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Power System Studies and ArcFlash

Power System Studies and ArcFlash

Power System Studies and ArcFlash

(OP)
Who can legally perform power systems and arcflash studies?
Can they be performed by technicians who will then use the study results to set protective relays and select fuses.

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

In my state, anything over 600 amps requires engineering involvement.  It probably varies with states.

Seems to me, and I'm not a sparky, that something of this nature would require engineering involvement for public protection.

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

Hidalgoe:

Only qualified and "experienced" engineers and some laws may require PE license. It requires special engineering skills and experience. Coordination/ arc flash is as much an art as science and always a trade off between selectivity, degree of protection of equipment and personnel safety.

It is much more than just putting some data in a software and spitting our reports.

Technicians without engineering degrees? I would say No.

Regards,
Rafiq
  

Rafiq Bulsara
http://www.srengineersct.com

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

It may depend on whether you are doing it in house for a business that operates under the industrial exemption, or performing  the function as a contractor.

Legal issues are tough to answer in an international forum without any clue to what law you are operating under.

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

Some equipment manufacturers and testing firms that do arc flash studies have lobbied against proposals in the NEC for professional oversight. That seems very wrong to me, but as a PE, I could be biased.

Alan
"The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is." Unk.

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

I would be more than happy to have manufactures or anyone else taking on professional liability instead of me!

Rafiq Bulsara
http://www.srengineersct.com

RE: Power System Studies and ArcFlash

Arc flash studies are a combination of system protection and an understanding of operations; and the results can govern life safety.......MUCH.  

That this type of work is routinely completed by non-engineers is ample indication of how neutered our engineering Boards and the profession itself really are.   

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