I was reviewing this article in the NEC and I’m having some difficulty understanding the intent. It seems this is geared towards working live, as in that in order to work live you would have to meet one of the options in this requirement in addition to having a hot work permit. Comments?

The article states:
Where a circuit breaker is used without an instantaneous trip, documentation shall be available to those authorized to design, install, operate, or inspect the installation as to the location of the circuit breaker(s).
COMMENT: Most breakers don’t have instantaneous settings. It seems like it would be better to say “is used WITH and instantaneous setting� and then give the location so the those concerned could find it and use it.

The article also states:
Where a circuit breaker is utilized without an instantaneous trip, one of the following or approved equivalent means shall be provided:
(1) Zone-selective interlocking
(2) Differential relaying
(3) Energy-reducing maintenance switching with local status indicator
COMMENT: Again most breakers don’t have instantaneous settings so one of these would have to be installed in order to work hot. Another issue is that information I’ve received from manufacturers in the past indicates that changing settings on energized breakers/relays, etc. is not recommended due to the fact that you could unintentionally trip the breaker. Which would not necessarily be so bad as long as you were wearing proper PPE. But that tripping in itself would hinder the intent of this article because then you wouldn’t be able to re-energize with reduced instantaneous settings to allow the energized work downstream.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated

You are wrong - most breakers are listed to the UL489 Standard for molded case circuit breakers. This standard effectively requires some type of instantaneous protection be inherent in the breaker.

Of course most 'power circuit breakers' (e.g. drawout style) are not built to UL489 standards, but this style is not the majority of breakers types installed under the NEC.

I understand that there is basic instantaneous protection inherent in most LVPCB, ICCB or MCCB breakers; however, thanks to your response I now believe that this is related to HV breakers. Most of which do have either a trip unit or one of the three equivalent means of protection.

The article states:
Where a circuit breaker is used without an instantaneous trip, documentation shall be available to those authorized to design, install, operate, or inspect the installation as to the location of the circuit breaker(s).
COMMENT: Most breakers don’t have instantaneous settings. It seems like it would be better to say “is used WITH and instantaneous setting� and then give the location so the those concerned could find it and use it.

Just to clarify for anyone reading later - 240.87 applies to low voltage systems only, not to MV or HV installations. There has been a lot of confusion and debate about the intent of 240.87 and the ability of inspectors to enforce the requirement. 240.87 will likely be changing substantially (again) in the 2017 code to try to clarify the requirement further.

One simple summary for now is that the intent of the article is for LV systems 1200A and above to have high speed protection available for use during testing and troubleshooting tasks when it is not possible to de-energize. This high speed protection can take numerous forms, including a conventional instantaneous element.