In Part 1, we acknowledged you can’t always isolate equipment from its energy sources to work on it. A prime example is trying to conduct thermography; you need the equipment operating to analyze the temperatures of the individual parts and components. We then looked at some measures you can take to help you do this “hot” work safely. Here are some additional planning procedures you can implement.
- Plan the work to limit the amount of time you’ll be close to the equipment or exposed to energized equipment. What can you do before removing the covers? For example, you can set up your IR camera so it’s ready to go as soon as the panel cover is off.
- Plan the equipment. This includes everything from making sure you have the necessary lights and power to making sure the test equipment you’ll be using is rated for the voltage and Category (e.g., Cat IV). This is another thing you can do “offline” instead of with covers removed from energized equipment.
- Plan your cleanup. If you’re going into a battery room, it’s not going to be de-energized. It’s also going to have acid present, and you may need to clean up spilled or leaked acid. Have the required materials ready before starting the work.
- Plan your PPE. This should be done on the basis of an arc flash risk assessment [NFPA 70E 130.5]
