- By Roger Ford, Safety and Training Coordinator
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates that companies provide an electrically safe workplace for all personnel. To define what this means, OSHA turns to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and its NFPA 70E standard.
NFPA 70E continues to evolve as new thinking on electrical safety is introduced. The latest edition, NFPA 70E 2012, has changed significantly from the 2009 edition of the standard, and to help you understand how 70E 2012 impacts your company, D.L. Steiner has prepared this summary of …

- By Dan Steiner, PE, CEM, CDSM; President
Think for a moment about how much your facility pays annually for utilities: electricity, natural gas, etc. Now, think about taking one-fourth of an equivalent amount of money—and simply throwing it out the window!
Sure, this notion sounds crazy. But even in today’s cost-conscious world, that’s still essentially what American business does when it comes to the use of energy dollars. Recently compiled data by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (www.llnl.gov) shows that nearly one-fourth of the energy consumed by U.S. commercial and industrial …

Power factor and power factor correction are familiar electrical terms, but just in case they are new to you, let’s do a quick review. As it relates to electrical energy, power factor is the ratio of working power to apparent power. Working power (kW) is the electrical energy you need to do useful things, namely, run production equipment. Apparent power (kVA) is the electrical energy your utility company must supply in order to deliver the working power you need.
These two energy values aren’t the same thing, and they aren’t necessarily …

Lockout/tagout is one of those “good news-bad news” safety topics. The good news is that most companies are generally doing a better job of addressing lockout/tagout issues than they are other safety concerns. The bad news is lockout/tagout programs for plant electrical systems, for the most part, are still not as well defined as those for other energy sources. This article presents basic considerations that will help you establish a workable electrical lockout/tagout program at your facility.
First, understand that an electrical lockout/tagout program is not an option. Electrical lockout/tagout falls …

With today’s focus on reducing the high cost of monthly electric utility charges, most companies automatically assume this means installing new, more energy-efficient fixtures and equipment. These can help, but for many facilities, the place to begin in cutting electric costs is not by installing a new lighting system or high-efficiency motors. Instead, it’s by taking a look at the electric utility bill—more specifically, the demand charge on that bill.
What is a demand charge? It is the amount the electric utility charges your facility for supplying electricity at the rate …

Advances in digital monitoring/control devices and networking technology have expanded the range of power monitoring equipment available, plus improved its functionality. The result is a significant new potential for increasing power system reliability while decreasing system operating costs. These advances are causing a growing number of facilities to develop comprehensive energy management strategies that help them maximize their energy resources.
While most companies recognize the value of energy management, their success addressing the issue varies. Properly controlling a power system is often seen as too time consuming, inefficient, and expensive to …

First in a series of articles Questions People Ask Us?
There is no doubt that wearing gloves is clumsy and makes the electrical worker’s job more difficult. It is not surprising, then, that D.L. Steiner, Inc. is often asked whether or not workers are required to wear their gloves when working on a de-energized panelboard, control panel, or PLC cabinet. The answer to this question has three parts.
Part One: an Observation to Clarify the Situation
What is being considered here is a cabinet in which the local switch has been turned to …

The NFPA 70E now requires regular auditing of an employer’s electrical safety program. What must a company do to stay compliant?

What! more red tape . . .why should I bother with arc flash studies?
An unsuspecting electrician opens an electrical panel only to discover that he has let loose a lethally dangerous explosion—light flashes so bright that it permanently damages eyes, heat that is 4 times the surface of the sun incinerates clothing and flesh, molten shrapnel bores upon him with bullet-like speed, and a blast wave that throws him like a rag doll with a pressure wave of hundreds or thousands of pounds per square inch.
Approximately 2000 workers will be …

Changes to Public Utilities system in Ohio are cause for both confusion and opportunity for the electrical consumer.