Today there is as much concern regarding the Incident Energy (IE) released in an arc fault as there is regarding if the equipment can withstand a bolted fault.  In regards to IE more fault current may actually lower the energy when the protection is in its instantaneous range.  The amount of time required to clear a fault decreases as the magnitude of fault current increases. The IE equation, energy is related to the square of time. If the time to clear the fault is halfed, the IE is 25% of the original.

Higher fault energy typically represents a stiffer overall electrical system.  This leads to better coordination as the designer will be better able to predict what will happen during an incident.

You have to be more Precise

When an Arc Flash Study, currently being referred to an Incident Energy Study, is completed owners and operators start to look for ways to minimize the workers exposure to high incident energies.  One of the ways that this can be done is to ensure that all work is completed in a zero energy state.

This is not always possible, and when operating disconnecting devices the worker may be in danger.  Following are some options that can be used to reduce the incident energy, and associated flash protection boundaries.

1. Tighter Protection Coordination

One of the first steps to lower the incident energy of an arc fault is to review the Protection Coordination Study surrounding the specific buses that a lower incident energy would be attractive at.  The traditional philosphy regards to protection coordination is to ensure that faults are isolated in a strictly predictable manner.  This means that there is space on the Time-Current Curves to ensure that the protective device that trips is the one that the operator expects.

These studies are coordinated at worse case, a bolted fault, and an arcing fault will always be at a lower value.  This results in the required protective device taking longer to operate than is desired.  If possible a facility may be able to use a slightly smaller fuse, or tweak the breaker settings to use less space between the protective devices and in turn allow the desired device to trip sooner.

The negative of doing this is that in higher current faults the devices may not be coordinated, this may cause an up-stream device to operate extending the range of the outage unecessairly.

2. Selective Protection Coordination

There are new technologies being developed and released to the market everyday.  One of the technologies that I have been more impressed with is the ability to have multiple sets of Time-Current Curves installed in a circuit breaker.  These curves are selectable with a switch either on the wall of the electrical room or mounted on the breaker enclosure.  This will allow the operator to change the characteristics of teh breaker and have it trip in the instantaneously for a larger range of currents.  When this happens the clearing time of a fault is significantly reduced and in turn so is the incident energy.

When the breaker is in this instantaneous range it is no longer coordinated with the devices downstream from it.  If the worker does not replace the device in its normal operating mode when work is complete there is a significant risk of it operating when there is a fault, which will then shutdown more of the facility than is required.

Another consideration to remember when this method is used is that the breaker that feeds the equipment that is to be worked on must be the one that is altered.  If that breaker is in the same enclosure, then in most cases, the next up stream breaker must be moved into the instantaneous range.  The reasoning behind this is that there is still a risk of the feeder breaker located in the enclosure faulting which would then require the upstream breaker from it to operate to extinguish the fault.

3. Install a Fuse / Breaker

If only they were this small

I have included both these options in the same line on purpose.  If you have had a representative from either of these manufacturers give a presentation on Arc Flash from 2002 til recently I am sure that you have seen the fantastic videos showing how their respective equipment is the "bee knees" with regards to Arc Flash and reducing incident energy.

I believe that the reality of the matter is somewhat more complicated than replaceing your electrical infrastructure with one product and assuming that everything is going to work out fine.

My typical rule of thumb is this, if the available fault current is high, then fuses have the faster clearing time (as little as a ¼ cycle).  However if the fault current is lower a breaker may be the better way to go.

Conclusion

What is going to be your road map to safer work conditions

There is never the perfect answer with regards to ways to reduce the Incident Energy of an Arc Flash.  Consult with the party that completed your study and with your operations people to determine what if any changes can be made to the system and operation to minimize the required PPE.  However always remember that PPE is the last line of defense and all other methods to ensure safe work procedures are employed are first.

If you have any suggestions or questions please let me know in the comments.

• Workers mistakenly dropping tools on live parts
• Pests entering switchgear through openings
• Faulty operation of a load break switch
• Dust or moisture accumulating to weaken air insulated bus bars
• Improper use of test equipment

From personal experience onsite and reading incident reports, the last three are the ones that are mostly likely going to be the cause of an Arc Fault.

Faulty Switches

Within an utility, institutional and industrial setting, electrical equipment does not always get the proper maintenance that it requires to have optimal operation.  With age, the ability of these mechanical devices to extinguish faults diminishes causing potential catastrophic failures

Electricians have been trained for a very long time to operate these breakers, switches etc from an arms length distance to the side.  This minimizes their body exposure to a possible failure.

Dust and Moisture

Industrial facilities such as refineries, pulp and paper plants, etc are not very clean environments, and as such there is a risk that there will be faults with electrical equipment due to the build-up of dust or introduction of moisture within the enclosures.  Modern company standards for electrical rooms have reflected this with the introdction of solid-state drives that are not as forgiving to dusty environments, and as such the new electrical equipment rooms are typically under static pressure to better control the enviroment.  PotashCorp of Saskatchewan is an example of one of the companies that are following this methodology.

This said, there are many existing electrical rooms that remain without such methodology.  To ensure that employees that usually work in these rooms are at the very least moderately protected, one company that I have worked with has a standard practice that anyone working in these rooms must wear 8 Calorie/cm² coveralls and safety glasses.  This level of PPE meets the majority of Incident Energy Levels within the electrical rooms in that facility.

Improper Use of Test Equipment

In the modern maintainence and operation of facilities the governing philosphy is to do all work on electrical equipment only after it has been grounded and isolated from the system.  This ensures that it is at a zero energy state and the risk of electrocution is minimized as much as possible.

There are still a number of situations that this is simply not practical, the most often offender being during commissioning or trouble shooting.  These activities most often requires the worker to test the voltage of the equipment to ensure they match the expected values.  With older test equipment, and cheaper modern equipment, there is a risk that the worker will not have the test equipment set properly.  If they try to check the voltage of a busbar while the meter is set for current, it acts like a short circuit and this will cause a fault that may lead to an arcing fault, which may lead to an ingury to the worker or people standing by.

What can you do.

One of the things that you can do to help mitigate a serious injury is to wear the correct PPE when working on equipment that has not be verified to be at a zero energy state.  Recent standard releases within North America (NFPA 70E in the US, and CSA Z462 in Canada) the level of PPE required when the possible incident energy is known.  If the levels are not known, speak with your managers and ask them to inform you of what the levels are.

When planning to work on live equipment, ensure that there is a job plan and everyone knows what their roles will be and what the emergency plan is.  With a comprehensive emergencuy plan an incident has a better chance to be contained and not excalating to harm others.

There has not been details released regarding this event, so we do not know what the cause was, or what could have been done to prevent this accident.  Arc Flash Hazards are one of the least understood hazards within the workplace.  More than 2000 incidents occur every year, however it has only been recently that industry has begun to investigate methods to mitigate these problems within a market pressure that is requiring more and more matiance work to be done "on the run" without completely and effectively electrically isolating the equipment in question.

The the case at TCU, the proper PPE could have lessened the injuries.  Also if the accident happened during matience when the employees were exposed to live equipment, the equipment could have been de-energized.  If it happened while operating a breaker, the breaker may not have been maintained as per the manufacturer requirments.

There are many factors that can result in an incident.  I hope that there is a full report released on this incident and that the safety practices are revised.  TCU is lucky that the employees were only injured.