ANSI/NETA Standards Update

Transcription

1 Specifications and Standards Activity ANSI/NETA Standards Update NOW AVAILABALE!!!! NETA Standard for Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment and Systems The NETA Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment and Systems was approved as an American National Standard in February The Acceptance Testing Specifications are used throughout the electrical industry by electrical testing firms, contractors, utilities, electrical inspectors, and others to ensure that tested electrical equipment and systems are operational and within applicable standards and manufacturers tolerances and are installed in accordance with design specifications. These specifications cover the suggested field tests and inspections that are available to assess the suitability for initial energization of electrical power distribution equipment and systems. The latest edition is now available for purchase at or by calling Standard for Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment and Systems ANSI/NETA ATS-2009 ANSI/NETA Standard for Certification of Electrical Testing Technicians Public Comment Period The ANSI/NETA Standard for Certification of Electrical Testing Technicians is undergoing public comment from April 24, 2009, through June 8, It is undergoing a routine revision through the ANSI process and should be published as a revised ANSI Standard in This standard establishes minimum requirements for training, experience, qualification, and certification of the electrical testing technician (ETT). It also provides criteria for documenting qualifications and certification and details the minimum qualifications for an independent and impartial certifying body to certify electrical testing technicians. Copies of the draft document may be purchased for a fee of $ If you are interesting in obtaining a copy of the document please contact Kristen Schmidt at kschmidt@ netaworld.org. Summer 2009 NETA WORLD 1

2 ANSI/NETA Standard for Maintenance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Distribution Equipment and Systems The ANSI/NETA Standard for Maintenance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Distribution Equipment and Systems was published as an American National Standard in It is on a four-year review cycle and will be published as a revised ANSI Standard in These specifications cover the suggested field tests and inspections that are available to assess the suitability for continued service and reliability of electrical power distribution equipment and systems and are used throughout the electrical industry by electrical testing firms, contractors, utilities, electrical inspectors, and others. The purpose of these specifications is to assure that tested electrical equipment and systems are operational and within applicable standards and manufacturers tolerances and that the equipment and systems are suitable for continued service. If you are interested in participating in the Ballot Pool for this document, please contact Kristen Schmidt at kschmidt@ netaworld.org. Standard for Maintenance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Distribution Equipment and Systems ANSI/NETA MTS-2007 InterNational Electrical Testing Association American National Standard NETA WORLD Summer

3 Specifications and Standards Activity NEC Code Making Panel Committee Report 2011 NFPA 70 National Electrical Code CODE PANEL 10 DESCRIPTION OF PANEL CMP-10 deals primarily with Article 240, Overcurrent Protection. MEETING DATE January, 13 th and 14 th, 2009 MEETING PURPOSE Report on Proposals, 2011 Code ATTENDEES: NAME Roderic L. Hageman, Principle Scott Blizard, Alternate REPRESENTING NETA NETA NUMBER OF PROPOSALS 84 Accept 18 Accept in Part 4 Reject 56 Accept in Principle in Part 2 Accept in Principle 4 Definitions: Accept The panel accepts the proposal exactly as written. Only editorial changes may be made. Reject The proposal is rejected by the panel. Accept in Principle Accept the proposal with a change in wording. Accept in Part If part of a proposal is accepted without change and the remainder is rejected. The panel action must indicate what part was accepted and what part was rejected and the panel statement must indicate its reasons for rejecting that portion. Accept in Principle in Part This is a combination of Accept in Principle and Accept in Part as shown above. CMP-10 is a very well organized and knowledgeable panel, with representation from many organizations including IAIE, IEC, IEEE, IBEW, EEI, ACC, NETA, UL, NEMA, and NECA. This diverse group brings various points of view to the code-making process. For this cycle, Jim Dollard is stepping down as chair so that he can join NFPA s Technical Correlating Committee. Congratulations Jim! Fortunately for CMP-10, Jim will remain as a member of the panel. Donald Cook has taken on the job of chair. Donny is a member of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors, IAEI, and will help CMP-10 suggest enforceable code. Due to significant effort by members of the panel in preparing suggested panel statements and Donny s work in organizing the proposals in a logical order to be addressed by the panel, the panel was able to work through the 84 proposals in just two days. There were a few proposals that would be of particular interest to NETA members. Some of these were rejected unanimously by the panel and, therefore, will have no impact on NETA at this stage of the code-making process. Proposal 10-72, a proposed new Article , would require that enclosures, in other than dwelling occupancies, containing service or feeder circuit overcurrent protection devices be marked with 1) available short-circuit current, 2) the date the calculation was made, and 3) a warning that the value may change. The panel was more divided on this proposal than any other of the 84 proposals. After significant discussion, the panel voted to accept in principle and in part. They dropped the warning and added an exception for installations with written safety procedures, and where only qualified persons could service the equipment, as long as the short-circuit information was available to the AHJ. The final ballot was 7 to 4 in favor of the panel action. My vote on behalf of NETA was to affirm the panel action. In order to label the enclosures with valid data, a short-circuit study will need to be completed, and this information will be useful in determining the suitability of the interrupting devices to interrupt the available fault current and also in selecting personal protective grounds used during maintenance work. It is likely that this requirement will lead to having an arc-flash hazard study done for this equipment also. Summer 2009 NETA WORLD 3

4 Two other proposals were submitted that would have an impact on the now relatively common practice of altering the coordination of protective devices to permit fast tripping when maintenance is being performed on switchgear to reduce the arc-flash incident energy. The first, proposal 10-26, proposed that the following statement be added to article (1), Electrical System Coordination: A means to intentionally defeat the coordinated shortcircuit protection shall not be permitted. Obviously, this would prohibit making switchgear safer to work on by adding a low set instantaneous trip during maintenance. Fortunately, this proposal was rejected unanimously by the panel. We had a strong voice in this opposition. The second, proposal 10-82, proposed a new article, to require either zone-selective interlocking, differential relaying, or an energy-reducing maintenance switch on circuit breakers without an instantaneous trip. This proposal was accepted in principle by the panel. The panel added or an approved equivalent to allow for future technology. 4 NETA WORLD Summer

5 Specifications and Standards Activity NFPA 70, The National Electrical Code Code Making Panel No. 11 Committee Report Ron Widup Shermco Industries The NFPA held a Report on Proposals (ROP) meeting for Code Making Panel No. 11 of the 2011 Edition of NFPA 70, The National Electrical Code (NEC) on January 15-17, The ROP meeting was held to review and render preliminary panel recommendations and comments on proposals that had been submitted for change to the 2011 Edition of the NEC. NETA is represented on CMP-11 and participated in the meeting. A total of 163 proposals for CMP-11 were acted upon. CMP-11 covers the following Articles and sections in the NEC: Article 409 Article 430 Article 440 Article 460 Article 470 Annex D, Example D8 Of those 163 proposals submitted, the recommended panel actions were: Accept (34) Accept in Principle (16) Accept in Part (5) Accept in Principle in Part (5) Reject (103) It is important to understand the definitions for the various recommended panel actions. Those definitions are: Accept The panel accepts the proposal exactly as written. Only editorial changes may be made Accept in Principle Accept the proposal with a change in wording Accept in Part If part of a proposal is accepted without change and the remainder is rejected. The panel action must indicate what part was accepted and what part was rejected and the panel statement must indicate its reasons for rejecting that portion. Accept in Principle in Part This is a combination of Accept in Principle and Accept in Part as shown above Reject The proposal is rejected by the panel Meeting Summary While there were no significantly controversial proposals at this meeting, there were a number of proposals to try and make listing of equipment a requirement. This presents many issues, especially with Article 409, as Article 409 provides guidance on field-installed industrial control panels, and listing would significantly complicate this process. The CMP-11 committee rejected all the proposals put forth related to listing requirements. It is also my understanding that similar proposals failed in other CMP committees. A large number of proposals was put forth (approximately 20-25% of the total) this Code Cycle by Dan Leaf in Seneca South Carolina, many of which were editorial in nature and did not provide substantive change. Because every proposal has to be acted on, processing these proposals took many hours of CMP time across all the various CMP committees. Summer 2009 NETA WORLD 5

6 Neta Related Issues: There was a proposal (Proposal ; Log No. 681) related to Article (B)(1) that was Accepted in Principle. The proposal put forth a requirement that a relay coordination study under engineering supervision shall be performed for the overload protection of medium-voltage motors. The basic intent was that overload protection of medium-voltage motors be provided and properly coordinated within the power system so that [when necessary] proper fault clearing will occur. This proposal was submitted by the NEC high voltage task group. NETA SRC Chair Al Peterson is a member of the task group. A comment was provided in support of the Panel Action, with further comment that it is important the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) understands that determining protective device settings also includes function and system testing of the protective device through the process of field testing. The intent of the comment is to educate those that read it on the importance of acceptance and performance testing of medium-voltage motor protective schemes. For additional information please go to the NFPA Web site at Ron. A. Widup, Executive Vice President/General Manager of Shermco Industries, has over 20 years of experience in the low-, medium-, and high-voltage switchgear and substation market and is a NETA Level IV Senior Test Technician. Ron is a past president of NETA, and currently serves on NETA s Board of Directors and Standards Review Council. He also serves as chair of the Certification Exam Committee and Conference Committee. Ron is a principal member of the Technical Committee on Electrical Safety in the Workplace (NFPA 70E) and a principal member of the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70) Code Panel 11. He is also a member of the technical committee Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance (NFPA 70B). 6 NETA WORLD Summer