In an industrial work environment, accidents
are prone to take place whether by human mistakes, failure in control equipment,
process or the equipment failure itself. As many of the processes are dependent
on electricity they may cause other accidents too such as short circuit,
Electrical arc flash etc. These accidents take a toll not only on the processes
and equipment but may even have fatal effects on the workers within the
vicinity. The Sultanate of Oman is concerned of these accidents and insists on
the companies to implement better and safer working conditions. The highest
concern being on electrical arc flash which may sometimes lead to other
accidents like electric shock, severe burns due to the heat liberated, spill
over of molten metal or any other chemicals that may cause damages . Electrical Arc Flash also known as flash over, is the discharge
of electricity into the air between two charged conductors when being
separated. The separation leads to the ionisation of the air between the
conductors and the ionised path provides the arc sustenance requirements.
Electrical arc Flash takes place in medium and high voltage utilities.
The Electric arc Flash
carries an immense energy which is released in a very short span of time and
hence causes high amounts of heat energy around 15000 Degree Celsius. If this
high amount of incident energy and the arc are not contained in the stipulated
time, it may cause severe accidents. The Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER)
is a working body at Oman to see that Electrical arc Flash concerns are
properly addressed. AER executes inspections on industrial installations to
check whether proper protective methods are deployed, labelling of the
electrical arc flash hazards are set up, and that the operating personnel are
using the required PPE so as to mitigate the accidents due to Electric Arc
Flash. The arc flash hazard boundary as
per the international standards is 1.2 calories/cm2, the heat energy
that results in a second degree burn to the operating personnel which can be
cured. AER also follows the standards, IEEE-1584, NFPA-70E that specify the arc
flash incident energy calculation methods, permissible working distances
depending on the short circuit current. The short circuit current calculation,
electric arc incident energy calculation basing on NFPA-70 E for each equipment present in the facility,
and proper labelling are carried out by
our team of well trained professionals at VB Engineering.
NEC, NFPA-70E, OSHA and AER insist that the facility managers get the arc flash study be carried out periodically or as and when there is a change of load by 30 % and that the record be maintained .Also the employees are to be given arc flash safety training. VB Engineering deals with clients globally on Electric Arc Flash and is specialized in giving a detailed report on the arc flash study , the required PPE for each equipment as specified by IEC-60079-17,NFPA 70E, OSHA 29 CFR 1910, upgrade the previous records with the new results, detailed SLD , Arc Flash protection.
Arc
Flash Protection includes that proper PPE is used by the workers for Arc Flash
currents within the range of 16kA and 50kA, or a
higher range of currents. Arc Flash sensors enable to obtain a quick response
to arc fault. Arc flash detection design is a collection of an arc flash sensor
and connector that detect and raise the alarm to ensure the arc flash accidents
are mitigated.
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