Substations
It is critical to have a good understanding of the substation requirements found within the OSHA standard.
Tag: Osha Articles
Testing and Test Facilities
Electrical testing hazards arise when specialty testing is performed on electric power lines and equipment to determine maintenance needs and fitness for service. OSHA requirements for testing and test facilities are found at 29 CFR 1910.269(o) and 1926.963.
Specialty testing refers to cable fault locating, large capacitive load tests, high-current fault closure tests, insulation-resistance and leakage tests, direct-current proof tests and other tests requiring direct connection to power lines. These tests include interim measurements using high-voltage and/or high-power methods on new lines...
Electrical Protective Equipment and Live-Line Tools
These items must be appropriately used and cared for to maintain their insulating capabilities.
This article will address two unique areas of electric power regulatory standards: electrical protective equipment and live-line tools. As with all articles in this series, let’s start with the hazard. Electric power workers have exposure to electric shock hazards with extremely high risk of serious injury or death. Although personal protective equipment should always be considered the last line of control, electrical protective equipment – when designed, manufactured, tested, maintained and used...
OSHA Electric Power Standards – Simplified
Overhead Lines
Unique fall and electric shock hazards can occur during the installation and removal of lines and during tower and structure work. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(q) and 29 CFR 1926.964, both titled “Overhead lines and live-line barehand work,” address these hazards as well as the required controls for worker safety.
Note: Live-line barehand work, also found within the standard, is not addressed in this article.
Pole and Tower Failures
Pole and tower failures can easily occur due to additional or unbalanced stresses created during climbing and the installation or removal of equipment. Workers...
Mechanical Equipment Rules for Qualified Workers
Workers performing tasks involving mechanical equipment near energized power lines and equipment have exposure to hazardous step and touch potentials. In the preamble to OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269 and 1926 Subpart V, the agency describes 19 fatalities that involved derrick trucks, aerial lifts and other machines. These fatalities occurred when contact was made between live parts and mechanical equipment.
OSHA’s mechanical equipment standard was developed specifically to apply to operations performed by qualified workers when tasks are performed near energized power lines and equipment. Rules that...
OSHA Electric Power Standards – Simplified
Enclosed and Confined Spaces
What’s the difference?
The terms “enclosed” and “confined” seem like synonyms. When most of us think of something that is enclosed, we think of it as being confined, and when we think of a confined place, we think of it being somewhat enclosed. How we visualize these two words often accounts for why we have difficulty understanding their differences when it comes to OSHA standards. The enclosed spaces standard is one of the most misinterpreted standards in 29 CFR 1910.269. This standard is often used by utilities and contractors in lieu of the permit-required confined...
OSHA Electric Power Standards – Simplified
Protection from Flames and Electric Arcs
It is important to remember that all arc hazards are not equal.
By Pam Tompkins, CUSP, CSP, and Matt Edmonds, CUSP, CIT, CHST
According to OSHA, electric power generation, transmission and distribution workers face a significant risk of injury from burns due to electric arcs. Studies have concluded that a large percentage of arc-related incidents resulted in either a fatality or in extremely painful third-degree burns, which require skin grafts and leave permanent scarring. Based on these conclusions, OSHA adopted standards to address forms of personal...
OSHA Electric Power Standards – Simplified | Part 6
De-energizing Lines and Equipment for the Protection of Employees
It’s critical for workers to understand the process of de-energizing lines and equipment to hold them clear.
Information Transfer: What’s Needed to Protect Affected Workers?
As with all the other articles in this series, when it comes to information transfer, it is important to start with the hazard. Individuals who work on or near electric power lines and equipment face a multitude of potential high-risk electrical hazards. Employers have the responsibility to identify and control known hazards to ensure worker safety. When unknown hazards exist, the level of risk is elevated because workers may not have all the information they need to safely perform their work.
Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?
Let’s kick off this article with a definition of what “MAD” means in the utility sector – and it does not mean that we’re upset with you. The word is actually an acronym that stands for minimum approach distance, which is the calculated safe working distance that provides worker protection when working on or in the vicinity of energized lines and equipment.
Why are Job Briefings and Risk Assessments Important?
When you hear the term “job briefing,” what comes to mind? Perhaps a meeting, a form to fill out or maybe even a complete waste of time? How we perceive job briefings has a huge impact on how we complete them. Per OSHA, job briefings are required to be completed before each job; however, for us to perform them effectively, it is critical that we understand the intent behind that requirement.
What Needs to be Covered? A job briefing is intended to be used as part of the planning process to accomplish a job both safely and successfully. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(c)(2) requires that the following topics...
What are OSHA’s Training Requirements?
In our first article in this series (see https://incident-prevention.com/blog/when-osha-electric-power-safety-standards-apply), we discussed how to apply OSHA’s electric power standards. This article will review OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269 and 1926 Subpart V training requirements relating to qualified and unqualified employees.
To determine training requirements, you must first ask the question, are my employees exposed to electric power system hazards? If so, the training portion of the OSHA electric power standards should apply.
OSHA requires all employees to be trained in the safety-related work...
When OSHA Electric Power Safety Standards Apply
Welcome to the first part of what will be a six-part series focused on OSHA’s electric power standards. We will start this series with a discussion about when the standards apply. Future articles will cover what is in the standards plus provide you with some practical ways to apply them.
If you have tried to read OSHA’s electric power standards, you may find them difficult to interpret and apply. Always keep in mind that each part of the standard was written to address a specific hazard that must be controlled. The standards outline the minimum controls you are required to put in place, so that...