Safe @ Home
The evolution of safe electricity
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orking on electric lines has always been serious business, but in the early years of the 20th century, it could be downright scary. A lack of standards and safety protocols led to far too many injuries and fatalities. Something had to be done. In August 1914—the same month World War I began in Europe—the U.S. government’s National Bureau of Standards, under the direction of Congress, established the National Electrical Safety Code. A century later, in a very different world, the code still plays a critical role in electrical system safety with standards that have been widely adopted across the United States and even abroad. But as it celebrates its 100th birthday, the NESC, as it’s known in the industry, is in a process of revision aimed at the future. “The NESC committee is taking a serious look at what the next hundred years need to be,” says Sue Vogel, who has the responsibility for the code as a senior manager at the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Association. Electric co-ops have a big stake in that process. “Our members expect our systems to be reliable, cost effective and as safe as they can be, and going by the NESC is one of the best ways to make sure all that is happening,” says Robert Harris, engineering principal at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and a member of the NESC main committee that oversees the code.
“An engineer, a lineman, meter readers, construction folks, consultants – they should all be active in this debate,” says Hyland, a senior vice president at the American Public Power Association, the trade organization for the nation’s municipal electric utility systems. One proposed revision includes better defining where communications equipment and other equipment, such as photovoltaic panels, can be placed on poles, and aligning NESC’s work rules with new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements that were published in April 2014.
A broader debate
All these matters have been addressed in the revisions. But there is also a broader debate under way about the future of the NESC. The question is whether the code should largely remain focused on the areas it has covered for decades or whether it should expand to take into account the rapidly changing face of the power industry. “The electrical system is being asked to do things that it wasn’t asked to do back then,” Hyland says. “We didn’t have wind farms. We didn’t have rooftop solar. We didn’t have community solar. We didn’t have this overlay called the ‘smart grid system.’ Electric utilities are having to adapt and plan for all these changes going forward.” If the NESC doesn’t expand to include some of these new technologies in its standards, some comNESC’s history mittee members worry it will lose In the beginning, NESC stanits relevancy. Safety standards for linemen were as vitally important in dards principally dealt with worker With today’s pace of change, the early days of electricity as they are today. safety, but they have since expanded Hyland thinks it may be necessary ARCHIVES OF NORTH CAROLINA to consider revising the code more to include the installation, operation and maintenance of overhead and underground lines, substations, often than every five years, possibly updating some sections every grounding and communications equipment. two years or so. He points out that the National Electrical Code, The standards mean that linemen or other workers are less likely which is administered by the National Fire Protection Association to face unpleasant surprises when working on parts of a system and applies to in-home wiring, is updated every three years. they haven’t seen before. Establishing standards was vitally impor“Things get done very quickly in today’s world,” Hyland says. tant in the early days of electricity, when electrical systems were “We can’t sit back and say, ‘I had a great idea; I’ll put it in the next isolated and varied significantly in construction. cycle, and maybe it’ll get into the code in 2022.’ That’s not going to But Harris says they remain relevant today, particularly when fly, especially with the younger generation in the industry.” co-ops or other power suppliers send employees to help with diHe thinks the future may include developing apps or other sasters or emergency situations. digital systems to allow users to more easily access relevant parts of the code. The NESC is already used as a reference in about 100 Tomorrow’s code countries, but Hyland believes expanding its use in other parts of The NESC Main Committee, which has authority for approving the world could help bring standardized, safe power delivery to the NESC, adopts revisions every five years to keep it up to date. countries where that is still a challenge. A Revisions currently under consideration will go into effect in the Reed Karaim writes on consumer and cooperative affairs for the 2017 edition of the code. Mike Hyland, chair of the NESC executive committee, says the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Arlington, Va.process is based on consensus, and the committee invites com- based service arm of the nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-forments from anyone in the industry with an interest in the code. profit electric cooperatives. 36 MAY 2015
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