Following the standard, when are two qualified persons needed for working on or near energized equipment. Please state the standard.

Not in 70E. There is a requirement in OSHA 1910 subchapter R for distribution/transmission lines but the exceptions are so easy to achieve that it is not much of one. MSHA has a working alone rule but it is pretty weak, too. From a practical point of view though the hazard js shock...if it ever became necessary to perform emergency release kr CPR, then a second person would be a necessity, and that person would need to be immediately available within about 3 or 4 minutes at most. The victim can't really call for help either in a shock scenario where either the are past the let go threshold or are in fibrillation or outright cardiac arrest. So this would apply only to a small portion of energized work. I haven't been able to construct a scenario with a defendable argument for a situation that calls for notworking alone that would also not call for doing the task in another safer way except some live line utility work that is not acceptable work practices in an industrial setting.

I had an encounter where I was asked the same question. As PaulEngr stated, there is nothing in NFPA-70E that talks about needing two people during electrical work, but there are conditions stated under CFR 1910.269 for Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Systems. Any Company that is commingled with a Utility company where employees are responsible to service systems over 1,000 VAC should refer to 1910.269 for working on or around such voltages.