Arc Flash Protection for Electrical Safety Professionals

Overview

Electrical safety is an important issue for those working on electrical facilities in utility networks and large industrial installations. A number of serious accidents including fatalities occur every year due to accidents involving electricity resulting in huge financial losses and wasted man-hours. 

Arc flashes in electrical equipment are now considered one of the major causes of electrical accidents even surpassing the well-known hazards of electric shock. Avoiding arc flash incidents and the resulting injuries is one of major challenges today facing electrical workers and requires adequate attention in the stages of system planning, design, installation, operation and maintenance.

Injuries due to arc flash can depend on many factors, one of which is the incident thermal energy on a worker exposed to a flash. Today, a considerable body of knowledge exists as a result of research efforts and is available to designers and maintenance engineers in the form of standards such as IEEE 1584 and NFPA 70E.

Prevention however still remains the best form of protection and switchgear manufacturers have made considerable design advances to ensure that the effect of arc flash incidents is contained within the enclosure of switchgear (often called arc flash resistant switchgear) and methods of testing such switchgear have also evolved simultaneously. Another important factor is the approach to avoid arc incidents within the switchgear by proper design and maintenance and techniques to reduce the severity of the flash should such incidents occur.

You will learn:

• To identify the important hazards in O&M work in different parts of electrical installations

• To identify the dangers of arc flash events to working personnel and their impact on equipment

• The codes and standards related to dealing with arc flash danger

• The necessary theoretical knowledge to carry out arc flash impact studies by collecting system data and computing the arc flash incident energy and flash protection boundary

• To understand the importance of proper design of electrical equipment in avoiding arc flash incidents and ensuring safety in the event of an arc flash

• To select appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Flame Resistant (FR) clothing required for avoiding serious or lethal injuries

Who Should Complete This Arc Flash Protection for Electrical Safety Professionals course at IDC Technologies

• Consulting engineers

• Utility engineers

• Electrical design engineers

• Electrical inspectors 

• Electrical contractors

• Electrical and instrumentation technicians

• Power system protection and control engineers

• Electricians

• Instrumentation and control engineers

• Purchasing engineers

• Project engineers

• Safety professionals