ARC FLASH ANALYSIS:

Electrical workers and Operating technicians face potential occupational hazards where an arc-flash incident can severely burn them – very high energy (heat, sound, chemical, mechanical) released during a fault. This may occur during routine switching, troubleshooting tasks, or without initiating any cause.

Operators run the electrical process equipment and have responsibilities to turn them on and off. When switching, even closed doors may blow open, and fire can escape even with doors remaining closed. Electricians maintain the equipment and at times must troubleshoot with live circuits.

What can go wrong? Water, dust, and mice may get into electrical equipment, components fail, human error; resetting a tripped breaker onto a remaining fault, throwing the wrong switch; untrained electrical technicians inadvertently changing protective settings to prevent nuisance trips, and lack of maintenance. All of these scenarios potentially result in a serious arc-flash event.

These risks require an arc-flash analysis, safe work procedures, risk assessments, training and appropriate maintenance to reduce the consequences of an arc-flash hazard and to comply with federal and provincial regulations. QSR provides a holistic electrical safety program package.

Arc-flash studies is a blend of improving safety and reliability. Safety is the focus without sacrificing operational reliability. Often miscoordination is found and corrected to prevent large power outrages when a potential arc-flash event occurs.

QSR Electrical Engineering works with all company stakeholders (Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Engineering and Health & Safety). Each shall realize the hazards and methods to manage the risks.

The success of any program depends largely on the aspirations of those involved. QSR Electrical Engineering has high aspirations to protect workers working on or near electrical equipment and keep them safe.

Course: Non-electrical worker Electrical Awareness

This course was developed for process operators and operating technicians who operate electrical equipment, and write safe work permits for electrical workers. It meets the requirements of CSA Z462 and ensures an understanding of occupational electrical hazards (shock & arc-flash), safe work procedures and PPE selection & testing.

It also covers:

• Electrical faults (short-circuits vs. overloads)
• Electrical hazards, causes and mitigation (shock & arc-flash)
• Industrial electrical systems vs. the body’s electrical system
• Operator case studies
• A thorough review of arc-flash hazards, causes and mitigating factors, labels, videos, burns and time to burn, working distance, and arc-blast
• Human factors
• Electrical gloves and daily testing
• Safe switching technique
• Resetting of tripped breakers
• Basics of CSA Z462 electrical worker duties aiding the issuance of safe work permits
• H&S Department responsibilities

Target Audience: Operators, Instrument, HVAC, Elevator and Battery technicians, Shift Supervisors, Managers, building wardens, engineers, and H&S staff

Duration / Recertification: 4 hours / 3 years

Course: Electrical Worker Electrical Awareness

This course was developed for electrical workers who operate and maintain electrical equipment. It meets the requirements of CSA Z462 ensuring an understanding of occupational electrical hazards, PPE, CSA Z462 and safe work procedures.

Part 1 (Electrical Awareness):

• Electrical faults, hazards (shock & arc-flash),
• Industrial electrical systems vs. the body’s electrical system

Part 2 (Arc-flash):

• A thorough review of arc-flash hazards, causes and mitigating factors, labels, videos, case studies, burns and time to burn, working distance, and arc-blast

Part 3 (PPE):

• Clothing and layering
• Gloves and testing, hearing protection, blankets
• Temporary ground application & procedures, and tools

Part 4 (CSA Z462):

• In-depth review of CSA Z462
• Safe work practices
• Live work (testing, troubleshooting and repairs)
• Establishing an electrical safe work condition
• Employer and employee responsibilities
• Limits of Approach Boundaries
• Human Performance
• Case studies of incidents
• Perform risk analysis
• General safe work practices

Duration / Recertification: 8 hours / 3 years

Course: Electrical Safety – Contact Release and Volt Testing

This course was developed for electrical workers exposed to shock hazards, and those responsible for the safe release of victims exposed to shock. The course satisfies CSA Z462. It also reviews the fundamentals and limitations of voltage testing and what to do if something goes wrong.

Training includes:

• Electrically Safe Work Condition
• PPE
• Voltage testers and Limitations
• Low and Medium voltage volt testing methods
• Electrical Hazards
• Preparing for electrical hazardous work
• Contact Release methods

Duration / Recertification: 2 hours / 1 year

Controlling Hazardous Energy (LOTO)

A complete program contains a written Procedure, Recordkeeping forms, Training and Audits.

Providing proper Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) safety critical procedures and training helps to prevent an unplanned start-up of equipment while it’s being worked on (preventing electrical and mechanical hazards), as well as preventing inadequate electrical isolations. LOTO programs reduce the number of injuries/fatalities at your facility and help you remain compliant with mandated safety standards. QSR Electrical Engineering creates customized procedures to ensure that workers have a step-by-step understanding of how to isolate, lock, tag and test electrical energy.

Lockout/Tagout procedures apply for personnel protection when workers must work on any equipment that is electrically supplied and doing so would present a hazard to them. Minor maintenance such as greasing, vibration, amperage or temperature checks do not require that the equipment be shut down, tagged and locked out unless you are disabling or removing a protective barrier such as a coupling guard.

The Lockout/Tagout procedure should be integrated into other work protection requirements when working on equipment. Other forms of energy include mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, nuclear, chemical, radiation, thermal, compressed air, energy stored in springs and potential energy (gravity).

Recordkeeping forms are used as procedural checklists for the Supervisor and Worker while working through the repair stages and shift changes.

The purpose of the Electrical Lockout/Tagout Audit is to ensure completeness and understanding of the Electrical Lockout procedure and maintain compliance with CSA Z462. It is intended to identify potential situations which could lead to accidents. Lockout audits shall be conducted every year at a minimum and at a higher frequency if field audit results dictate.

Z460 Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) is used when someone wants the equipment isolated (or de-energized) and locked out to eliminate the hazards. QSR offers a procedural policy covering how to do that. We also offer record and audit forms, and training as needed.

Z462 establishes the Safe Work Practices policy needed when you cannot isolate or de-energize power for things like switching, testing and troubleshooting – and possibly a live repair or modification. A worker needs power to take measurements or to operate the equipment.

Safe work procedures are designed to control and minimize these risks, and covers:

• Quantifying the electrical hazard (arc-flash study is done every 5 years)
• Understanding electrical hazards, and
• Safe work practices (updated every 3 years)
• Worker Qualifications and training requirements (updated every 3 years)
• Temporary grounding
• Tools and test equipment
• Job planning & Risk assessments
• Maintenance requirements

Without documented Safe Work Practices it is difficult to enforce worker safety training, and you would be relying on the worker to manage the electrical safety risks, and the pressures of the work environment. A policy, approved by management, is a step in the right direction for due diligence, injury prevention, and worker safety.

All companies must have an up-to-date electrical safety program and provide training on it, Qualify their workers (both electrical and non-electrical that operate equipment), perform field audits, and be managed by H&S. QSR trains the H&S department on their obligations to manage the program, and electrical workers how to use it.

Z463 aims to prevent inadequate or incomplete maintenance of electrical equipment and systems.  CSA Z463 and CSA Z462 both require electrical power systems to be properly designed, installed and maintained to be considered safe.

The electrical maintenance program consists of the following essentials that QSR can help support:

• 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
• Inventory of spare parts for critical components
• Electrical emergency preparedness

We can also come on-site and perform field Electrical Safety Audits to ensure your workers are implementing mandated safe work practices. These audits will observe and report the current safety culture with how workers go about performing electrical isolations, troubleshooting, and risk assessments for electrically hazardous work. We will also be checking that appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are used. Filed Audits are required annually by CSA Z462.

The analysis divides the facility into zones of risk which is used to determine the appropriate equipment and wiring methods for safe operation. The Canadian Electrical Code (CEC) requires a hazardous area classification according to the nature of the hazards which includes explosive gas atmospheres, combustible dust hazards, or ignitable fibres and materials.

Electrical equipment may provide the spark or heat required to ignite these potential hazards; it is important that electrical equipment is properly designed and installed for the area classification. Explosions may present significant and potentially fatal risks to workers and facility damage if hazards are not properly assessed.

With the area classification analysis, QSR offers a Source of Release Worksheet, Layout Drawing, Electrical Equipment Requirements, Deficiencies found, Recommendations, Training to employees, and a full Report.

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.

Electrical equipment failure may expose workers to the risks of shock and arc-flash hazards.

An electrical maintenance policy aids in determining electrical maintenance & 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 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 the critical duration of a power interruption, and 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 with 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

Today, nuclear is expensive; less expensive coal – able to ramp up and fluctuate on demand – is being phased out; wind and solar are stable in a shaky and wobbly sort of way as they are not dependable, predictable or consistent.

The Ontario government is now privatizing electricity, stripping the people of their Crown Corporation. The old intent of at-cost electricity – to lower the cost of living and doing business, is being replaced with private ownership whose intent is to maximize profit.

Thus, with big incentive to conserve energy, and less means to regulate supply, energy is often dumped in the USA – given to business competitors for a fee that is charged back to Ontario citizens and businesses – known as Global Adjustment (GA) Tax based on 5CP demand days. This tax is intended to pay for wind and solar contracts, imported power, and to cover power generation produced at a loss. GA tax can cost as much as the electricity itself. QSR can provide an evaluation and recommendations for your facility.

5CP Energy Demand Study includes:

• Study electrical system loads
• Investigate energy demand reduction opportunities with and without capital investment
• Energy, lifecycle and ROI analysis
• Provide tools to predict Top 5 peak days (5CP denotes five coincident peaks)

QSR can measure and mitigate electrical pollution in the home and office. These pollutions contribute to various health issues including headaches, irritation, concentration difficulties, and behavioural and adverse biological changes. There is a widespread (and mistaken) assumption that our electrical environment has been carefully studied and monitored and, save for a few exceptions, found to be harmless. Standards exist to limit exposure to high-frequency radiation, magnetic & electric fields, and dirty electricity, all common in many homes and businesses; however it is up to the end user to realize and apply it.

QSR will measure Magnetic fields, Electric fields, and Radio-frequency (all found in air space), and Dirty Electricity (found in wiring and emitted into air space as high-frequency radiation). We will provide a report and may supply dirty electricity filters at your power panel and problematic areas as desired.

5G – Is it safe for children?

Let’s start with some toxic ingredients we are exposed to, like pesticides in food, fluoridation in water (recently labelled as a neurotoxin by The Lancet), smog-like air pollution, wireless 3G & 4G (2.4GHz), and now 5G (30 – 100 GHz).

1 GHz = 1 billion cycles (waves penetrating your body) every second. All wireless EMF emit radiation. So how does 5G fit into this toxic soup we are brewing for our children and selves?

Well, science has monitored and measured EMF for decades; they see it causes an immune response which creates inflammatory proteins and is the precursor to disease. So, we are creating chronic auto-immune disease because wireless technologies are strong and always on.

While many inflammatory stress factors are controllable with breathing, diet, and allergy management, 5G will aggravate the toxins we cannot protect ourselves from, and more so in people already living with auto-immune disease.

If 5G proceeds, 3G & 4G won’t go away; ‘mini cell towers’ will be placed on most hydro poles outside of homes, businesses and schools, and will radiate 3G & 4G will in every direction. That is because 5G cannot travel long distances, nor through brick and mortar.

Telecommunications companies admit they have never done health studies; thus the FCC requested them from other US agencies. On January 7, 2021, a US Court of Appeals held the FCC to account for dismissing a US NTP study confirming today’s technologies, and ubiquitous use of, is hazardous and carcinogenic. The FCC wanted to keep using the 1996 guidelines and thus was sued by Children’s Health Defence. In 1996, safety was based on the heating effect of a phone located inches away from the body when an immune response was unknown, and not so many used these (phones, iPads, earbuds, laptops, gaming devices, and Bluetooth) on their person, homes, businesses and offices.

EMF impacts children and fetuses far more than adults. We don’t need it in homes, businesses and schools that are occupied by children and pregnant women. Contact QSR to measure your home or business, and for methods to reduce radiation levels.