OSHA and NFPA 70E strongly encourage working only on electrical systems that have been placed into an electrically safe working condition. Although this is strongly encouraged, it is not always possible.

This week's question:

How much energized work (not an electrically safe working condition) do you/your company/client perform?

• We NEVER do energized work
• We do SOME energized work
• We do MOSTLY energized work
• We do ALL energized work

Every effort is made to work deenergized, but how do you make final connections to a 125 VDC battery bank deenergized?

most of our electricians will work most things hot. there's an old mindset at our utility that we're not bound by osha. this is slowly changing as the industry is changing. we're also implementing the 70E guidelines and starting an arcflash program, but with hundreds of facilities out there, it's going to take a while to perform the studies and label everything. also, changing the mindset of some of the guys, who were raised on working things hot, is a challenge. all we can do is inform them and put them at notice that if they aren't geared up according to the label, they'll be at fault.

we're trying to perform our diligence and keep people safe, but designing according to accepted standards and practices with fiscal constraints in mind, it's difficult to design a facility that completely eliminates the human element and poor decision factors.

Continuous process plant doesn't allow shutting down MCC's to insert or withdraw buckets so that is occasionally done hot, but often delayed until the next scheduled shutdown.