Electrical Preventative Maintenance Program (CSA Z463)
Inadequate or incomplete maintenance of electrical equipment and systems can lead to noncompliance and increase the probability of workplace injury or death. CSA Z463 - Maintenance of electrical systems and CSA Z462 - Workplace electrical safety Standards require electrical power systems be properly designed, installed and maintained to be considered safe.
Maintenance is directly related to electrical safety, environmental protection, operational reliability and financial losses. While maintenance cannot guarantee an absence of electrical failures and incidents, the electrical safety program lays out the mandated framework for a compliant maintenance program to mitigate such failures.
Failure of electrical equipment may expose workers to the risks of shock and arc-flash hazards.
An electrical maintenance policy aids in determining electrical maintenance and testing requirements, frequency, and helps focus on critical areas within the plant from a primary objective of safety and a secondary objective of equipment reliability.
Reliability of protective grounding systems, protective relays, and associated circuits helps ensure suitable protection of workers working on or near electrical apparatus, and proper operation of equipment and distribution systems.
As soon as new equipment is installed, a process of normal deterioration begins. Electrical equipment deterioration is normal, and equipment failure is often inevitable. However, equipment failure can be delayed and managed through appropriate maintenance.
This policy shall guide reliability improvements and criticality ranking of equipment, providing failure modes, probability rates, and expected outage durations. Leadership will need to determine critical duration of a power interruption, critical loads to sustain production, or prevent a fire or health hazard.
QSR Electrical Engineering is proficient in the applicable codes and standards regarding safety maintenance. We can help point out the potential points of failure in your program, and provide you a complete maintenance program to help you manage the following, to name a few:
- Risk management process
- Determining failure modes
- Determining maintenance strategies, tasks and frequency
- Planning of maintenance shutdown and prioritizing tasks
- Routine inspections
- Thorough review of the inspection reports so corrective measures can be prescribed
- Evaluation of failures and repairs to predict future issues
- Recordkeeping
- Inventory of spare parts for critical components
- Electrical emergency preparedness