Abstract

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. This workshop will detail the basis of this approach and also about the major advances that have been made in the area of PPE made of FR fabrics and rated for different levels of thermal exposure. 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.  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.