c) *2018 70e* says that operation of a circuit breaker when the panel is in normal condition has no likelihood of occurrence. I think this means that there is no requirement for a qualified person. I think 110.2 (A) of 70e answers your question.

Also, the only difference between a qualified and unqualified person is training and skills. I would think they could easily be trained to recognize when a panel is in unsafe condition and the breakers should not be used and possibly basic electrical safety. Seems this would be enough to qualify them for their specific task. I don't read the standard to say that anyone working on and electrical piece must have a huge amount of knowledge, just enough to perform their task safely.

I think 110.2 (A) of 70e answers your question.

Let's see if this stands the test of the gurus......

A topic of some debate...

Normal operation includes maintenance. Has maintenance been performed? Is it installed to the NEC (or your particular code authority)? For small panels/molded case circuit breakers, the question is, "what kind of maintenance would you perform?" Sure...there is the camp that exercises breakers on a given frequency. I'm not sure I buy the value in that on an overly frequent basis.

As far as qualified/un-qualified, OSHA allows you to define what that means along w/ the commensurate training.

Mike

If it is emergency lighting I would suspect that it is probably single phase 120V circuits and small 15-20A breakers. This would be similar to what is in households. What special training do you need to operate a small circuit breaker?

Perhaps the OP can provide more details on the circuits.

Hello,
I'm not an engineer but I've been an electrical operator/ technician for 10+ years. Based on my understanding of NFPA 70E I believe your employees performing these breaker operations should be NFPA 70E certified or at least receive some form internal training to make them considered a "qualified person" under NFPA 70E article 110.6(A)(1). Generally all electrical work requires a qualified person.. after all, how can someone know they're working safely if they don't know how to read the arc flash label on the panel, or how to identify a hazard with the breaker when they see it? I'd maybe look into having a few qualified people for each of your buildings.

Thanks!