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Powerful Living


Powerful Living


Through the years, safety codes evolved to meet the needs of the electric utility industry. Courtesy photo


Photo by James Pratt


The evolution of Safe Electricity W


orking on electric lines has always been serious business, but in the early years of the 20th century, it could be downright scary. A lack


of standards and safety protocols led to far too many injuries and fatalities. Something had to be done. In August 1914, the U.S. government’s National Bureau of Standards, under the direction of Congress, es- tablished the National Electrical Safety Code. A century later, the code still plays a critical role in electrical system safety with standards that have been widely adopted in the United States and abroad. But as it celebrates its 100th birth- day, the NESC, as it’s known in the industry, is in a process of revision aimed at the future. “The NESC committee is taking a serious look at what the next hundred years need to be,” says Sue Vogel, who has the responsibility for the code as a senior manager at the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Association.


Electric co-ops have a big stake in that process. “Our members expect our systems to be reli- able, cost effective and as safe as they can be, and going by the NESC is one of the best ways to make sure all that is happening,” says Robert Harris, engineering principal at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and a member of the NESC main committee that over- sees the code.


NESC’s History In the beginning, NESC standards principally dealt with worker safety, but they have since ex- panded to include more categories such as instal- lation, operation and maintenance of overhead and underground lines, substations, grounding


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and communications equipment. The standards mean that linemen or other workers are less likely to face unpleasant surprises when working on parts of a system they haven’t seen before. Establishing standards was vitally important in the early days of electricity, when electrical systems were isolated and varied signifi - cantly in construction. But Harris says they remain relevant today, particularly when co-ops or other power suppliers send employees to help with disasters or emer- gency situations.


“It means they’re not going to be getting into something that’s completely foreign to them,” he says.


Tomorrow’s Code The NESC main committee, which has author- ity for approving the NESC, adopts revisions every fi ve years to keep it up to date. Revisions currently under consideration will go into effect in the 2017 edition of the code. Mike Hyland, chair of the NESC executive committee, says the process is based on consen- sus; the committee invites comments from any- one in the industry with an interest in the code. “An engineer, a lineman, meter readers, con- struction folks, consultants—they should all be active in this debate,” says Hyland, a senior vice president at the American Public Power Association, the trade organization for the na- tion’s municipal electric utility systems. One proposed revision includes better defi ning


where communications equipment and other equipment, such as photovoltaic panels, can be placed on poles, and aligning NESC’s work rules with new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements that were published in April 2014.


By Reed Karaim


A Broader Debate All these matters have been addressed in the revisions. But there is also a broader debate un- derway about the future of the NESC. The ques- tion is whether the code should largely remain focused on the areas it has covered for decades or whether it should expand to take into account the rapidly changing face of the power industry. “The electrical system is being asked to do things that it wasn’t asked to do back then,” Hyland says. “We didn’t have wind farms, roof- top solar or community solar. We didn’t have the ‘smart grid system.’ Electric utilities are having to adapt and plan for changes going forward.” If the NESC doesn’t expand to include some of these new technologies, some committee members worry it will lose its relevancy. With today’s pace of change, Hyland thinks it


may be necessary to consider revising the code more often than every fi ve years, possibly updat- ing some sections every two years or so. He points out that the National Electrical Code, which is administered by the National Fire Protection Association and applies to in-home wiring, is updated every three years. “Things get done very quickly in today’s world,” Hyland says. “We can’t sit back and say, ‘I had a great idea; I’ll put it in the next cycle, and maybe it’ll get into the code in 2022.’ That’s not going to fl y, especially with the younger genera- tion in the industry.” He thinks the future may include developing apps or other digital systems to allow users to more easily access relevant parts of the code. The NESC is already used as a reference in about 100 countries, but Hyland believes expanding its use in other parts of the world could help bring stan- dardized, safe power delivery to countries where that is still a challenge.


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