Why are there so many pricing options for an arc flash analysis?
What do I actually need?
These companies all look the same. Who do I trust?

If you’re accepting proposals for an Arc Flash Analysis and find yourself asking these questions, you’re not alone. The publication of NFPA 70E and its role in electrical safety at the workplace has prompted a growing awareness among employers of the potential dangers that exist at their facilities. It also has produced a crop of companies that sprang up seemingly overnight with the promise to help employers mitigate those hazards. Simply type “Arc Flash” into a Google searchand you’ll find pages of companies with a whiz-bang Web site promising to solve all your compliance problems.

As you might have guessed, many of these companies are run by opportunists who see compliance confusion stemming from 70E as their latest cash cow. If these questions are ever answered and the trend goes away, so will these companies. Other businesses are reputable, thorough ventures that value safety over compliance. These firms take Arc Flash Analyses extremely seriously because they understand the goal of the study is first and foremost to keep employees safe, not put up a charade of compliance to collect a check.

So which is which? Below are some key elements to an Arc Flash Analysis and its pricing to help you separate the contenders for your project from the pretenders:

1. There is no such thing as an “a la carte” Arc Flash Analysis. The cafeteria line is a fine method for feeding employees, but not for keeping them safe. If a company says you can “do it yourself” or allows you to pick and choose analysis items like you’re at a buffet, forget it. They are in the business of making money, not in the business of safety.

2. If a company uses software from the Internet that you can download for free, be careful. Most reputable arc flash companies pay upwards of $15,000 to $20,000 per software license. If the same software could be obtained for free, the owners of these companies are among the worst businessmen in the world. Here is where the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies: Software obtained for free is worth every penny.

3. You must receive new labels, new single-line diagrams, and a report summarizing the findings and making recommendations on how to mitigate the hazards. Don’t be fooled by a company that won’t quote a full-scale study; they’re just trying to make their price appear lower. The price of a quality analysis includes all the items listed above. Most often, hazards can be mitigated with simple adjustments at little or no cost. Why not eliminate them?

4. The study must be thorough and detailed: It must assess every fuse and breaker in the building all the way down to the last device on the floor. You cannot skip the buss-duct or stop at the MCC. You must carry the study down to the floor levelthat is the law! Lewellyn will not accept a study that stops short. Neither should you.

5. If a price appears too low, it probably is. This can be the result of someone other than a Licensed Professional Engineer conducting the study. You must have a licensed PE conduct the analysis, a credential that may be difficult to spot at times. To be sure, ask the company for their License Number and where it can be verified. A reputable company which employs full-time licensed PE’s should have no problem directing you to this information.

6. Be cautious of companies offering “free” or “value added” training or other products. While this may make the proposal appear lower, it is a similar situation as the free software described above. While some safety-related items offered for free may have some value, like a discussion or a seminar, actual bona fide training is not an area to cut costs. Training is one of the most important components of an Arc Flash Analysis. The NEC, OSHA and NFPA all require this training, so it is an item that must be given due diligence and ample consideration and dedication of resources.

7. Be wary of firms that sell the products they recommend you use to mitigate hazards – fuses, etc. There is an obvious question of the motivation of the recommendation there. We do not sell any of the products we recommend.

These are just a few tips to keep in mind when reviewing proposals for and Arc Flash Analysis. There are more aspects to account for before moving forward with a study. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.

We’ve alluded to the fact that assessing the costs of an arc flash at your facility cannot begin and end with a likely OSHA citation. While electrical accidents may be small in terms of a percentage of all workplace accidents, the severity of the injury incurred and the fatality rate are much higher. Therefore, the impact can be much longer-lasting and much more costly.

If one of your electricians suffers a severe burn from an arc flash event, the cost of that accident to the organization over the next five or ten years could be in the tens of millions of dollars. First, OSHA will likely issue a citation for failing to protect your employee. But that will be insignificant “chump change” compared to the other costs to come. These costs include equipment damage, lost product, downtime, medical bills, insurance premium increases, workers’ compensation, attorney’s fees, accident investigation costs, law suits, retraining, the list goes on. Indirect costs, such as OSHA’s news release announcing your company’s accident and citation, can be even more costly. The news release will explain to the world, mentioning your company by name, that the accident could have been avoided by following recognized safe practices for working around electrical hazards. Instantly, safety newsletters and blogs will pick up the story and in minutes the news is spread around the world.

It’s hard to associate an exact dollar figure with these costs, but experience has shown us, without question, it is far more expensive to allow one of these preventable accidents to occur than it is to avoid it.

Happy New Year from Lewellyn Technology! Every organization establishes goals when the calendar turns over a new year. We feel it is important to remind you that keeping your employees safe from electrical hazards should continue to be a top priority in 2010. OSHA requires employers to afford this protection and the excuses for failing to do so become fewer with each passing year.

Likewise, electrical work does not become any safer with the passing of a day, a month, or a year. Our ability to predict and protect against its dangers has increased over the last several decades, however, most notably because of advancements by companies producing personal protective equipment and in technology and procedures to conduct arc flash hazard analyses.

So let this serve as reminder: The year has changed, but your responsibilities to protect your employees from the dangers of electrical work have not. Contact Lewellyn to begin to make 2010 the year you advance your company’s electrical safety program.

To underscore the point, here is our usual roundup of a few recent cases of electrical accidents in the news:

‘Electrical arc’ blamed in TVA power plant fire
(Kingsport, TN Times News, Dec. 31)

Worker injured in…electrical explosion
(CP24, Toronto, Canada, Dec. 31)

(W)orker injured in Sunday accident
(Roanoke, VA Times, Dec. 21)

Failure to protect employees from electrical hazards contributes to company’s fine
(OSHA News Release, Dec. 18)

Again, we bring these stories to your attention not to sensationalize the subject or as a sort of scare tactic. Rather, we feel it is important that personnel charged with working on or near energized electrical equipment have every reason to approach their jobs with humility, and with a safety-first mindset. Providing evidence of the danger is not a scare tactic; it is a way to empower electricians with more knowledge of their profession.

Our last post explained the importance of 70E training in making your electrical safety program stick. Attempting to change a culture of safety through training can be a difficult task, especially if your employees have many years of experience. Often times, these electricians who have survived decades on the job believe that if they haven’t been injured by an arc flash or other accident yet, they likely never will be.

They’re absolutely wrong, and a story out of Florida this weeks adds to the mountain of evidence to prove this.

Take a look at this story, “Two electrical workers injured in explosion…” (Gainesville Sun, December 11). Pay attention to a couple of key phrases. First, the men are described as doing “routine maintenance” on the system. Then in the second to last paragraph, one electrician is described as working in the profession for 20 years.

And yet, while performing a routine job with the benefit of his wealth of experience, he was injured in an electrical accident.

The fact is, working with electricity is a dangerous job whether you’ve been at it 20 years or 20 weeks. The veterans and rookies alike need to have a thorough understanding of the standard for best practices for electrical safety in the workplace, NFPA 70E. Experience does not instill invincibility.

There were a couple other electrical accidents in the news this week; use these examples as you see fit to improve workplace safety and performance at your facility:

“Generator malfunction injures employee…” (KY3, Springfield, MO Dec 7)

“(E)mployee killed in boiler explosion” (MySanAntonio.com, Dec. 6)

And as always, contact Lewellyn to get started on an arc flash analysis of your facility.