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How does an effective preventive maintenance program reduce arc flash hazards?

April 26, 2017ARC effective Flash hazards maintenance preventive program reduce

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How does an effective preventive maintenance program reduce arc flash hazards?

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A preventive maintenance program on protective devices is recommended as part of the arc flash program. All arc flash calculations require the arc clearing time in order to determine incident energy and establish the flash protection boundary. The clearing time is derived from the engineering coordination study based on what the protective devices are supposed to do. If maintenance and testing is not performed, it could result in extended clearing times, unintentional time delays, open or shunted current transformers, open coils or dirty contacts. All of these factors could cause the results of flash hazard analysis to be inaccurate—causing the flash protection boundary to potentially be inaccurate. This could also affect the recommendations for the proper PPE. It is recommended that facilities adopt NFPA 70B Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance.