Hello, looking for guidance on resetting tripped or faulted MCC (600V or less) and circuit breakers (<600v) for Operations that are non electrical workers?

I understand the normal and abnormal conditions, but am looking for a more spelled out version of it.

Is their any more clarity on this task?

I assume that you have an electrical safety program and have had an arc fault assessment done. Normal operation of a circuit breaker for lockout/tagout would apply in your case, but do you know why the breaker tripped? If it was a fault condition and your "unqualified worker" throws the handle back on into a bolted fault, then it is likely that an arc flash/blast will occur and who knows what will happen. On our site, we allow the operator's to reset overloads one time, but never a breaker. A breaker needs to be tested to make sure it did not trip on a faulted condition before it is allowed to be throwed back on.

Hi and greetings from North of the border. As already indicated my recommendation to your personnel would be to instruct them on perhpas discovering why the breaker has tripped. Investigate the equipment. Look for any signs that may indicate that the breaker may have tripped as a result of a short circuit. How does the equipment present? Is there any signs of damage to the breaker, smoke,etc. allow them to reset once and if it trips again they are to contact an electrician. Instruct the workers on your company policy for the safe operation of a disconnecting means, whether they are to be in some form of PPE or standing to one side and facing away from the switch wearing leather gloves and safety glasses. You may want to contact Jim directly on this as Jim has an excellent video that I use all the time- "Can we rely on the covers or doors to protect us from an arc flash"? A great educational video.

Hope that this helps

Best regards

Len

More information is needed on the breaker itself. Is the breaker ground fault enabled and is it a solid state trip unit or thermal magnetic? You can take a photo of the breaker and a good close up of the trip unit and post it to the website if you don't know. Further, did the arc flash study include a coordination study? If so, did you adjust the breakers to the coordination study recommendations?

If the breaker has a ground fault and the breaker trips again, take a photo of the breaker before you reset anything. That way your electrical engineer or contractor can see any indications as to why it tripped. Regarding resetting the breaker. It sounds like you've already done that. If so, did you also shut off all the downstream loads? If not, that ought to be part of your process when switching on a device like a large circuit breaker. Lastly, include a photo of the enclosure the breaker is in so we can see if it's bolted closed or has a door and what kind of latching is involved. Seeing some photos of the actual breaker and conditions will help with recommendations.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

We currently have training through "Danatec - Electrical safety for non-electrical workers"

Of course Operations asks some good questions like

If it trips more than once we contact an electrician....in what time frame? more than once in a month? a week? a year? Obvioulsy looking at asset management is important and we have moved towards logging any resets to ensure asset life.

Does anyone have a sample procedure? for Operations resetting breakers? or equipment?

Good Afternoon. below is OSHA's take on reclosing a circuit breaker:

1910.334(b)(1)
Routine opening and closing of circuits. Load rated switches, circuit breakers, or other devices specifically designed as disconnecting means shall be used for the opening, reversing, or closing of circuits under load conditions. Cable connectors not of the load break type, fuses, terminal lugs, and cable splice connections may not be used for such purposes, except in an emergency.
1910.334(b)(2)
Reclosing circuits after protective device operation. After a circuit is deenergized by a circuit protective device, the circuit may not be manually reenergized until it has been determined that the equipment and circuit can be safely energized. The repetitive manual reclosing of circuit breakers or reenergizing circuits through replaced fuses is prohibited.

Note: When it can be determined from the design of the circuit and the overcurrent devices involved that the automatic operation of a device was caused by an overload rather than a fault condition, no examination of the circuit or connected equipment is needed before the circuit is reenergized.

From my perspective it would require a qualified person to determine "that the equipment and circuit can be safely energized."
Thanks,
Carl

Thanks for everyone's input, very valuable.

We have Arc Study done on our equipment,

The questions have come about from resetting, equipment downstream from the MCC's

We have 2 Make up air(MUA) units that "overload" due to their design and the wind putting out the flame. They are fed by 600v main breaker power.

Operators were opening the MUA cabinet and resetting it, but through review, the rest of the cabinet was live so we reviewed and determined that electricians should be doing that task. Photo attached

the other question that came up was Operations open up a cabinet to look and see if UV bulbs(photo attached) have been out, the cabinet is fed from a 120/208 panel and 2012 arc study determined it HRC 0. So im assuming that would mean they are ok with opening the cabinet and looking in. Given they are wearing 1.2 cal/cm2 clothing?

Remember, people can be trained and then qualified to perform specific electrical tasks, without being qualified for all tasks.

I see nothing wrong with developing the steps to qualify an operator how to open an energized MAU in order to see if a flame is present. That is not the same thing as resetting an overcurrent protective device which has opened.

It is your company's electrical Safe Work Practices that are important. The body of NFPA70E does not even use the word 'electrician' except once as an informational note.

Thanks, for the great info.

Its not that they only look to see(the code) if the flame is out, they also reset the switch. When all the rest of the cabinet is energized(to isolate, its main plant power). So its been a head scratcher.

Again, there may be nothing inherently wrong with them resetting a switch. People can be trained, and qualified, to do anything.

Your policy needs to consider things like:
Does the resetting need to be done because there is no flame, or because an excess amount of current flowed, causing a protective device to operate?
Was the excess amount of current beyond the normal operating conditions of the device (e.g. <600%) or did some repair need to be performed?

For the most part NFPA70E is black and white in only one area - Employers need to have safe electrical work practices for their employees. Other than that NFPA70E is intentionally gray in the 'do it this way' language.

APEX I have a procedure I can share, email me at terry.becker@twbesc.ca. FYI I am the SME for the ESTS training courses I developed at ESPS, then sold the training to Danatec.