Electrical Equipment Selection: Are We Buying Equipment We Can Safely Own?

Electrical equipment is commonly selected based on performance, capacity, reliability, cost, lead time, and compatibility.

EHS should introduce another consideration:

Can we safely own and maintain this equipment for the next 20 years?

A piece of equipment may meet engineering requirements while still creating unnecessary operational challenges.

Before major equipment is selected, organizations should understand how it will be inspected, isolated, tested, maintained, repaired, and eventually replaced.

Where are the isolation points? What hazardous energy remains after shutdown? Can maintenance components be accessed without unnecessary exposure to energized conductors? Are there remote operation options? What safety interlocks exist? What happens if those interlocks fail?

EHS should also consider foreseeable abnormal conditions.

Electrical equipment eventually fails.

When it does, will employees be expected to troubleshoot energized equipment? Can diagnostic information be obtained remotely? Can sections of equipment be isolated while maintaining facility operations?

These considerations are especially important for switchgear, switchboards, transformers, UPS systems, motor-control equipment, power distribution equipment, and other critical electrical infrastructure.

Procurement decisions can become occupational safety decisions.

A small design feature that costs relatively little during procurement may eliminate thousands of future worker exposures over the equipment’s lifecycle.

That makes equipment selection more than an engineering decision.

It is an opportunity to engineer electrical risk out of the workplace before the equipment ever arrives.