Electrical Safety & Arc Flash Training

Best practices recommend the 2 or 3 day training programs in 3 year intervals, with 1 day or 1/2 day refreshers in between annually, Your company’s Electrical Safety Written Program may require more frequent training, so refer to this program prior to making any training determinations.
NFPA 70E® requires electrical safety training on intervals not to exceed 3 years, and when particular conditions exist, including:
– the employee is not following electrical safety practices
– new technologies, types of equipment or or changes have been introduced
– the employee’s job duties have changed.
OSHA CFR 1910.331-335 leaves it up to the employer for the frequency of training based on the hazards and tasks involved.

Both NFPA 70E® and OSHA training require that electrical safety training for Qualified Persons be done in the classroom or on-the-job, or a combination of the two. Ideally the formal training part is done live in the classroom with equipment and task training done on the job.

With the advent of technology, instructor-lead electrical safety webinars have become generally acceptable as an alternative to live training, however it has significant drawbacks.  Most adult learners become bored and disengaged with webinars longer than 45 – 60 minutes, so performing a 1/2 day or 1 day webinar is extremely challenging for both the learners and instructor. Further, the webinars do not provide any hands-on or real-world training possibilities and are lecture only, requiring additional training to be done on site by the employer (see Electrical Qualified Person training requirements FAQ).

While OSHA has not changed its language on electrical training requirements, NFPA 70E® has expanded the definition of “classroom training” in a footnote to include “interactive electronic or interactive web-based training components.”  These definitions can appear to be too broad and not in the spirit of the requirements by OSHA, depending on how the reader translates this footnote.

According to both NFPA 70E® and OSHA, a Qualified Person shall be trained and knowledgeable in the construction and operation of equipment of a specific work method and be trained to identify and avoid the electrical hazards that might be present with respect to that equipment or work method.  This requires both formal classroom training to learn about electrical safety practices, and on the job training about the construction and operation of equipment, and work methods.

In addition, a Qualified Person must be trained to:

1. Be familiar with precautionary techniques, electrical policies, procedures, PPE, insulating materials, shielding materials, and insulated tools and test equipment.
2. Distinguish exposed energized electrical conductors and circuit parts
3. Determine the nominal voltage of exposed energized electrical conductors and circuit parts
4. Perform the job safety planning, identify electrical hazards, assess the associated risk, and select the appropriate risk control methods including PPE.
5. Select the appropriate test instrument, the limitation of the device, and now to use the device to verify the absence of voltage.

The only requirements is that the electrical safety training cover the necessary requirements by OSHA and NFPA 70E®. A shorter course (1/2 to 1 day) is normally for those who are experienced Qualified Persons and have already had full electrical safety training in the past 3 years and are using the shorter course as a refresher.  To cover the updates with NFPA 70E® along with the standard requirements, 1.5 – 2 days of training is  normally required.  If you want hands-on training and validation, the training can be 3 – 5 days.

When looking at the length of training, there are several factors to consider, including:

1. When was the last time the workers were trained?  Have the received updated information on the last release of NFPA 70E®?  If not, covering this information will take more time to cover.
2. How experienced are your workers that interact with energized electrical circuits, and what is the level of hazard they encounter?
3. Do you want hands-on and interactive training, or just lecture?
4. Are you looking for standard information only, or are you looking for electrical safety training that covers all of the requirements such as meter selection, job safety planning, etc.?
5. Do you want real-world electrical safety processes and examples and situations of the equipment and tasks that your workers encounter?
6. Do you want hands-on testing and validation of electrical safety work practices and / or validation on specific equipment and tasks?

There are no official code or standard requirements on who can teach electrical safety training as it is up to each employer to determine if the training instruction and quality meets their needs to protect workers from the hazards the encounter with their equipment and tasks.

That said, selecting a proper instructor is critical to make sure that all the requirements are covered for electrical safety training (see Electrical Qualified Person training requirements FAQ), and that all our your workforce can have their questions answered. If your instructor can’t select the right meter, know the limitations and know how use it on the proper circuits, they might know the code, but they really aren’t really qualified to teach electrical safety.

In short, a qualified electrical safety instructor should have the following

1. an industrial electrical maintenance background with real-world experience in performing tasks on energized equipment.
2. excellent knowledge of NFPA 70E and OSHA, as well as familiarity with NFPA 70B and NEC for reference to safety.
3. professional instructor training experience.