In fact, a Plant Manager could be held criminally responsible for a workers injury if the worker did not have proper safety training. In the United States, OSHA and NFPA has specific compliance and guideline for organizations to comply.

OSHA (29 CFR 1910) requires that employees working in areas where there are potential electrical hazards shall be provided with, and shall use, electrical protective equipment that is appropriate for the specific parts of the body to be protected and for the work to be performed.

The NFPA® 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace specifically addresses how to deal with arc flash hazards. Article 130.5 states, “An Arc Flash Risk Assessment shall be performed in order to protect personnel from the possibility of being injured by an Arc Flash. An Incident Energy Analysis is the foundation for building a Risk Assessment and Arc Flash Safety Program”.

NFPA 70E 2015 (130.5) requires that the assessment be updated when major modifications or renovations take place and must be reviewed at least every five years.

Beside the United States, many other countries have adopted these practices in their electrical safety regulation in order to reduce the number of incidents related to arc flash.