High voltage electrical systems require the special application of maintenance, repair, test, and safety procedures. Personnel must be trained in special precautions to ensure both personnel and workplace safety. OSHA requires training for all qualified employees performing operations or maintenance work, or who have access to electrical power generation, transmission and distribution installations as well as HSE personnel who are in charge of the safety and health of the employees, public and facilities.
This course covers the knowledge and skills needed to safely work with energized high-voltage high-energy electric power systems. Principles and procedures for the safe operation and maintenance of high voltage systems are covered. Insulated hand tools, "hot-sticks", proper grounding procedures, proper protective clothing, and thorough job-planning procedures are stressed throughout the course. Properties of electric charge, energy, electric potential, dielectric stress, capacitive and inductive coupling, and material behavior in electromagnetic fields are covered. The effects of electrical energy on humans and various protection concepts are addressed, as are basic first aid practices. Differential protection schemes, insulation materials, Faraday cages, equi-potential grounding, live-line tools, and isolation techniques are covered from both the technical and practical perspectives.
Various OSHA, IEEE, IEC, European and NFPA safety procedures are reviewed. In this interactive course, group exercises include the development of safe-work protocols, use of lockout/tagout (LOTO), maintenance task rehearsal, and equipment preparation. Calculations of fault current, arc-flash hazards, and proper PPE selection are studied. Other technical topics covered include insulation testing (IR/PI/DAR/DD), four-wire Kelvin low-resistance testing, corona detection by ultrasonic and RF detectors, and signature analysis using an infrared imager.
Successful course participants who attend the course and pass competency exam, will be certified to work on high voltage electrical power systems. Course participants are introduced to the hazards of electrical work and the philosophies of preventing accident and minimizing outage time due to improper safety or work practices. Also included as part of the curriculum are study materials participants may use at their own pace to continue their learning experience. This course addresses OSHA training requirements established in OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269.