70-E Training Questions

Howdy,

Glad I found this forum, I have some questions about the required safety training. I've received differing opinions on this from folks who provide the training, and still haven't received any solid answers. My questions are based on these opinions.

1. Does the required 70-E training need to be an "OSHA Approved" course?
Is there such a thing?

2. Does the qualified person need a certificate or card to verify completion of the required safety training?

3. Since OSHA requires yearly refreshers for LOTO, etc., Is it required for electrical safety?

We do have a good electrical safety program in place, but need to stay on top of the required auditing.

Thanks,
B.T.

No it does not, it just needs to meet the requirements of 110.6 in the 70E. However, I must add that there are many companies out there trying to "make a buck" on 70E training and they have no clue what they are talking about, as a general rule you get what you pay for. Ask for references and for a resume of the instructor.

What part of the industry are you in, are you an EC, an industrial plant, a testing company? A government facility?

What do you need arc flash training on? Doing the studies? Selecting and usining the right PPE? A specific task? (Like an operator that has to operate a specific breaker daily) Live work? Getting your company in compliance?

Do you want the training at your facility or do you want to go to a local seminar? How many people? What trades?

Do you already have the correct PPE? Train your people before you have the PPE and proedures in place and work will come to a screeching halt.

Do you already have EEWP's in place? Do you have an electrical safety program already? Can you provide it for review before the training occurs?

Your "Arc Flash training" can be anywhere from 2 hours to 80 Hours, I have developed and delivered hundreds of programs, very few were ever the same. This is all I did for the last 15 Years, dont do it anymore but I know all of the good programs out there and are aware of most of the "Wannabes".

Here are a few "quality" training providers that actually know what they are talking and are leaders in the arc flash community, involved with testing, 70E commitees. IEEE 1584 commitees. etc...

www.e-hazard.com

www.shermco.com

www.brainfiller.com

www.electricalreliability.com/ArcFlash.htm

www.lewellyn.com

All 5 of these are excellent. (Not all inclusive but you cant go wrong with these)

There is no such thing as a 70E certification, even though some companies advertise it.

Not really, the employer is required to document the training per 110.6 (D)

See 110.6 (D), it is basically a "use it or lose it" annual retraining, or if things change (Equipment, procedures, job duties, non conformance)

Document, document, document, everything.

Howdy,
Thanks for the info, in answering the questions,,,,

We are an industrial food processing facility with a multi skilled maintenance department. Electrically qualified line techs are rated as E-3 and the facilities techs are E-4 for power distribution, substations, etc. E-4 techs received additional specialized safety training for power distribution equipment.

We have already received the required NFPA70E training, however it has been several years ago.

Coordination and arc flash study complete, arc flash labels in place.

We are in compliance for PPE, procedures, and have a robust electrical safety program.

I have recently been given charge over the program, being one of the few original people who helped develop it beginning way back in 2003. There are some loose ends to address, but we are mostly way ahead of the curve on this. I've found many differing answers to the questions I posted and was wanting some clearification. Looks like I've come to the right place. Just to make sure I understand the "use it or lose it" answer, would you recommend yearly refreshers for our line techs?

Thanks Again for the info,
B.T.

That is up to you and the 70E leaves it open to some interpretation (Imagine that )

110.6 (3) Retraining says when it is required.

From my experience it seems that annual retraining is needed for most cases, things change, people forget stuff, etc...Plus the 2009 Version of the 70E contains some MAJOR changes and if has been awhile for you people they at least should be trained on those changes.

As for annual training:

Do you have any distribution systems on your facility. If so you must comply with 1920.269 and the annual training and certification requirements.

Do you have documented one line drawings of you electrical system?

How about detailed lockout tagout procedures for each piece of equipment?

LOTO as with other OSHA programs are to be supervised and if managers note that an employee is not following procedures or doing them wrong, they are required to retrain the employee

CPR is a required annual certification for electrical worker. In 269 every employee on the facility is to receive Electrical Safety training and I believe all are required to receive CPR training but I might be wrong on this.

Do you have yearly hearing testing for your employees? I never thought about it until I started refreshing for my next arc flash training class when it dawned on me that OSHA requires annual testing where an employee is subject to loss of hearing and that is one of the dangers of arc blast. Now I am having to research that out to see if the testing is required after an arc blast or regularly.

Having a system dumped on you after this many years really sucks. Now you have to make sure that all the documentation is up to date and get current on the changes in the regulations.

BTW - if you have a distribution system on your facility you are required to verify annually that each employee who works on the equipment is using the proper techniques and this is a hands on evalaution that must be documented.

All of this on top of having to comply with a new cycle on NFPA 70E. Makes me glad we have people like Zog on the forum.