EC&M - August 2026

AUGUST 2026 EC&M Magazine

ecmweb.com

C E L E B RAT I N G 1 2 5 Y E A RS • 1901-2026

Operations & Maintenance • National Electrical Code • Safety

How to Avoid Electrical Maintenance Missteps Learn four proven strategies that can help improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and enhance electrical safety.

PAGE 38

2026’s Top Electrical Distributors PAGE 20

August 2026 • Vol. 125, No. 8

The Rural Data Center Revolution PAGE 46

Rewriting the Rules for MV Systems PAGE 52

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Contents

August 2026

puhimec / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Volume 125 • Number 8 ecmweb.com

COVER STORY

How to Avoid Electrical Maintenance Missteps Four proven strategies can help improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and enhance electrical safety.

10

52 FEATURES 46 The Rural Data

Center Revolution

Two-thirds of new data centers will be in rural areas. That trend affects everything from workforce development to power generation.

52 Rewriting the Rules for

Medium-Voltage Systems

How the 2023 and 2026 NEC rearchitected medium-voltage (MV) requirements

57 The EMP Evolution

Can legacy applications support the NFPA Cycle of Safety’s compliance requirements, or is it time for an AI-driven approach?

38

20

63

66

DEPARTMENTS 8 Industry Viewpoint 10 Job-Site Intelligence

NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CODE 59 Code Basics

16 Around the Circuit

62 Practically Speaking

Staying ahead of job-site changes Are switches considered wiring devices?

Key revisions to Chapter 1 of the 2026 NEC

63 Illustrated Catastrophes

28 Maintenance Facts

64 Code Quiz of the Month

2026’s top electrical distributors How to improve electrical equipment room reliability

34 Product of the Year

Y S

Painted into obscurity

20 Market Watch

U P A E E

S

More Code catastrophes Test your Code IQ

66 What’s Wrong Here?

Can you spot the Code violations?

Expediting exterior panel upgrades for electricians

65 Ad Index 4

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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online

With its exclusive online content, ecmweb.com is a valuable source of industry insight for electrical professionals. Here’s a sample of what you can find on our site right now:

Code Conversations Podcast — Meet Paul Abernathy, EC&M’s Newest Code Expert

ID 218680251 © Maksym Velishchuk | Dreamstime.com

Editor-in-Chief Ellen Parson welcomes Paul Abernathy to the EC&M team and previews content to come. ecmweb.com/55390597

The Rising Challenge of Moratoriums on Data Center Construction and Industry Adaptation

It’s time to test your knowledge about power life extension! ecmweb.com/55392442 ID 433752060 © Contributor Asia | Dreamstime.com

Follow us X: x.com/ecmmagazine Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElectricalConstructionMaintenanceMagazine LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/electrical-construction-maintenance Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecmmagazine YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ecmwebtv TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecm.magazine Subscribe to our Newsletters: ecmweb.com/newsletters Electrical Construction & Maintenance (USPS Permit 499-790, ISSN 1082-295X print, ISSN 2771-6384 online) is published monthly by Endeavor Business Media, LLC. 201 N. Main St 5th Floor, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Electrical Construction & Maintenance, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: U.S. ($68.75 per year); Canada/Mexico ($112.50); All other countries ($162.50). All subscriptions are payable in U.S. funds. Send subscription inquiries to Electrical Construction & Maintenance, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Customer service can be reached toll-free at 877-382-9187 or at electricalconstmaint@omeda.com for magazine subscription assistance or questions.

Printed in the USA. Copyright 2026 Endeavor Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopies, recordings, or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the publisher. Endeavor Business Media, LLC does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident, or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions by the authors of said articles.

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Editor Michael Morris mmorris@endeavorb2b.com

CONSULTANTS AND CONTRIBUTORS NEC Consultant Paul Abernathy paul.abernathy@fasttraxsystem.com NEC Consultant Ryan Jackson ryan@ryanjacksonelectrical.com NEC Consultant Russ LeBlanc russ@russleblanc.net Vice President Mike Hellmann mhellmann@endeavorb2b.com

Electrical Testing Quiz: Power System Life Extension

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

Managing Editor Ellie Coggins ecoggins@endeavorb2b.com

SALES AND MARKETING

Community activism, environmental concerns, and state-level legislation are shaping a landscape where data ID 10635698 © Dashark | Dreamstime.com center construction faces significant hurdles, prompting industry shifts toward more negotiated project terms. ecmweb.com/55394047

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EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Ellen Parson eparson@endeavorb2b.com

Regional/Territory Account Manager David Sevin dsevin@endeavorb2b.com Regional/Territory Account Manager Jay Thompson jthompson@endeavorb2b.com Regional/Territory Key Account Manager Ellyn Fishman efishman@endeavorb2b.com

IP

PV NO

Account Manager Steve Suarez ssuarez@endeavorb2b.com

PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION Art Director David Eckhart deckhart@endeavorb2b.com Production Manager Josh Troutman jtroutman@endeavorb2b.com Ad Services Manager Deanna O’Byrne dobyrne@endeavorb2b.com User Marketing Manager James Marinaccio jmarinaccio@endeavorb2b.com

ENDEAVOR BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC CEO: Chris Ferrell COO: Patrick Rains CDO: Jacquie Niemiec CMO: Amanda Landsaw CALO: Tracy Kane EVP Building & Construction Group: Chris Perrino VP of Content Strategy: Mike Eby Reprints: Contact reprints@endeavorb2b.com to purchase custom reprints or e-prints of articles appearing in this publication.

Photocopies: Authorization to photocopy articles for internal corporate, personal, or instructional use may be obtained from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at (978) 750-8400. Obtain further information at www.copyright.com.

Archives and Microform: This magazine is available for research and retrieval of selected archived articles from leading electronic databases and online search services, including Factiva, LexisNexis, and ProQuest.

Privacy Policy: Your privacy is a priority to us. For a detailed policy statement about privacy and information dissemination practices related to Endeavor Business Media products, please visit our website at www.endeavorbusinessmedia.com.

Please Note: The designations “National Electrical Code,” “NE Code,” and “NEC” refer to the National Electrical Code®, which is a registered trademark of the National Fire Protection Association.

Corporate Office: Endeavor Business Media, LLC, 30 Burton Hills Blvd., Ste 185, Nashville, TN 37215 USA, www.endeavorbusinessmedia.com

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INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT

Your Story Is Our Story

T After all, your story is our story — for 125 years, EC&M has simply had the privilege of telling it.

his November marks a significant milestone at EC&M that I’m incredibly excited to share with you: our 125th anniversary. As I sit back and reflect on this historic moment, I am filled with pride to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of this brand. In fact, it makes me nostalgic and somewhat in disbelief thinking back 25 years, when I, along with several other members of our editorial team who are still on staff today, spent months in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s engineering library going through countless rolls of microfiche and putting together content for our centennial issue in 2001. Needless to say, it’s shocking how quickly 25 years can pass — I guess that old saying proves true… something about if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Although we’re still a few months away from our official 125th birthday in November, I want to put out a call to the industry’s longest-standing electrical firms as we prepare for another special anniversary section in the November issue.

Founded in 1901, when our first issue was published under the name The National Electrical Contractor, EC&M was there when electricity started to transform the way people lived and worked. Over the next 125 years, our brand has evolved along with the industry, changing names, expanding our editorial focus, and ultimately becoming the leading technical resource electrical professionals know as EC&M today. During this time, one thing has never changed: our mission to serve the professionals who design, build, install, and maintain the electrical systems that power our world.

As we prepare for this 125th anniversary section, I want this to be more than a celebration of EC&M’s history. I want it to share in that legacy by featuring the companies whose histories have unfolded alongside ours. That’s why we’re on the hunt for the electrical industry’s most enduring firms. We invite all electrical contracting firms and electrical design firms founded in 1901 or earlier — and still in continuous operation today — to participate in a special anniversary project.

By the time you’re reading this editorial, we will have launched a dedicated submission form on our website (www.ecmweb.com) where qualifying firms can submit their company profiles, telling us about their history, founders, important milestones, name or logo changes, and noteworthy projects. We’d also love to see what’s tucked away deep in your archives like vintage photos of founders, early employees, historic job sites, offices, equipment, company vehicles, advertisements, or landmark projects. This isn’t just an opportunity to celebrate longevity. It’s a chance to preserve an important piece of electrical industry history. Just like EC&M, every company that has stood the test of time has a unique story to tell — one of perseverance, craftsmanship, innovation, and service.

Together, those stories paint a remarkable picture of how the electrical industry has grown and evolved since the turn of the 20th century.

If your company is at least 125 years old, I hope you will take a few minutes to share its story with us. The profile submission form will be quick and easy, and we plan to follow up with qualifying firms via email and phone for quotes and additional information/ materials. After all, your story is our story — for 125 years, EC&M has simply had the privilege of telling it.

Ellen Parson, Editor-in-Chief

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August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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JOB-SITE INTELLIGENCE

Staying Ahead of Job-Site Changes

See how a data-based labor plan can transform labor forecasting from a reactive exercise into a proactive management strategy.

ID 460101995 © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com

BY JENNIFER DANESHGARI AND HANNAH DURANT, MCA, INC.

Every electrical contractor has seen it happen: A project looks manageable on paper with the right team between the office and the field and then… life happens! You win new work. You don’t win some work you planned on, and/or the schedule is shifting on this project (and others).

The field team is one of the most important group resources in your company, and when manpower plans have to adjust quickly, it’s good to know what flexibility you have. If projects become reactive instead of planned, that can be a challenge for the entire company. For the field, this 10

helps identify upcoming constraints before they become emergencies.

If a project needs a larger crew in four weeks, that information is much more useful today than it is three days before the need arrives.

For the office, a project-level labor plan helps the company maintain and retain manpower by seeing when one job expects to increase its manpower while another expects to decrease. When every project’s plan is combined, leadership gains a better understanding of the company’s pipeline and backlog — not only in dollars, but also in people.

The initial plan

For many, initial project labor plans often start with knowing that for this amount of time, we need a small crew to mobilize, then we will expand as the work picks up, there will be a peak for a bit (or perhaps two peaks), and then we will ramp down. This is likely repeated per job with each project’s size and schedule. A labor plan is not just a chart with an estimate of number of people over time. It is a way to connect the estimate, schedule, field plan, company’s manpower strategy, and the project’s actual performance. For electrical contractors, that connection

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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JOB-SITE INTELLIGENCE

is critical because the work is complex, schedules are compressed, and skilled labor must be managed carefully across multiple projects. To ensure your plan is solid, some initial items to consider are: • Scope of work • Project complexity • Levels of prefabrication • Methods of installation • Crew experience and historical productivity • Local labor availability How do we go from “this many” people for “this many” weeks to a visible plan with a purpose? The Job Productivity Management standard published in ASTM E2691 suggests starting with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) created by the field team doing the work. This is more than breaking down the estimate into cost codes, bid items, or schedule activities.

This is also not pull-planning tasks. This is a work plan created by the people performing the work.

When building the plan for the work, the team should avoid treating it as an office exercise. Field input is essential. Foremen, general foremen, superintendents, project managers, and operations leaders each see different parts of the job. The field understands installation sequence, access issues, crew capabilities, and real site constraints.

The office sees budget, contractual dates, other project demands, and companywide manpower availability. A useful labor plan brings those perspectives together, as shown in Fig. 1.

Choose the best starting point — with data

While every project feels unique, there are common trends for what quantity of work is completed when in a project and what labor is needed to complete that work. The MCA research division performed a study across 30 years of data and several million labor hours, referencing many types of work and locations, which showed that there are essentially six data-driven shapes of non-linear labor curves across all projects studied, as shown in Fig. 2. The labor plan can be developed in many ways: spreadsheets, internal templates, or software. Look for something that can display work by time, project, location, market segment, and customer.

12

Making the Plan Job Name Total Project Estimate Hours Week Workers 10/1/2025 5 10/8/2025 5 10/15/2025 10 10/22/2025 10 10/29/2025 10 11/5/2025 15 11/12/2025 20 11/19/2025 20 11/26/2025 25 12/3/2025 25 12/10/2025 30 12/17/2025 30 12/24/2025 20 12/31/2025 15 1/7/2026 15 1/14/2026 10 1/21/2026 15 1/28/2026 5 2/4/2026 5 2/11/2026 3 2/18/2026 3 2/25/2026 3

Project Scope/ Estimate

GC Schedule © MCA, Inc.

Work Breakdown Structure/Field Plan

Crew Availability and Experience

Project A 20,000 Hours/Person 48 48 48 48 48 48 56 56 56 56 56 56 48 48 48 48 48 48 40 40 40 40

Fig. 1. Creation of the initial labor plan.

Data-Driven Labor Curves

© MCA, Inc.

Fig. 2. Six analyzed data-driven labor curves.

The purpose of your labor plan is to help field and office personnel see what is coming before it becomes urgent.

A strong plan helps anticipate project manpower needs and constraints, supports companywide manpower retention, improves visibility into your company’s pipeline and backlog, and gives teams a practical way to compare planned work against what is actually happening. The goal is not a perfect one-time document or just a number of people over time, but a plan rooted in data and linked to the work in the project.

Adjust the plan — it’s OK!

Projects change. Work may have been missed in the original plan, added

after the plan is made, or delayed by schedule constraints, absences, weather, access issues, or other jobs the company is working on. This means it’s time to review and adjust. Adjusting the plan starts by asking three questions: • What work is left?

• How much time is left?

• Is the job site more or less productive than expected? (Depending on productivity, the project may need more/less people than originally planned.)

These questions should be asked and adjustments made before the end of the job or key deadlines have passed. If the team waits until the project is already over budget or behind schedule, the conversation becomes a postmortem. If

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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JOB-SITE INTELLIGENCE

Combine Individual Labor Plans Across the Company Individual Project Labor Plans

Overall Company Labor Distribution

© MCA, Inc.

Fig. 3. Looking across your company (or subsidiary/division) for labor needed.

the labor plan functions correctly as an early warning system, the team still has time to level set expectations, remove obstacles, re-sequence work, or make informed manpower decisions. These labor plans and conversations can scale up to the entire company, as implied in Fig. 3. As all projects adjust their needed labor over time, at the company level, it’s important to confirm you have enough people to complete all of the work you have (or whether you have too many).

Taking productivity learnings (from software that complies with ASTM E2691, like JPAC®) as well as schedule adjustments into account, we suggest you minimally re-evaluate your labor plan at 25%, 50%, 75%, or every few months depending on the length of the project.

However, you may also need to think about adjusting your plan if any of the following triggers/reasons are happening: • Shifted schedules with overtime constraints.

• Material delivery sequence.

• Equipment availability.

• Learning curves of the field (and PM) teams.

• Weather and environmental issues.

• Productivity learnings identified through the ASTM E2691, Standard 14

Practice for Job Productivity Management.

The plan for the remaining work can then be changed and updated to project more accurately through the end of the job. This is where frequent monitoring becomes important. After adjusting the plan, the project team can reevaluate how the job is looking, asking questions such as: • Will more or fewer people be needed on site to complete the remaining work?

• Can the required work be finished in the time available?

• Will the project run over or under the hours originally planned, and what are the reasons?

These answers help the field staff make better daily and weekly decisions, and they help the office communicate more clearly with leadership and customers.

becomes a living management tool. The best visible labor plans: • Use a Work Breakdown Structure for the starting point.

• Have system productivity input from the field.

• Connect to a schedule.

• Adjust as conditions change, referencing nonlinear labor loading curves backed by years of project data.

• Look across the group/company to the impacts to the business.

A good data-driven visible labor plan at the project level, as well as the larger team level, helps you anticipate manpower needs and constraints and understand your overall company Pipeline & Backlog. This, coupled with monitoring labor productivity and acting on the signals, will put your company in the best position possible to facilitate success and minimize issues.

Change from on-the-fly problem solving to proactive planning

Jennifer Daneshgari is VP of Financial Services at MCA, Inc. Jennifer can be reached at jennifer@mca.net.

A labor plan created at the beginning of the project and never touched again will lose value quickly. A regularly reviewed labor plan, based on data,

Hannah Durant is Business Operations Analyst at MCA, Inc. Hannah can be reached at hdurant@mca.net.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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AROUND THE CIRCUIT

Are Switches Considered Wiring Devices?

Part 3 of this series highlights changes to NEC Arts. 404 and 406 related to switches and wiring devices.

The “2026 NEC Insider Series” is written by Dean Austin, NFPA Technical Services, Senior Electrical Specialist, Master Electrician, and former Chief Electrical Inspector in the state of Michigan. The intent of the series is to help electrical inspectors, electrical contractors, and electricians understand changes to the 2026 National Electrical Code® (NEC®) and how all parties can work together, collectively as a team, to provide the safest electrical installations possible.

Safety remains at the core of the National Electrical Code (NEC), and the 2026 edition introduces important updates to help ensure electrical installations stay safe and reliable as our electrified world continues to evolve.

This edition saw several structural changes intended to make it easier for users to find information that will help with the installation or inspection of electrical wiring. Some of the structural modifications were also brought in to help prepare the 2026 NEC to align with the proposed restructuring of the 2029 edition of the NEC. Part 1 of this series addressed changes to arc flash label requirements in the 2026 NEC, located in Sec. 110.16.

It ran in the February 2026 EC&M print issue. Part 2, which appeared in the May 2026 print issue, focused on technical changes around calculations that are based on Sec. 120.41 for dwelling unit, minimum unit load, and the new Sec. 120.13 for dwelling unit branch-circuit loads. Part 3 examines the restructuring of Articles 404 and 406, explaining why certain switches are now classified as wiring devices and what those changes mean for Code users.

16

ID 114664571 © Jarjarbits | Dreamstime.com

BY DEAN AUSTIN, NFPA

Let’s address some of the changes that occurred in Art. 404 [Switches] and Art. 406, which had been named “Receptacles, Cord Connectors, and Attachment Plugs (Caps),” in the 2023 NEC, and has now been renamed as “Wiring Devices” in the 2026 NEC. The first change seen in Art. 404 is in Sec. 404.1 [Scope], where it has been updated to now cover general-use switches, motor-circuit switches, isolating switches, pullout switches, circuit breakers used as switches and moldedcase switches operating at voltages not over 1,000VAC, 1,500VDC. The Section was also divided into a list format, with a few additional switch types being added.

What are no longer covered in the scope of Art. 404 are general-use snap switches, which were often addressed as wiring devices and therefore have now been relocated to Art. 406.

Definitions

Understanding NEC requirements relies heavily on understanding the definitions found in Art. 100. Here are a few key definitions that help tie into the Code changes being discussed here: • Wiring device — an electrical device with a yoke or used with flexible cord or cable that serves as either a connection point to facilitate the flow of current or as a control device in general distribution and branch circuits.

• General-use switch — a switch intended for use in general distribution and branch circuits. It is rated in amperes, and it is capable of interrupting its rated current at its rated voltage.

• General use-snap switch — a form of general-use switch constructed so that it can be installed in device boxes or on box covers or otherwise

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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AROUND THE CIRCUIT

used in conjunction with wiring systems recognized by this Code.

Having a good understanding of these definitions is a necessary baseline for looking at what constitutes a wiring device, to help determine what should fall within Art. 404 and what applies to Art. 406.

Wiring device considerations

In previous editions of the NEC, general-use snap switches, pendant switches, surface switches, dimmers, electronic control switches, and lighting control switches were all considered types of switches that mount on a yoke or a strap and are typically installed in device boxes. These are often the switches found near the doorways of bedrooms, living rooms, and similar habitable rooms. Previously, all of these were grouped together in Art. 404, along with general use switches, which are also referred to as disconnecting means or knife switches, which are typically surface mounted and used for services, motors, and other electrical equipment. Circuit breakers used as switches, which must also be marked SWD, were also included in this grouping as well. The two groupings in the scope of previous editions of the NEC, found in Art. 404, worked for years without much concern.

However, through numerous public inputs in the 2026 NEC through the NFPA standards development process, the Code-Making Panels (CMPs) reviewed those public inputs and agreed that general-use snap switches, dimmer switches, and similar devices are more accurately described as wiring devices rather than general-use switches, based on those definitions.

Since general-use snap switches and dimmers are terminated in a similar manner to receptacles, which are also mounted on a yoke or strap, it was a logical move to relocate those Code sections into Art. 406 with the other wiring device requirements.

Correlation of standards

Separating general-use snap switches from general-use switches aligns with the structure of NFPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance.

Specifically, Chapter 17 of NFPA 70B addresses enclosed dead-front 18

(safety) switches, which correspond to the general-use switches covered in Art. 404 of the 2026 NEC for general distribution and branch circuits. Chapter 17 in NFPA 70B requires maintenance to be done to these switches according to Table 9.3.2 and visually according to Table 17.3.1. While Chapter 24 covers wiring devices that now include general-use snap switches, which now parallels Art. 406 of the 2026 NEC, it does require maintenance on wiring devices. According to Sec. 24.2,

Considerations like this were factored in when merging these sections into Art. 406, further assisting the NEC in usability and clarity by making the requirements easier to find for engineers, electricians, inspectors, and other users.

Conclusion

These changes should help make the NEC more user friendly by putting similar requirements in the same Article. For experienced NEC users, these changes may take a little getting

These changes should help make the NEC more user friendly by putting similar requirements in the same Article. For experienced NEC users, these changes may take a little getting used to, but they are important to the overall restructuring of the NEC. maintenance shall be performed in accordance with Sec. 24.3 and Table 9.3.2. Visual inspection is found in Table 24.3.1 where you check for worn, cracked, or distorted housings; contacts and terminations also need to be checked for corrosion. I realize most people don’t do maintenance on wiring devices, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

Changes to Art. 406

Part I and Part III of Art. 406 received the pertinent Code sections related to general-use snap switches, dimmers, and electronic control switches that were previously found in Art. 404. As stated earlier, the name of Art. 406 was also changed from “Receptacles, Cord Connectors, and Attachment Plugs (CAPs)” to an all-encompassing title, “Wiring Devices.”

The relocation of sections from Art. 404 to Art. 406 resulted in renumbering and other structural changes within Art. 406. For example, Sec. 406.9 [Wiring Devices in Damp or Wet Locations] contains a new second level subdivision (2) to the first level subdivision (A) for switches installed in damp locations.

U c

used to, but they are important to the overall restructuring of the NEC. Furthermore, an NEC that makes requirements easier to find and is structured in a more logical format might just make for a safer installation overall. Plus, it will give this old “NEC geek” something new to try and memorize.

The 2026 edition of the NEC is now available in both print publication as well as in digital format within NFPA LiNK®.

Important Notice: Any opinion expressed in this column (blog, article) is the personal opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the official position of NFPA or its Technical Committees. In addition, this piece is neither intended nor should it be relied upon to provide professional consultation or services.

Dean Austin is a senior electrical content specialist at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In his current role, he serves as an electrical subject matter expert in the development of products and services that support NFPA documents He can be reached at DAustin@nfpa.org.and stakeholders.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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MARKET WATCH

2026’s Top Electrical Distributors The nation’s largest electrical distributors are wrestling with many of the same business challenges as electrical contractors.

BY JIM LUCY, ELECTRICAL WHOLESALING & ELECTRICAL MARKETING

Electrical distributors are every bit as interested as electrical contractors in new business opportunities like data centers. They are also working to ensure they offer the products and services contractors need to capitalize on what could be a once-in-a-career revenue opportunity.

Trying to make sense of the dizzying increases in prices for wire and cable and the challenges of long lead times for products like switchgear, electrical distributors also sometimes struggle to replace Baby Boomers who are retiring and to recruit, train, and keep younger employees. Owners of many electrical supply houses also have to evaluate opportunities to sell their businesses to larger regional or national firms.

A great way to get a sense of the challenges that keep electrical distributors up at night is to read the annual Top 100 Electrical Distributors ranking published annually by Electrical Wholesaling, EC&M’s sister publication. Below is a summary of trends that surfaced in its research for the 2026 Top 100. The Table on page 22 lists the 50 largest electrical distributors.

You can access the complete ranking and analysis at www.ewweb.com/ data-training/top-100.

2026 business climate

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2026 Top 100 electrical distributors remain quite bullish on their 2026 sales prospects despite economic uncertainty in the overall economy because of the war in Iran, the related spike in inflation, a still-slumbering residential market, and sluggish new office construction in many metros.

Despite these concerns, the average 2025 revenue increase for the 70-plus distributors who provided sales data was +9.3%. Approximately the same number of distributor respondents 20

provided 2026 revenue forecasts — on average, they were expecting a +9.5% increase. Even if you factor in a +2% to +3% boost from inflation, it still puts 2025 sales performance and Top 100 2026 revenue forecasts smack dab in the middle of the industry’s historical annual growth range of 4% to 8%.

Thirteen Top 100 respondents enjoyed 2025 sales performance of better than 20%, led by Eckart Supply, Corydon, Ind. (+55%); Lonestar Electric Supply (+42%); Access Electric Supply, Kent, Wash. (+40.4%); Teche Electric Co., Menomonee Falls, Wis. (+39%); IEWC, New Berlin, Wis. (+30%); and Gross Electric Supply, Toledo, Ohio (+30%).

Several of these companies were expecting stellar years again in 2026, and, in some cases, see revenues growing as much as last year. Chad Coffman, COO, Eckart Supply, expects to match his company’s 2025 55% increase in 2026, and said growth last year was supported by opening four locations and “infrastructure build-out.”

Jackson Electric Supply, Jacksonville, Fla., has been one of the fastest-growing Top 100 distributors in recent years, and that growth is on track for 2026, as Larry

Swink, the company’s president and CEO expects 27% revenue growth in 2026 after enjoying 29% growth in 2025.

Trophy jobs

“Jackson increased market share with existing customers,” said Swink.

“Market growth was steady with great projects. However, there were not any windfall projects or out of the ordinary opportunities in 2025. We simply gained ground at our larger customers and are becoming the preferred supplier, especially with large lighting and gear orders.”

Swink says Jacksonville’s $1.4-billion “Stadium of the Future” development now being built by the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars is the largest project now underway in the city (see Photo on page 24). It also provided the company with the single largest switchgear order in its history. “We are involved in several large projects nationally as well that are similar in size and scope,” he said.

In just 10 years since its launch, the 28-location Lonestar Electric Supply, Houston, grew sales to roughly $1.7 billion, quite possibly the fastest climb to over a billion dollars in sales for any distributor in the history of the

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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MARKET WATCH

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2026 Top 50 Electrical Distributors Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Company Wesco Sonepar North America Graybar Electric Co. Inc. Rexel USA Consolidated Electrical Distributors Border States McNaughton-McKay Group

Town/City Pittsburgh North Charleston St. Louis Dallas Irving Fargo Madison Heights

State PA SC MO TX TX ND MI

Dallas

TX

8

City Electric Supply

9

Elliott Electric Supply Inc.

Nacogdoches

TX

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Crescent Electric Supply U.S. Electrical Services Lonestar Electric Supply OmniCable Kendall Electric W.W. Grainger Van Meter Inc. Turtle Wholesale Electric Supply Main Electric Supply Motion Industries State Electric Supply Gresco Utility Supply Inc. Winsupply Inc. DSG Supply

East Dubuque Middletown Houston West Chester Portage Lake Forest Cedar Rapids Clark Texarkana Santa Ana Birmingham Huntington Forsyth Dayton Fargo

IL CT TX PA MI IL IA NJ TX CA AL WV GA OH ND

25

Kirby Risk Electrical Supply

Lafayette

IN

26 27 28 29

Franklin Empire IEWC Eckart Supply Texas Electric Cooperative

St-Laurent New Berlin Corydon Georgetown

QC WI IN TX

30

Green Mountain Electric Supply

Colchester

VT

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

Colonial Electric Werner Inline Electric Supply Co. Loeb Electric Scott Electric Rural Electric Supply Cooperative Granite City Electrical Supply Schaedler Yesco Distribution

King of Prussia Appleton Huntsville Columbus Greensburg Middleton Quincy Mechanicsburg

PA WI AL OH PA WI MA PA

39

Butler Supply Inc.

St. Louis

MO

40 Villa Lighting Supply Inc. 41 Fastenal 42 CEEUS Inc. 43 Ferguson 44 Edges Electrical Group 45 United Electric Supply Co. 46 Agilix Solutions 47 Facility Solutions Group 48 CBT Co. 49 Brownstown Electric Supply 50 Johnstone Supply Notes: * - North America ** - Global

St. Louis Winona West Columbia Newport News San Jose New Castle St. Louis Austin Cincinnati Brownstown Portland

MO MN SC VA CA DE MO TX OH IN OR

22

Senior Executive John Engel Rob Taylor Kathleen Mazzarella Roger Little Kurt Lasher Jason Seger Mark Borin John Gray/ Blair Feidler Bill Elliott/ Stephen Paul Penny Cotner Randy Eddy Jeff Metzler Chris Breslin John Harman D.G. Macpherson Lura McBride Jayne Millard Buddy McCulloch Scott Germann James Howe John Spoor Steve Gramling Jeff Dice Paul Kennedy Jim Risk/ John Eggleton Bernie Backman Mike Veum Philip Bennett Gary Daniel Nate Laber/ Josh Laber Steven Bellwoar Craig Wiedemeier Bruce Summerville Charles Loeb Larry Shirey Matt Brandrup Steve Helle Greg Schaedler Deborah Kuempel/ Bill Kuempel Jack Villa Jeffery Watts E. Chad Capps Kevin Murphy Scott Lehmann Tony Buonocore Mike Stanfill William Graham James Stahl, III Gregg Deck Lance Devin

2025 Revenues Employees 20,689,680,000* 13,000 16,500,000,000 12,700 12,900,000,000 9,369 10,433,737,258* 10,165* NA 7,500 4,900,000,000 3,700 NA 1,900

Locations 427 571 346 660* 800 127 60

NA

2,500

677

NA

3,200

189

NA NA 1,681,425,000 NA NA 1,152,000,000 NA NA NA NA NA NA 846,000,000 NA NA

1,800 2,000 1,253 930 1,300 19,890* 880 NA 995 NA NA NA 300 NA 1093

140 146 28 18 74 277* 28 16 89 19 600 42 7 60 64

NA

580

41

NA NA NA 560,000,000

600 518 623 227

23 8 27 47

NA

NA

38

NA NA 456,000,000 NA NA 403,888,000 NA NA

500 535 520 NA 620 85 300 490

23 12 30 4 12 10 34 29

NA

NA

26

326,000,160 320,488,300 313,000,000 NA NA NA NA 289,229,974 NA NA NA

132 24,489** 126 35,000* 350 300 385 183 271 150 NA

2 1,595** 2 1,700* 12 14 13 12 5 5 470*

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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MARKET WATCH

The $1.4-billion “Stadium of the Future” development now being built by the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars is the largest project now underway in the city of Jacksonville, Fla. It provided Jackson Electrical Supply with the single largest switchgear order in its history, according to the company.

electrical wholesaling industry. CEO Jeff Metzler said in his response that the biggest projects underway in his market area, which now includes all of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee, are “data centers, data centers, and more data centers.”

Mega-projects dominating the construction market

Data centers were by far the most common large construction projects mentioned by Top 100 execs, but they appear to be spreading into new states like Pennsylvania that had previously not seen comparatively as much activity as states like Virginia, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. Michael Evanko, VP of Marketing for Fromm, Reading, Pa., said, “Data centers are currently the largest opportunity in eastern Pennsylvania. Many are in the planning stages, working through zoning approvals, etc. The next two years will see massive data center opportunities for distributors in Pennsylvania.”

The New York metropolitan area continues to be one of the most active commercial construction markets in the nation, and several distributors that service this region are enjoying big business from trophy jobs in the area. G&G Electric Supply, New York, is working on the billion-dollar Port 24

Authority bus terminal project and the renovation of JFK Airport. Chelsea Lighting, New York, is supplying lighting solutions to 70 Hudson Yards; 740 8th Ave.; and 383 Madison Ave. Leon Mowadia, COO, Distribution for Facility Solutions Group, Austin, Texas, said that the company has also worked on several large Manhattan office buildings, Netflix’s studio being built in Fort Monmouth, N.J., and other large commercial projects in Denver, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

With its headquarters near one of the largest clusters of U.S. Naval operations in the world, Jo-Kell, Chesapeake, Va., has serviced U.S. government entities for decades. John Kelly, company president, says one of the largest projects shaping his company’s market is the federal push to expand America’s naval fleet, including proposed next-generation battleships and major shipbuilding investments tied to the Navy’s “Golden Fleet” initiative.

Kelly says it’s expected to drive “billions in new construction and industrial infrastructure work across the region.”

As a wire and cable specialist servicing the utility, data center, industrial, and commercial markets, Nassau National Cable, Great Neck, N.Y., is enjoying a diverse array of big project work. Marketing Manager Shikha Gupta

said, “The biggest projects on our radar include OpenAI’s Stargate campus in Abilene, Texas; Meta’s Hyperion data center in Richland Parish, La.; and the ongoing hyperscale buildouts across Loudoun County, Va. Closer to our home state of New York, Micron broke ground in Jan. 2026 on its $100-billion megafab campus in Clay, N.Y., which will be the largest semiconductor facility in the United States.”

M&A activity

Although there weren’t as many distributor mergers and acquisitions over the past 18 months by Top 100 electrical distributors, several of the M&As were quite notable because the acquired companies were regional power players and filled some important gaps in market coverage for the acquirers. For instance, Rexel USA, Dallas, acquired two solid regional distributors in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area and a big automation distributor in the Chicago metropolitan market. It acquired Revere Electric Supply, Mokena, Ill., in Chicagoland; Warshauer Electric Supply, Tinton Falls, N.J.; and Schwing Electrical Supply Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y., in the outer suburbs of the New York metropolitan area.

Graybar acquired one of the largest single distributors in the United States

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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MARKET WATCH

with its purchase of American Electric Supply, Corona, Calif., a big player in the Southern California market, and Border States, Fargo, N.D., acquired WEDCO, Reno, Nev. — perhaps the largest independent distributor in northern Nevada.

Distributors opening new branches to service electrical contractors

While many industry observers are hyper-focused on the consolidation of the industry through acquisition, they often overlook how much the geographic footprint of the electrical wholesaling industry is quietly but steadily growing through branch startups. It seems like each year, top 100 distributor executives report on several dozen new branches now on the map. Some companies, like City Electric Supply, Dallas, are famous for entering a market with a flurry of branch startups, while others, like Elliott Electric Supply, Nacogdoches,

Texas, have always used branch startups for their business.

City Electric announced in mid2025 that during its 2024-2025 financial year it opened up 36 new locations.

Elliott Electric Supply opened seven locations in 2025: Baytown, Texas; Stockbridge, Ga.; Lawrence, Kan.; Tampa, Fla. (two locations); Wichita, Kan.; and Las Cruces, N.M.; and closed its location in Stuttgart, Ark. Buddy McCulloch, CEO, Wholesale Electric Supply, Texarkana, Texas, said one of the reasons his company grew a healthy 12% last year was that it opened up five new branches in Rayville, La.; Springdale, Ark.; New Braunfels, Texas; Tulsa, Okla.; and Mayfield Ky. Inline Electric Supply, Huntsville, Ala., entered new markets through acquisition and branch startups.

It acquired Lee Electric Supply in Gallatin, Tenn.; NEC Supply in Columbus, Ga., and G&N Electronics, Decatur, Ala., and opened a location in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

By the numbers

The Top 10 distributors account for an estimated 56% of Electrical Wholesaling’s forecast for $150 billion in sales through distributors of electrical supplies, and the Top 20 distributors shown on this slide account for 64%. It’s pretty amazing to think that the five largest national chains (Wesco, Sonepar, Graybar, Rexel, and Consolidated Electrical) probably account for no less than 46% of total industry sales. In total, the 2026 Top 100 distributors did a combined total of $114.3 billion in revenues — 76% of estimated 2025 industry sales of $150 billion, according to EW’s estimates.

Hopefully, the bullish forecasts for business in the remainder of 2026 will become a reality for both electrical distributors and their most important customers, which typically buy more than 50% of the electrical products sold annually — electrical contractors.

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The Slide-On Trough holds and protects cable. Add length by installing more sections joined together with Coupling.

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T23H open

Push-on End Caps complete the job.

T23H closed

aifittings.com/landing/cableway-series

Patented

3/18/26 3:22 PM

8/10/26 3:42 PM

MAINTENANCE FACTS

How to Ensure Electrical Equipment Room Reliability

Use these checklists so you don’t make your electrical equipment rooms hostile to the equipment they contain.

BY MARK LAMENDOLA, ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT

Electrical rooms should be places where transformers, panels, relays, breakers, and controls enjoy long lives.

Unfortunately, these rooms often end up being collections of prematurely failing equipment. That outcome is due to mistakes in construction and omissions in maintenance.

Three parties can do specific things to optimize electrical equipment room reliability: 1. Those who build these rooms and install the equipment.

2. The maintenance team.

3. The plant engineer or facilities manager.

Builders

By some estimates, construction decisions lock in 80% of electrical room reliability, and maintenance efforts protect the remaining 20%. This means that how an electrical room is built and how equipment is installed within it will set the upper limit for the reliability of that equipment.

How can you avoid making build‑phase mistakes that permanently reduce reliability? The following checklist is for the construction firm designing and building that room and the electrical contractor installing the equipment in it: • Determine the correct dimensions. It’s not simply a square foot calculation, because electrical equipment isn’t dimensionally malleable. It comes in specific shapes and sizes, all of which must fit into that room while allowing for not just the minimum working space [Sec. 110.26 of the NEC] around each piece of equipment but also the optimum 28

Photo 1. These transformers are inches apart with vents facing each other. They are feeding their heat to each other.

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2604EC

5.5" CONCRETE

FLOOR BOX

AND RECESSED

COVER KITS

CONVENIENT, COST-EFFECTIVE • FLUSH INSTALLATION IN NEW CONCRETE

FLBC5500 5.5" FLOOR BOX w/ SIX HUBS

FLBC5570MB B BRASS Finish

EW FOR N ETE CONCR

PLATED

In use with Low Voltage Option

Arlington’s CONCRETE FLOOR BOX and RECESSED COVER KITS offer cost-savings and easy, flush installation of a receptacle and low voltage ports in a new concrete floor.

Our heavy-duty FLBC5500 non-metallic 5.5” concrete floor box has six conduit hubs, four plugs and MULTIPLE slots for positioning two low voltage dividers in the box.

Recessed devices and thin flange reduce trip hazards in new concrete floors!

FLBC5570NL NICKEL Finish

POWDERCOATED

PLATED

Plugs stay inside Recessed Cover

IN USE

FLBC5570BL BLACK

Slotted In-use Cover

Designed to fit the FLBC5500 box, FLBC5570 recessed cover kits come with two installed UL Listed 20A decorator-style receptacles, an ultra-thin stamped steel flange and two flush-to-the-floor covers. Also a low voltage divider and a 4-port keystone device.

Zinc cover, steel flange in 6 Finishes/Colors: PLATED in brass, nickel, antique bronze, POWDER-COATED in brown, black and light almond.

SCAN TO LEARN

121D POWDER-COATED PLATED COVERS MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

Patents pending

www.aifittings.com 800-233-4717 Product Info: https://www.aifittings.com/landing/flbc5570/

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MAINTENANCE FACTS

The Myth of the “3-Ft Rule” This “rule” is a misinterpretation of the working space depth requirement in Sec. 110.26(A). In some cases, the minimum depth is 5 ft. There are also requirements for width and height. But Sec. 120.6(A) is all about minimum working clearance; what you want is optimum reliability clearance. Is there enough room for proper airflow around equipment and for efficiently performing all necessary maintenance?

Safety Matters This twice-a-month e-newsletter delivers the latest trends and information on electrical safety, reports on specific accidents in the field, and provides tutorials and evergreen safety content that can be used for reference and training.

Topics covered include: • Best practices for safely working on electrical equipment • Accidents and investigations • Arc flash • PPE • Shock and electrocution • Fire and security • Safety audits

Subscribe Today See all of our EC&M e-newsletters at www.ecmweb.com

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reliability space (see Sidebar above for more details).

• Plan equipment orientation. Don’t, for example, face transformer vents the wrong way (Photo 1 on page 28). They cannot be facing each other (unless they’re far apart). Nor can they face a nearby wall or panel.

And you don’t want a transformer vent facing where an electrician would stand to perform routine maintenance. You also need to ensure there’s adequate airflow among all equipment [Sec. 110.13(B)], nothing blocked from the air it needs for cooling. After all this, the final equipment orientation may force you to change the dimensions you calculated in the previous step.

• Choose a good location. You may not always have a choice of where the room will be, but if you do, then you want it away from sources of heat, dust, and process chemicals [Sec. 110.11].

• Ensure proper ventilation and thermal design. Excess heat is the No. 1 enemy of electrical equipment. The room must be able to shed excess heat even when the equipment is under full load. The process of determining the correct dimensions is one part of making this possible. Determining how to move air across everything in a manner that reliably removes excess heat is another. Further, you may need active ventilation and ductwork instead of just a door vent.

• Consider the ventilation exhaust path. It’s unfortunately common, especially in office buildings, that equipment rooms vent into an occupied space. Not only does this run the risk of the vents being blocked by filing cabinets and cubicle walls (or people taping cardboard over them

due to the heat or the transformer hum they hate so much), but it also means if there’s a fire in that room, the smoke will quickly enter the occupied space. You may need to ventilate to outside air; if the room lacks an exterior wall, run an exhaust duct.

• Upsell monitoring. A good way to avoid thermally caused failure of any equipment in that room is to install temperature monitoring and tie it into the building monitoring system or other supervisory system.

In most cases, a cost/benefit analysis makes this a no-brainer.

• Allow for replacements. Ensure there is a sufficient path to get old equipment out and new equipment in. You don’t have much space for lifting equipment, so try to create a clear path for the larger enclosures.

Don’t mount something on a wall where it would intrude on that path — find another location.

• Address general requirements.

Complying with Art. 110 requirements will go a long way toward optimizing electrical room reliability. We’ve already noted a few such requirements, but here’s one more: Mount electrical equipment securely [Sec. 110.13(A)].

• Ensure sufficient lighting. If it’s not maintainable, it’s not reliable.

Have enough diffusion to eliminate shadows where people need to see.

Permanently mounted task lighting and LED outline lighting are a couple of options.

• Address grounding. A transformer is a separately derived source, so it must be grounded [Sec. 250.30]. Don’t connect utilization equipment to ground. Do connect the equipment “grounding” (bonding) conductor (EGC) to that transformer’s ground.

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2608EC

CableStop

®

TRANSITION FITTINGS COST-EFFECTIVE CABLE TRANSITION FOR FEEDER SIZE CABLE SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT AND SIZING

2-1/2" 841536

NEC COMPLIANT

CABLE & CONDUIT TRANSITIONS Ideal for data center remote power panel feeds, equipment feeds, panels, and EV charger in parking garages, Arlington’s Listed CableStop® Transition Fittings provide a fast, cost-effective way to transition feeder cables into 1.25”, 2.5”, 3”, and 3.5” EMT, IMC, and RMC conduit.

Concrete tight when taped

Combining Arlington’s patented 8412 series cable fittings with conduit fittings, CableStop® simplifies transitions to larger knockout sizes while reducing SKUs. Available with set-screw or compression connections, each fitting includes multiple end-stop bushings and a free sizing template for quick, accurate installation.

- 2026 NEC 300.17(F) & 2023 NEC 300.15(F)

841516

Set screw

FREE TEMPLATE for selecting bushing size

841536

Compression

®

131G Patented.

Other Patents pending.

www.aifittings.com Scranton, PA 18517 800-233-4717

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MAINTENANCE FACTS

• Address bonding. Differences of potential between enclosures are dangerous to the people who service the equipment and even to the equipment itself. Connect (normally) non-current-carrying metal parts of equipment together and to the EGC with bonding jumpers.

• Label well. Sloppy labeling can create years of confusion for maintenance. If professional-quality labeling is incorporated into the methodology of the work, it will likely speed job completion rather than slow it down.

Bonus: Resolving an error on a callback will probably take less time than otherwise.

• Secure the door. One sure way to reduce the reliability of an electrical room is to make it do double duty as a storage room. It must be a dedicated space [Sec. 110.26(E)]. Put a lock on that door [Sec. 110.26(F)], and ensure it’s keyed (or programmed) such that it’s inaccessible to unqualified personnel.

• Document as-built. Include information such as panel schedules, torque values used for terminations, and data from any tests (e.g., insulation resistance) that were performed. Include photos of all asset tags, nameplates, and breaker settings.

Maintenance

Maintenance is performed on the equipment within the electrical room, but rarely on the room itself. If you simply tack the electrical room maintenance steps onto existing procedures for equipment maintenance, those steps will be repeated far too many times and will likely be glossed over each time. You need it done right, and not very often. Create an electrical room maintenance procedure, and ensure each electrical equipment room has an asset number with that procedure assigned.

What to check: • Ventilation. Is air moving through the room? What is the ambient temperature?

• Lighting. Repair or replace as needed.

• Grounding and bonding. Don’t tighten connections as part of maintenance — this will just cause them to fail prematurely. If assembled properly, they will hold their mechanical integrity unless subjected to corrosive elements, severe vibration, or misguided “tightening” (Photo 2).

• Intrusion. Check for insects and rodents by looking for droppings on upward-facing surfaces and urine trails on vertical surfaces.

• Moisture. Look for corrosion, wet spots, condensation trails, etc., on raceways, bus, panels, junction boxes, etc.

• Dirt. Use a suitable blower and/or vacuum to keep dust from accumulating on walls, raceway, enclosures, and whatever else is in the room. PPE for this, at a minimum, is a dust mask.

• Enclosures. Are all doors closed and covers in place? Are any cover bolts missing? Are all unused openings closed [Sec. 110.12(A)]?

Facility managers

Whether you are a manufacturing plant engineer or a nontechnical facilities manager for an office building, you need the electrical equipment rooms to be reliable. Take these steps: 32

S

Photo 2. Don’t tighten this connection. Disassemble it, clean it, replace the fastener and locking hardware, and reassemble it. Tighten to the recommended torque — not an iota more.

• Assign maintenance. Check the CMMS to ensure every electrical equipment room is listed and has scheduled maintenance assigned to it. You need to do this only once.

• Limit access. Only people who are qualified to inspect and maintain electrical equipment should be allowed in.

Don’t rely on “Authorized Personnel Only” signs. Restrict access with locks, and restrict who can open those locks.

• Guarantee exclusivity. Don’t permit this room to be used for any other purpose. That includes using an electrical equipment room for housing data network racks. These are at entirely different voltages and serve entirely unrelated purposes, so they don’t belong together functionally. And you help keep the IT guy safe by keeping IT equipment out of the electrical equipment room.

• Limit scope creep. Electrical needs in a facility can change over time. Usually they increase, which can mean adding another transformer and panel. If you don’t have room for it but shoehorn it in there anyway, you reduce the reliability of that room and of all the equipment in it.

Pro tip: If you are going to add a transformer and panel, go big enough to allow for expansion. Otherwise, you may later find yourself trying to add another set but without quite enough space for it.

•

•

•

•

Not too much to ask

By addressing the factors that undermine electrical room reliability, you improve the reliability of the equipment in the electrical room. The items for builders are one-shot deals. It’s important to ensure those get done correctly, because there is really no fixing them later. The facility manager mostly needs to ensure someone is tasked with checking these rooms, and nobody is allowed a chance to mess them up.

The maintenance department has only a small workload for preventing degradation of electrical equipment room reliability.

If the maintenance department doesn’t treat these rooms as the maintenance-required assets that they are, that small workload stands a small chance of ever being done.

•

A T

Mark Lamendola is an electrical consultant based in Merriam, Kan. He can be reached at mark@mindconnection.com.

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August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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8/10/26 3:03 PM

2606EC

1-INCH TRADE SIZE CABLE & CONDUIT SUPPORT BRACKET

C ableAble Commercial-Grade

TM

I N COM M ERCIAL & R ESI DENTIAL AP P LICATIONS STACKING

SAVE up to $26.00 per CONDUIT Backbone Support SAVE up to $29.00 per MC Backbone Support

ENGINEERED FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS •

PLENUM RATED

•

LOAD RATED UP TO 300LBS

•

SAVES MATERIAL AND LABOR

•

REDUCES CEILING CONGESTION

•

STACK TO MULTIPLY SAVINGS

1-1/4" holes

All styles available in bulk 50 packs.

To order, add “X” suffix to item number.

SCAN TO LEARN

CA4L

CA8L

CA4 T-Bracket

CA8 T-Bracket

¨

Listed for Canada

MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

www.aifittings.com Scranton, PA 18517 800-233-4717

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Patent pending

148

© 2026 Arlington Industries, Inc.

6/2/26 3:02 8/10/26 3:03 PM PM

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

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Expediting Exterior Panel Upgrades for Electricians The Wire Waffle, EC&M’s 2026 Product of the Year Platinum Award winner, increases the number of wires that can fit in a connector for a Code-compliant installation.

BY AMY FISCHBACH, FREELANCE WRITER

On an exterior panel upgrade, an electrician faced a challenge: The inspector wouldn’t allow a like-for-like replacement of all the individual cables entering the electrical panel through the same single large knockout. To comply with the inspection, Hunter Franssen and his father, who is also an electrician, drilled 12 individual holes in the back of a panel that only had a single large knockout factory-punched into it. Like all inventors in the trade, they thought there had to be a better way to solve the problem.

After researching the major brands and discovering nothing like it on the market, they started their journey to invent a new product — the Wire Waffle — in partnership with Rack-A-Tiers Manufacturing.

Travis MacLachlan, vice president of sales and product development for Rack-A-Tiers, said the Wire Waffle saves labor by reducing the number of knockouts electricians need to open while also keeping panels clean and making future panel upgrades easier.

“Electricians love the fact that they now have a more efficient, Code-friendly way of running their cables to a panel mounted on the outside of a house,” he said. “They can also bring all the wires into one connector, especially during remodel work.”

EC&M subscribers voted this product the Platinum award winner over 34 other category winners selected by a panel of judges from a record number of 144 submissions in the 2026 EC&M Product of the Year competition.

Researching and testing the product

In the electrical industry, many inventions are born out of a long-standing industry challenge. For example, before the invention of the Wire Waffle, non-metallic (NM) connectors were only able to accommodate up to two wires. This product, however, takes that number up to 16 in one connector and accommodates NM wire sizes 14/2 to 6/3.

Electricians can install the Wire Waffle in 2.5-in. panel knockouts to perform a panel change in a finished wall without damaging the drywall. When the inventors first came up with the idea for this new product, they drew the original sketch and then hired a professional to create the CAD drawings. The product’s design evolved through many iterations, which were based on the CAD professional’s injection molding experience.

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SC

The Wire Waffle is installed in a 2.5-in. knockout.

In 2017, Franssen filed for a patent, which was issued three years later. Before he and his father could bring the product to market in April 2025 with the help of Rack-A-Tiers, they invested years into research, development, and prototyping.

The most significant challenges were gaining a basic understanding of plastics and earning a UL listing.

“Prior to this, the inventor had no knowledge of how exceptionally complex plastics are or all the components that determine their properties,” MacLachlan said. “They knew the product needed to be listed, so they pursued the universally recognized industry leader — UL.” UL tests all the properties of the listed components to the extreme, he said.

“Nothing could have prepared them for the rigorous testing that UL would put it through, and Hunter and his father were fortunate enough to be invited to UL’s testing lab to witness the tests being performed,” MacLachlan said.

M TH

Bringing the Wire Waffle to market

To bring their idea to life, the inventors not only tested their product but also partnered with Rack-A-Tiers

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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2604EC

C ableAble Commercial-Grade

TM

NEW

2-INCH TRADE SIZE CABLE & CONDUIT SUPPORT BRACKET

ENGI N EER ED FOR COM M ERCIAL AP P LICATIONS CA4L200

STACKING

SCAN TO LEARN

MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

• • • • •

PLENUM RATED LOAD RATED UP TO 300LBS SAVES MATERIAL AND LABOR REDUCES CEILING CONGESTION STACK TO MULTIPLY SAVINGS

2-1/2” CA4L200

Power or Low Voltage EMT, RMC, IMC and FEEDER MC ALSO AVAILABLE IN 1-Inch www.aifittings.com Scranton, PA 18517 800 233-4717

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Patent pending

147

© 2026 Arlington Industries, Inc.

3/19/26 3:04 2:36 PM PM 8/10/26

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Manufacturing. Back in 1995, RackA-Tiers launched with just one tool, a tri-fold brochure, and a home office above the garage. Over the last three decades, the company, which focuses on the residential electrical market, has grown to more than 1,000 products, including tools, fasteners, connectors, power monitors, and others related to the electrical industry and beyond.

“Rack-A-Tiers has helped many inventors get their ideas to market,” MacLachlan said.

For example, the Wire Waffle helped to meet an industry need. For decades, Franssen said electricians have violated NEC Sec. 312.5(C) because no product on the market could comply with that specific Code requirement.

“They took a different approach to developing the product than what is the norm,” MacLachlan said.

For example, instead of first developing a product and then lobbying to get the NEC to write a

“The Wire Waffle is the ultimate wire connector, and it was designed by an electrician with electricians in mind,” he said. “That is what Rack-ATiers saw as a perfect fit within their growing line of connectors. We want to continue to push innovation in the industry, and this product is a perfect example of that.”

The product had to undergo extensive testing to earn UL approval.

change that allows or requires the product, they discovered a Section of the Code that couldn’t be satisfied.

They then built a product around satisfying that existing Code rule.

MacLachlan said the Wire Waffle generally retails between $12 and $15.

Products eligible for this year’s Product of the Year competition were those introduced to the market between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2025. A hand-picked panel of judges ranked the 144 products entered into this year’s contest based on a list of scoring criteria, ultimately selecting 35 category winners for the first phase of the competition. These category winners were then narrowed down to just three finalists through an online poll available to our readers on the EC&M website. By casting their votes, EC&M subscribers determined the platinum, gold, and silver award-winning products of the year.

GOLD AWARD: WALL BOX The Gold award in the 2026 EC&M Product of the Year competition goes to Arlington Industries for its low-profile furred wall box, which allows installers to use the existing furring strip for a quick and easy placement of an outlet in a concrete block wall. If a different location is needed, they can mount the box directly onto the concrete block using the built-in block wall flange. These features eliminate installation steps and deliver a clean, Code-compliant, professional appearance in less time than traditional installation methods. When installing the product, installers no longer need to break out the concrete block, seal the block, or add more furring strips. In addition, the product offers integral cable securement and retention with no pullout and accommodates standard and GFCI devices in varying depths, including decorator-style wall plates. It is high strength and withstands freeze/thaw weather cycles, is made in the United States, and has a paintable cover.

SILVER AWARD: TRANSFORMER CONDITION MONITORING SOLUTION Capturing the Silver award is the transformer condition monitoring (TRAFCOM) from ABB. It delivers condition monitoring for any power or distribution transformer regardless of brand, type, or age. This universal, non-invasive solution installs magnetically in less than 15 min. with minimal downtime, immediately providing continuous real-time data, predictive maintenance insights, and early fault detection. Monitoring ambient temperature, humidity, surface temperature, magnetic fields, vibration, and partial discharges allows users to maximize uptime, extend transformer life, and optimize maintenance planning. The product, which was developed in partnership with Oktogrid, is fully integrated with ABB’s digital ecosystem and transforms asset health management by reducing operational costs, preventing unexpected failures, and helping to ensure peak reliability.

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August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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NON-METALLIC • VENTED FOR EASIER STACKABILITY

CONCRETE PIPE SLEEVE THE EASY, ECONOMICAL WAY TO SLEEVE THROUGH CONCRETE POURS!

Arlington’s Concrete Pipe Sleeves are the economical way to sleeve through concrete pours in tilt-up construction WALLS – and FLOORS allowing cable and conduit to run easily from one floor to the next.

No costly core drilling – No cutting holes in the form.

Plus, you can position the hole prior to pouring the concrete.

• Attaches to form with nails or screws

CPS40 Pipe Sleeve for 4" hole

• Stackable up to 23" h for extra deep pours • Vents keep wet pipe sleeves from sticking together

CPS40

© 2007/REV2014 Arlington Industries, Inc.

• Multiple hole sizes: 1-1/2" • 2" • 3" • 4" • 5" • 6"

21 Nail sleeve to form.

800/233-4717 • www.aifittings.com

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After concrete sets, cut sleeve flush with surface.

Insert conduit into sleeve.

Product info aifittings.com/landing/concrete-pipe-sleeve

8/27/25 11:44 AM

RECESSED FOR FLUSH-TO-THE-WALL MOUNTING OF LED, HI-DEF TVs

STEEL TV BOX KIT ®

CO M B O BOXES FOR USE WI TH METAL RACEWAYS Arlington’s recessed STEEL combination power/low voltage TV BOX® is the best way to mount an LED or Hi-Def TV flush against a wall.

retrofit

Mounting wing screws hold box in the wall

© 2008-2020 Arlington Industries, Inc.

TV BOX provides power and/or low voltage in one or more of the openings.

Plugs and connectors stay inside the box, without extending past the wall.

New work

2-GANG TVBS505

Mounting screws hold box on stud

Designed for use in new or retrofit commercial construction where metal raceway is used, we have a STEEL TV BOX for almost any application!

• Steel box; non-metallic paintable white trim p plate • Easy, secure installation

!

NEW 1-GANG TVBS503

• Optional covers Patented

3-GANG TVBS507

98

800/233-4717 • www.aifittings.com

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Product Info aifittings.com/landing/recessed-tv-boxes

7/17/25 2:49 PM

8/10/26 3:04 PM

COVER STORY

How to Avoid Electrical Maintenance Missteps Four proven strategies can help improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime, and enhance electrical safety.

BY RANDY BARNETT, ELECTRICAL CODE AND SAFETY SPECIALIST

M

issteps in electrical maintenance tasks can lead to lost production output, damaged equipment, contract penalties, delayed shipments, and excessive overtime. Such issues can range in cost from hundreds to millions of dollars. And what electrical maintenance department wants to accept that responsibility?

The thought of personnel injury is even worse. While injury and fatality costs can be measured, the human effect cannot. To avoid such issues, create an effective electrical maintenance program — one that maintains equipment for

safety and reliability. Often, the cost of failure would more than support an electrical maintenance program. Avoiding crucial mistakes within the program will only pay dividends.

Following are four solutions for avoiding the most common and costly electrical maintenance missteps.

1.

Implement an effective electrical maintenance program (EMP).

Failing to create and maintain an effective electrical maintenance program is the first and most crucial misstep.

2. Rate equipment

• Based on: criticality, current condition, operating environment.

• Matrix output determines maintenance frequency.

• Refer to NFPA 70B standard as needed.

3. Document electrical maintenance program

• Develop/revise procedures.

• Purchase test and monitoring equipment.

• Train and qualify personnel.

4. Implement electrical maintenance program

• Record data.

• Analyze data.

• Perform corrective maintenance.

Continuous improvement process

1. Create asset list

• Use computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

• Assign responsibilities.

• List all equipment.

• Identify critical equipment.

Fig. 1. Developing the required documented electrical maintenance program requires commitment. Fortunately, the program development can be broken down into logical steps. Use the NFPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, to develop your program or improve an existing one.

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August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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2.

Courtesy of NTT Training

Without a written program, moving toward the goals of safety and reliability cannot happen. The NFPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, is the one document that can be used to establish or improve an existing electrical maintenance program. The steps outlined in Fig. 1 on page 38 are not complicated, but they do take commitment to implement and maintain.

Follow four logical steps to establish and continuously improve a program.

First, develop a list of all equipment in the facility. Determine which equipment is most critical to operations and safety. That is the equipment to be included in the maintenance program. The disconnect for a sump pump in a basement may not be deemed critical and require scheduled maintenance. However, a switch used in a 480V power distribution system would be much more critical. Not only could its downtime result in major power disruptions, but failure could also cause potential danger to personnel (Photo 1).

Once the list of critical equipment is established, record the current physical condition of the equipment and its operating environment. NFPA 70B then provides a matrix for all types of electrical equipment in use to determine the frequency of maintenance to be performed.

Use vendor information and NFPA 70B-specific equipment requirements to write procedures ensuring maintenance tasks are complete and consistent. Even the best technician can make human errors, so write it down! A documented program including identification of equipment to maintain, how often that maintenance must be performed, and the use of written procedures to perform and document that maintenance is not only a requirement of NFPA 70B but also is also the only method that creates an effective program. See the sidebar, “Electrical Maintenance Strategies,” on page 44 for an overview of the different types of maintenance.

Embrace technology.

Living in the past when it comes to maintaining electrical equipment can be a giant misstep. Equipment conditions change, new equipment is purchased, and maintenance performed on older equipment will reveal a need to alter the frequency of maintenance. Consider using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to keep track of all required program information and data collected.

Such programs can help identify potential

Photo 1. Unfortunately, the failure of this electrical equipment resulted in personnel injury. The cost of monitoring the equipment and performing routine maintenance would have been much less than the cost of the injury.

Embracing the use of modern test methods reduces costs and makes for a safer work environment. www.ecmweb.com • August 2026

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Courtesy of NTT Training

COVER STORY

Fig. 2. A person qualified to interpret thermal images must analyze this infrared thermal scan of this single-phase panelboard to determine if there is an overheating issue. Certain breakers may just be under load, thus the elevated temperature of the breakers and conductors.

40

be identified before they become a fire danger. The cause of disturbances within the electrical distribution

Courtesy of NTT Training

equipment issues, assist with scheduling, and increase overall efficiency.

Failing to put existing technologies to work to enhance maintenance is a common misstep. Continuing advancements in test equipment and methods have greatly improved safety and reliability. From handcrank megohmmeters to modern programmable test instruments that use Bluetooth and software to analyze/identify potential problems, the world of electrical maintenance has progressed just as any other technology-based discipline. However, attempting to keep up with rapidly advancing technology will not work.

Determine the most cost-effective test and monitoring methods for the equipment and include them as part of the electrical maintenance program.

Electrical equipment vibrates, heats as current flows through it, and may cause disturbances in the very electrical system that is supplying the equipment.

Such conditions may not only cause misoperation of electrical equipment, but also complete equipment failure and, once again, fire and personnel injury can also result. Such failures are not acceptable.

Abnormal motor vibrations can be detected long before a motor bearing fails and damages driven equipment. Overheated terminals can

system can be identified and located, reducing downtime and improving safety. Handheld measurement and test equipment can be used for all such issues, or permanent monitoring systems installed to constantly survey equipment, detect trends, possible abnormalities, and alert operations and maintenance before failure occurs.

Balance the cost of implementing modern technologies. For example, the cost of a thermal imaging camera and basic electrical thermography training for use on certain critical pieces of electrical equipment can be a relatively small and worthwhile investment.

Contracting out an annual thermal survey to a third party can be very expensive in the long-term. However, paying for the expertise of a contractor who uses the best equipment and certified thermographers may be a wise financial decision (see Fig. 2 on page 40).

Vibration analysis, infrared thermography, and power quality are three areas that can often be reasonably

Photo 2. The use of sophisticated test equipment requires training on the test equipment, an understanding of the distribution system operation, and the use of safe work practices. This power quality analyzer with nine current, voltage, and ground leads connected inside this 3-phase panelboard identified the cause of an overheating problem due to harmonics. As a result, possible equipment failure and replacement was averted.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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7/18/25 9:51 AM

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Courtesy of NTT Training

Courtesy of NTT Training

COVER STORY

Photo 4. This distribution transformer was taken out of service and replaced due to an overheating issue (inside the red circle). The costly replacement and downtime could have been avoided using predictive maintenance technologies, such as infrared thermography. The overheating issue may have been identified before the temperature rise problem became visible and an expensive replacement was installed.

In this case, a thermal imaging camera was on hand, but the organization had failed to implement an electrical maintenance program, thus never surveying the equipment.

Photo 3. Qualified personnel are required to perform electrical maintenance. Using out-of-service equipment, such as this medium-voltage switch, allows a safe environment for workers to practice and demonstrate maintenance skills.

implemented using the appropriate test equipment and qualified personnel to avoid the misstep of failing to embrace technology (Photo 2 on page 40).

3.

Staff qualify maintenance technicians.

Only qualified personnel are allowed to perform electrical maintenance. OSHA and various NFPA standards define a “qualified person” as one who has the necessary skills and knowledge to perform the job and knows how to recognize and protect themselves from the hazards. Both OSHA and the NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, require the worker to “demonstrate” their skills and knowledge (Photo 3). In addition, qualification is by task — not a general job classification. Conducting and analyzing results for a partial discharge test on mediumvoltage switchgear takes a different skill set than conducting an insulation resistance test on a low-voltage motor and analyzing the results.

The test technician must also accurately record the data.

With today’s modern test equipment, that may require the use of the test equipment manufacturer’s proprietary software to download data into a CMMS for later analysis.

42

OSHA regulations specify training may be a combination of classroom and on-the-job training. The employer must document the training and qualification process with the specific requirements found in the company’s administrative procedures.

Create a written training and qualification program based on the skills and knowledge needed to perform required maintenance tasks. Include initial electrical safety training and annual safety refresher training as part of the electrical maintenance program. Vendor training is often used due to its cost-effectiveness. Failure to train and qualify electrical maintenance personnel is an electrical program mistake that can be avoided through commitment to an effective program. Avoid the worker qualification misstep — a robust training program must be used to train and qualify workers.

4.

Analyze data and act!

Failing to analyze data is a common misstep in electrical maintenance. Data is collected, but then it takes time to download results from test equipment and enter data from paper procedures. Soon, other pressing maintenance items begin to take precedence. For all the work that has been done, not analyzing the data in order to make smart decisions and implement necessary corrective actions is a misstep that will bring the electrical maintenance program to a complete stop.

Effective asset management requires staff trained to analyze maintenance data, find the root cause of equipment failures, and assist in developing/ maintaining all aspects of the program. This may or may not be the technician performing the maintenance. Reliability engineering organizations often exist within a facility to improve safety, increase uptime, improve overall plant performance, and

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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COVER STORY

L P

Electrical Maintenance Strategies An effective electrical maintenance program will employ a variety of strategies to ensure the most cost-effective means are used to improve reliability and safety, including the following: Reactive maintenance. Maintenance performed only after equipment fails to perform its intended function.

Corrective maintenance. Planned or unplanned maintenance performed to restore equipment after a fault or deficiency is discovered — ideally before the equipment fails.

Preventive maintenance (PM). Scheduled maintenance performed at predetermined times or usage intervals to reduce the likelihood of failure.

Predictive maintenance (PdM). Maintenance based on monitoring the actual condition of equipment to

help manage lifecycle cost — all by preventing failures before they occur! Smaller organizations must rely heavily on the electrical maintenance team to recognize and correct potential problems before they develop.

Equipment downtime can often be predicted. Abnormal vibrations, excessive temperature variations between similar

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terminals operating at the same load, and decreasing insulation resistance values are examples of issues that should be recognized and corrected before equipment failure, fire, or personnel injuries occur. Technicians can use the best test equipment to capture the most accurate data, but if that data is not analyzed, decisions are not made, and actions are not taken, so the electrical maintenance program is ineffective.

All too often, the misstep of failing to review and analyze maintenance records occurs as maintenance management and technicians find themselves too busy fighting brush fires to stop and review what work has been done.

The requirements stated in NFPA 70B are clear: A “process to prescribe, implement, and document corrective measures based on collected data” and a “program review and revision process that considers failures and findings for continuous improvement” must be implemented. Analyzing data and taking action is a logical step in ensuring the effectiveness of any maintenance program (Photo 4 on page 42).

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predict when maintenance should be performed.

Condition-based maintenance. Often considered a subset of predictive maintenance, this is initiated when measured equipment conditions indicate performance is deteriorating.

Proactive maintenance. Maintenance that identifies and eliminates the root causes of equipment failures rather than simply repairing the failures.

Shutdown, turnaround, or outage. Major maintenance activities performed during a scheduled shutdown of equipment or an entire facility.

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM). A structured process used to determine the most effective maintenance strategy for each asset based on its functions, failure modes, and consequences.

Zanite Plus is a registered trademark of BaseTek LLC.

All too often, certain missteps cripple the electrical maintenance program. To avoid them, use information in the NFPA 70B standard, equipment manufacturers’ information, and related codes and standards to establish and maintain the program. Make smart decisions to embrace the best technology for the organization. Commit to training and qualifying personnel, analyze maintenance data, and take corrective maintenance actions when needed. Avoid the missteps that prevent implementing an effective electrical maintenance program, which will increase safety and improve equipment reliability.

Randy Barnett, electrical code and safety specialist, is a master electrician, ICC commercial electrical inspector, NFPA-certified electrical safety compliance professional, and has worked as an electrician and technician in nuclear and coal-fired power plants, and in industrial maintenance and construction for 40 years. He can be reached at electricrb@yahoo.com.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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150

6/2/26 3:07 8/10/26 3:23 PM PM

The Rural Data Center Revolution

Two-thirds of new data centers will be in rural areas. That trend affects everything from workforce development to power generation.

ID 452164814 © Steveheap | Dreamstime.com

FEATURE

BY TIM KRIDEL, FREELANCE WRITER

H

yperscale is an IT term for massively ramping up resources to meet soaring demand. It’s also a good way to describe what electrical contractors need to do to be successful in the data center market. But a major new trend makes that harder than ever.

Eighty-seven percent of existing data centers are in urban areas, but 67% of those planned or under construction are in rural areas, according to an April 2026 Pew Research Center analysis. That geographic flip creates a host of challenges for electrical contractors, starting with labor (see the Figure on page 48).

The chronic shortage of electricians is a challenge everywhere, but it’s particularly acute in rural areas because the labor pool is smaller to begin with.

Most new data centers are hyperscale, which exacerbates that challenge because these megaprojects require hundreds of electricians on site for a year or more.

“A 10GW data center, they’re building it in 200, 300, 400MW, or maybe even gigawatt stages,” says David Speidelsbach, Wesco’s vice president of sales and strategic initiatives. “These 46

projects could be anywhere from one year to multiple years — even up to eight years of consistent buildout.”

Getting enough electricians to commute an hour or more from the city or suburb where they live is a tough sell, especially when the final few miles are gridlock because two-lane rural roads were never designed to handle thousands of commuters and trucks. “It takes me sometimes 45 minutes to pull out of my driveway,” one Fairfax resident told Iowa’s News Now about the data center under construction nearby.

One solution is for someone — the electrical contractor or general contractor or the data center owner — to provide on-site housing and services.

This takes pressure off local roads and hotels and can help attract and retain workers, which is why it’s been done before with wind farms and other megaprojects in rural areas.

“I lived in on-site camps,” Speidelsbach says about his apprenticeship days. And, more recently, at an EV factory construction project, “they had free food services — top-shelf food. Anything the workers needed, that company made it readily available. An electrical company or

even an EPC or general contractor, they are thinking beyond just their core competency.”

Ninety percent of data centers are within five miles of another one, Pew says. If an electrical or general contractor can win adjacent projects, that proximity increases the business case for providing housing.

“When I was working at Palo Verde [Generating Station] as an apprentice, we had a man camp in Tonopah, about eight miles from the job site,” says Mike Greenawalt, former Rosendin CEO. “It was a hotel that somebody had built, and after the job was over, they turned it into a Super 8. I really think that the general contractors need to look at either creating parks for the travelers to park their trailers or building man camps. We do it in the oil fields. That is going to help attract people.”

It also can help retain them.

“Right now, the way all of the contractors are attracting people is with higher wages, more overtime, and incentives,” says Greenawalt, who retired from Rosendin to launch the Greenawalt Foundation, which funds apprenticeship programs. “All that’s doing is destroying our industry because it’s burning people out. We’re trying to attract people by

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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S

FEATURE

saying: ‘This is a viable career. It’s high paying with a good future.’ Then we tell them to go work in the middle of Missouri, and good luck finding a place or driving two hours to work. They’re not going to stay. All of that is at risk right now because of this rapid growth.”

Thinking beyond local labor

Some electrical contractors are leveraging the regional or national workforces they’ve amassed on other projects.

“Because we started in more urban markets, and we’ve traveled around the country, we have a national traveling major projects group,” says Casey Long, Helix Electric COO. “We’ve been collecting people from all over, and when it’s a good fit, we all just go together to the next location. So we have sort of a critical mass that we bring with us, regardless of where things are being built at this point. I think that’s what allows us to do as much as we’re doing.”

Another trend is specialists. In some cases, a manufacturer trains a team to be experts in its products and offers customers an extended warranty for hiring them.

“You’re starting to get these teams, and all they do is medium-voltage termination or fiber termination,” Speidelsbach says. “They go to all of the job sites for a specific contractor and sometimes sub out.”

Some data center operators are developing teams to ensure that the workforce is there to keep their projects on track. If an operator uses the same basic data center design across the country, using people who have been trained “their way” can be more efficient.

These teams also are an example of how data center operators and their investors recognize the chronic skills shortage and are stepping up.

“Meta is training their own lowvoltage techs,” Greenawalt says. “Google has invested about $10 million with the IBEW and NECA on training people in South Texas. BlackRock is invested heavily in Texas right now in the apprenticeship programs.”

Leveraging modular construction

Prefab is another way to address the rural labor shortage. For example, it’s 48

Virginia, Texas, and Georgia lead the country in planned data centers Number of data centers in each state, by operating status Currently operating

Planned

Pennsylvania

Total 685

Texas

466

California

331

Illinois

262

Georgia

235

Ohio

223

Arizona

184

New York

154

Oregon

142

Washington

135

Pennsylvania

129

Florida

128

North Carolina

113

Iowa

105

Indiana

92

Note: Planned category includes data centers listed as “under construction,” planned or “land banked.” Only the top 15 states by total are shown. Source: Data Center Map, accessed Feb. 19, 2026 Pew Research Center

This chart shows the number of data centers in each state, organized by operating status.

easier to find enough people to build modules when they know they’ll be doing it inside a climate-controlled factory and go home to their family every night.

“We’re leaning very heavily into the prefab market,” says Helix’s Long. “A few years ago, we stood up a 120,000-square-foot facility in Arizona, just outside of Phoenix.

We’ve already outgrown that, so we’re expanding into other locations. For our medium-voltage work and also our industrial work, we do very, very large underground duct bank assemblies. We also have been doing utility-scale solar work for many years, and each of those sectors that we’ve been in for a while has translated very nicely into the data center world.”

Modular construction is also more productive, which is key for meeting the tight schedules that are common in data center projects, such as to meet safe harbor deadlines for tax credits.

“We’re able to manufacture so much more in our manufacturing innovation shops to be sent to the job,” says Chuck Goodrich, Gaylor Electric CEO. “If you

try to stick-build these things, it’d take you five years.”

Prefab also is a way for electrical contractors to target the rural data center market but without the costs and challenges of having people on site.

“A lot of contractors are manufacturing more than they’re actually installing right now,” Goodrich says. “Electrical contractors are building all these third-party assembly contracts for major data center operators, and they ship it to the job. We took a different approach. We do not build anything we don’t install because one of these days, installation is going to be more important than the product itself.”

UL 2755 is evolving as modular construction becomes more common.

For example, the 2025 update includes requirements for structural engineering that reflect the increasing size of modules.

“In rural markets, where skilled electrical labor is harder to sustain for year-long hyperscale schedules, UL 2755-Certified Modular Data Centers can move complexity into the factory,” says Chanté Maurio, vice president for data centers in the UL Solutions

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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Product info aifittings.com/landing/snap2it-mc-cable-connectors

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BackyardProduction / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus

FEATURE

Taken in April 2026, this photo shows the Skybox Power Campus under construction in Hutto, Texas. It is planned for 4 million square feet and 600MW of power.

Global and Strategic Accounts group.

“Validate the module as an integrated system before shipment and streamline on-site acceptance to help keep projects on schedule. This program can also be used to streamline on-site acceptance on any project, whether rural, urban, or suburban.”

Data centers are a major reason why lead times for transformers, switchgear, and other major infrastructure are now 18 to 36 months, according to the research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Some data center developers and their contractors use multiple suppliers based on who can meet project deadlines for each type of equipment. The catch is that then they have to integrate a multivendor environment, whether that’s in a modular factory, on site, or both.

“As long lead times push data center projects toward multi-vendor sourcing, independent testing and evaluation can help teams integrate equipment confidently, reduce commissioning surprises, and keep procurementdriven substitutions from turning into schedule risk,” Maurio says.

“UL Solutions helps address these issues through certification for safety, factory, and site acceptance testing, verification of redundant features critical to uptime and evaluation of cybersecurity readiness.”

AI as a tool for designing and recruiting

AI is the primary reason for the current data center building boom. It’s also something electrical contractors and design firms are using to accommodate that boom.

“We’ve completed about 700MW of data centers over the last three years, and we have almost 2,500MW 50

under contract to build,” says Gaylor’s Goodrich. “We’ve seen an explosion of AI in our processes as a contractor, especially in design, manufacturing, and, of course, estimating.”

To the public, “AI” is now synonymous with “data center.” That perception is an opportunity to educate teens and young adults about how electrical is a way to have a career in AI — whether that’s using AI to design data centers or building and maintaining them.

“The exposure has been huge,” Goodrich says. “It’s going to help a lot of folks join the construction industry.”

Generation gap

Rural locations are attractive for hyperscale data centers because land is cheaper than in populated areas. The catch is getting enough power. Even if grid access and capacity are there, the public and politicians are increasingly demanding that data centers build their own generation.

A few operators are collocating their data centers with solar farms, such as Apple. But at least for now, this doesn’t appear to be a major trend that will mean additional opportunities for electrical contractors.

“We’re not actively building with our major projects group and our solar group sort of next to each other on the same campus,” says Helix’s Long.

“I think that’s something we would certainly be open to, and we share that message with people. What is happening is a tremendous amount of discussion about distributed generation. The data center developers and owners are asking us what other opportunities are there other than just relying on a local utility grid. I think that kind of thing is coming

in a bigger way, but nothing serious actively happening right now, certainly not that we’re part of.”

Proximity to natural gas pipelines often is a major factor in site selection — and not just for generation. Those pipelines often have fiber running alongside, so they can provide connectivity, too. Coal is re-emerging as an option, partly because of the Trump Administration’s June 2026 initiative to support 17 existing and new plants.

“You’re probably going to start seeing co-location with coal plants because they can generate power and guarantee [data center operators] don’t have to worry about anything,” Goodrich says.

In September 2024, Microsoft signed a 20-year contract to buy all of the roughly 837MW from the mothballed Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor for its data centers. But if nuclear becomes a major source of power for hyperscale data centers, it could be in the form of small modular reactors (SMRs) because — at least in theory — they’re easier and faster to build. Those are another potential opportunity for electrical contractors and design firms.

“The data centers have enough [money] that they can finance an SMR,” Goodrich says. “The real question is, how are we going to build those faster than what we used to? That’s going to come from building piece by piece in your shops and shipping them to the job.

In five years, you’re going to start seeing this huge market in SMR.” Tim Kridel is an independent analyst and freelance writer with experience in covering technology, telecommunications, and more.

He can be reached at tim@timkridel.com.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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FEATURE

Rewriting the Rules for Medium-Voltage Systems How the 2023 and 2026 NEC re-architected medium-voltage (MV) requirements

BY JOSEPH DEANE, SHERMCO INDUSTRIES

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edium-voltage (MV) electrical systems have long occupied an uncomfortable middle ground in the National Electrical Code (NEC). They are more complex than low-voltage premises wiring, yet they often exist within facilities influenced by utility practices, OSHA regulations, and engineering standards outside the NEC. The 2023 and 2026 NEC cycles represent a deliberate effort to address this tension. Rather than simply revising technical requirements, the Code-Making Panels fundamentally restructured where and how MV rules are organized within the Code.

Understanding that evolution is essential for engineers, inspectors, safety professionals, and facility owners working with systems over 1,000V.

Before NEC 2023: MV requirements were scattered

Before the 2023 NEC, requirements for systems over 1,000VAC or 1,500VDC existed, but they were distributed across multiple low-voltage articles, including: • Art. 210 — Branch Circuits • Art. 215 — Feeders • Art. 225 — Outside Branch Circuits and Feeders • Art. 230 — Services While technically correct, this structure created several practical challenges: • MV requirements were easy to miss.

• Low-voltage concepts were often misapplied to MV systems.

• The placement of MV rules within low-voltage articles made it difficult to distinguish between 52

Medium-voltage switchgear serving an industrial facility. Recent NEC revisions reorganize requirements for systems over 1,000V into dedicated Articles, making Code requirements easier to locate.

NEC installation requirements and OSHA work-practice obligations, particularly for outside and utilityadjacent installations.

• Enforcement and interpretation varied widely between authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs).

There was no single location in the Code where a user could reasonably say, “I’m over 1,000V — start here.”

NEC 2023: Art. 235 and the push for centralization

By the early stages of the 2023 NEC development cycle, a consistent concern had emerged among engineers, inspectors, and safety professionals: While requirements for systems over

1,000V clearly existed in the Code, they were difficult to locate, easy to overlook, and often applied inconsistently.

Medium-voltage provisions were embedded within multiple low-voltage articles (branch circuits, feeders, outside circuits, and services), each written primarily with low-voltage premises wiring in mind. As a result, users were required to search across the Code to identify applicable highervoltage requirements, increasing the risk that critical provisions would be missed or misinterpreted.

The 2023 NEC addressed this issue by creating a new Art. 235 [Branch Circuits, Feeders, and Services Over 1,000VAC, 1,500VDC, Nominal].

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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FEATURE

Art. 235 consolidated higher-voltage language that previously lived in multiple articles into a single location: • Part I — General scope and application • Part II — Branch circuits over 1,000V (from Art. 210) • Part III — Feeders over 1,000V (from Art. 215) • Part IV — Outside branch circuits and feeders (from Art. 225) • Part V — Services over 1,000V (from Art. 230) From a structural standpoint, Art. 235 achieved its primary goal: centralization. For the first time, designers, installers, and inspectors had a clear starting point for systems operating above 1,000V. However, the new Article also generated discussion during and after adoption. Some viewed it as an unnecessary restructuring driven by a task-group initiative rather than broad public input. Others noted that Art. 235 inherited scenarios from low-voltage articles that are unlikely to be encountered in typical MV installations, such as small utilization branch circuits.

Despite these criticisms, Art. 235 established an important precedent: Systems over 1,000V deserved a dedicated organizational framework within the NEC. That precedent ultimately set the stage for further refinement in the 2026 NEC cycle.

NEC 2026: From consolidation to clarity

By the time the NEC 2026 cycle began, a key realization had emerged: Centralizing MV requirements was helpful, but Art. 235 was too dense to use effectively. Rather than abandoning the concept, the NEC took the next logical step. Article 235 was deleted, and its content was sorted and redistributed into a family of focused, purpose-built MV articles.

New MV Articles in NEC 2026

• Art. 265 — Branch Circuits Over 1,000V • Art. 266 — Feeders Over 1,000V • Art. 267 — Outside Branch Circuits and Feeders Over 1,000V • Art. 268 — Services Over 1,000V • Art. 270 — Grounding and Bonding of Systems Over 1,000V

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Medium-voltage protection and control equipment. Dedicated NEC Articles now separate branch circuits, feeders, services, and grounding requirements for systems over 1,000V.

This change was not viewed as an overreach in the same way Art. 235 had been. Instead, it was widely understood as a refinement: taking consolidated MV rules and organizing them in a way that aligns with how electrical systems are actually designed, installed, inspected, and evaluated.

Why the new structure matters The reorganization of MV requirements in the 2026 NEC is more than a renumbering exercise. By separating MV rules into function-specific articles, the Code now aligns more closely with how medium-voltage systems are designed, installed, inspected, and maintained in practice. That alignment has tangible benefits across the industry, including: Clearer system differentiation. One of the most significant improvements is the clear differentiation between branch circuits, feeders, services, outside installations, and grounding systems.

Under the new structure, each of these system elements is governed by its own Article, with requirements tailored to its unique technical and risk characteristics.

This separation reduces the likelihood that rules intended for one system type will be misapplied to another. For example, protection and routing considerations for an MV feeder can now be addressed independently from those of a branch

circuit, rather than being interpreted as variations within a single Article. The result is greater technical precision and fewer interpretation disputes.

Improved consistency in enforcement. For inspectors and AHJs, the modular structure provides a clearer enforcement roadmap.

Rather than navigating a broad Article covering multiple system types, inspectors can focus on the Article that directly corresponds to the installation under review.

This targeted approach improves consistency across jurisdictions and reduces reliance on local interpretation.

It also simplifies plan review and inspection documentation, particularly for complex facilities with multiple MV system components.

Reduced misapplication of lowvoltage assumptions. When MV requirements were embedded within low-voltage articles, it was easy for low-voltage assumptions about grounding, protection, and fault behavior to carry over unintentionally.

The new structure helps prevent this by placing medium-voltage systems in their own regulatory context.

Engineers and installers are now prompted to consider MV-specific issues, such as grounding philosophy, protection coordination, and fault energy, without filtering them through

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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FEATURE

low-voltage design paradigms. This shift supports safer and more resilient system design.

A more defensible framework.

Finally, the NEC 2026 structure provides a clearer framework for postinstallation review. When questions arise following an event or audit, stakeholders can more easily determine: • which Article applied to the system in question, • whether installation requirements were met, and • where NEC jurisdiction ended and OSHA jurisdiction began.

That clarity is particularly important in MV environments, where technical complexity and risk intersect.

Where Art. 315 fits

Alongside the reorganization of system Articles, the NEC also elevated the importance of Art. 315 [Medium Voltage Conductors, Cable, Cable Joints, and Cable Terminations]. Article 315 cuts across Arts. 265 through 270 and governs:

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• MV cable construction and ampacity.

• Cable joints and splices.

• Cable terminations.

• Listing requirements for MV accessories.

• Qualification requirements for personnel installing MV joints and terminations.

In practice, Art. 315 functions as a bridge because: • It defines what must be installed and the qualifications required for installation (NEC jurisdiction).

• It stops short of regulating energized work practices, which remain under OSHA 1910.269.

The bigger picture

Taken together, the 2023 and 2026 NEC changes reflect a deliberate evolution: • NEC 2023: Centralize MV requirements so they can be found.

• NEC 2026: Organize those requirements for clarity, usability, and enforcement.

This two-step approach mirrors

how complex standards often mature: consolidate first, then modularize.

Conclusion

The NEC did not simply renumber Articles for MV systems. Between 2023 and 2026, it re-architected its approach to MV installations, clarifying where requirements apply and jurisdictional boundaries exist along with how MV systems should be evaluated over their lifecycle. For engineers, inspectors, and safety professionals, these changes are more than editorial. They provide a clearer roadmap for compliance, safer system design, and more defensible decisionmaking when it matters most.

Joseph Deane, a registered Professional Engineer in multiple states, is Vice President of Engineering Solutions for Shermco Industries and former owner of KTR Associates, a consulting firm specializing in power system design and electrical safety. He can be reached at Joseph.Deane@Shermco.com.

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FEATURE

The EMP Evolution Can legacy applications support the NFPA Cycle of Safety’s compliance requirements, or is it time for an AI-driven approach?

BY CHUCK FOX, POWERSAFE CONSULTING ID 407954225 | Artificial Intelligence © BiancoBlue | Dreamstime.com

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FPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, has established many new compliance challenges. Additionally, the explosive development of AI-based capabilities has created the opportunity to restructure significant portions of an Electrical Maintenance Program (EMP) as outlined in this standard.

The blending of NFPA 70B compliance challenges and the trends within AI-developed EMP platforms creates a scenario where facility management will need to evaluate whether legacy systems can be enhanced to deliver a compliance result, or whether facilities should consider the adoption of a next-generation, AI-driven EMP tool set. Next-generation EMP platforms can offer a more complete compliance result and efficiencies in overall program management.

A facility’s overall EMP is based upon the documentation of various inspection, condition of maintenance, and critical operational assessments as inputs to establish the EMP tasks for each electrical asset. Compliance is verified by establishing tasking intervals, tasking reporting, and documented records. A key requirement is not the software platform(s); it is the ability to demonstrate compliance systematically and consistently.

In many cases, facilities today use several software platforms that become data silos and are not integrated. For example, documentation of qualified individual training has been entered into safety training tracking software.

The basic inventory of the electrical system and work order tasking might be in a CMMS platform (not specific to electrical assets), and outside of this platform is the various engineering

study data. As a result, facilities are confronted with a decision point to either continue to enhance these legacy systems for newer/more advanced compliance challenges or consider the adoption of an upgraded AI-driven EMP platform.

A review of several of the newer and more complex compliance requirements of NFPA 70B will create enhancement requirements for legacy systems as well as provide credibility to the decision to migrate to a newgeneration AI-driven EMP platform.

This article will review the following compliance topics for evaluation.

• Qualified person • Maintenance interval tracking • System study integration • Open system to assign work orders • Continuous efficiency with AI tools

Compliance tracking for the qualified person

NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, outlines the basic electrical safety training requirement to be considered a qualified person. NFPA 70E training

focuses on the awareness of electrical hazards, the use of PPE in an energized environment, and the procedures for moving an electrical asset into an electrically safe work condition.

NFPA 70B expands the training requirements of the qualified person to now include task-specific training.

Examples of these references include: • [NFPA 70B 4.3.2] Personnel assigned to EMP duties shall be qualified for the assigned tasks.

• [NFPA 70B 4.8.1.1] Electrical equipment cleaning shall be performed by personnel trained in the use of cleaning materials and methodologies.

• [NFPA 70B 5.1.1] Electrical maintenance shall be performed only by qualified persons.

• [NFPA 70B Chapter 7] Fundamental tests, particularly infrared thermography and insulation resistance, require additional training for the qualified individual in the use of the test equipment, testing procedures, and documented results.

• [NFPA 70B 8.4] Qualifications of Testing Personnel addresses www.ecmweb.com • August 2026

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the advanced training needed to work with testing equipment and document and interpret test results.

In summary, NFPA 70B has extended the compliance documentation of the qualified person from basic electrical safety training to documented training on specific maintenance tasks. A data structure for compliance may be described as a tasking matrix indicating the proficiency status of an individual to perform specific tasks.

Infrared testing (IR) is a testing task that builds out this compliance challenge. The maintenance interval table [NFPA 70B 9.2.2] specifies that IR testing is performed on all electrical assets with a frequency not to exceed 12 months. It is appropriate that the qualified person performing these IR tests be trained/certified in the use of IR testing equipment and procedures. The qualified person must also stay current with electrical safety basic training, as the removal of protective equipment covers is a core requirement of this testing [NFPA 70B 7.4.2].

Next-generation EMP solutions have structured a proficiency matrix, which brings together the tasks, the training, and the device service records as compliance documentation.

Maintenance interval tracking NFPA 70B Chapter 9 outlines a complete electrical maintenance program by asset type, listing various tasking and tasking intervals based upon the equipment condition assessment [NFPA 70B table 9.2.2].

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Newer EMP platforms will have this entire structure built and ready for overall program management. Many legacy system tools simply have not addressed these compliance metrics. Additionally, the data and manual procedures to build a compliance protocol will be a significant implementation effort and remain more cumbersome to use daily.

Additional EMP features, such as total hours estimates for maintenance tasking and labor rates, can create an overall five-year EMP plan.

System study integration

NFPA 70B Chapter 6 outlines various electrical system studies, including: • Short-circuit study • Coordination study • Load flow study • Reliability study • Incident energy analysis Currently, many legacy platforms have electrical asset information in a CMMS or similar asset tracking system.

The detailed asset attributes needed for the study are documented in the engineering software. Updates to sync this data rely on a manual process.

Next-generation EMP platforms support complete data exchange, which eliminates many hours of engineering services simply doing these updates.

Open systems for task management and task assignment

Many facilities have relied on EMP service provided by electrical contractors who make use of various proprietary software platforms. The facility being serviced has little or no

ability to update data, relying solely upon the servicing contractor. The EMP platform tools have shifted this data update constraint, allowing facility managers to control/manage their EMP data, while having the option of continuing to use the expertise of the existing contractors. In the newer EMP platforms, work orders and update capabilities can be extended to other resources, including internal staff and more local contractors.

For corporate facility directors, the newer EMP platforms allow them to standardize the EMP systems, while offering local management the capability of having multiple options of servicing resources.

EMP checklist

Regardless of the platforms used, compliance within the EMP program documentation should include: • Qualified individuals are clearly defined and task-specific.

• Safety training, maintenance tasking training, and, if applicable, instrument proficiency training are current and verifiable.

• Every asset is inventoried and labeled.

• System studies [NFPA 70B, Chapter 6] are current and documented.

• Maintenance intervals by device are planned, with deviations from 70B guidelines documented [70B, 9.2.2.3].

• Tasks are defined and documented.

• Test results are retained and trended.

• Overdue items are visible and controlled.

• Documentation is audit-ready.

Closing perspective

With NFPA 70B now enforceable as a standard, organizations must move from maintenance as an activity to maintenance as a managed system.

Legacy tools can partially document compliance, but modern AI-enabled EMP platforms create continuous compliance visibility, reduce risk, and transform maintenance from reactive to predictive.

Chuck Fox is the president and founder of PowerSafe Consulting. He’s been an NFPA Certified Electrical Safety Compliance Professional since 2014. He can be reached at chuck.powersafe@gmail.com.

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CODE BASICS

Key Revisions to Chapter 1 of the 2026 NEC

Learn how the latest Chapter 1 revisions improve Code clarity while addressing energy management, equipment safety, and electrical system performance.

BY RYAN JACKSON, NEC CONSULTANT

The 2026 edition of the National Electrical Code (NEC) is the result of more than 4,000 public inputs (formerly called “proposals”) and just fewer than 2,000 public comments.

Hundreds of changes were made, and over the next several issues, we plan to cover some of the most important ones.

In this edition, we focus on a few of the key changes made to Chapter One.

Article 100: Energy management system

The definition of energy management system (EMS) was revised for accuracy.

The previous definition of an EMS contained a very problematic error.

It indicated that an EMS monitors, powers, or both. But a system that only monitors power consumption is not managing anything. It could be argued that an electric utility meter was an EMS, although clearly that was not the intent. Likewise, a system that only controls power isn’t an EMS. A photocell does not monitor, but it does control, so does that mean it is an EMS? Again, that was clearly not the intention.

New to the 2026 NEC, an EMS must do both. It must monitor loads and control loads. However, it does not necessarily have to monitor and control the same loads. For example, it could monitor lighting loads in a building and control the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).

Article 100: Power control system (PCS)

A new definition of power control system (PCS) was added, with two different varieties.

Photo 1. The instructions for this product indicate that it must not be used on a GFCI-protected outlet. That means it may not be used anywhere that GFCI protection is required by the NEC.

With the somewhat recent push for further electrification across the United States, PCSs will be increasingly common. Adding a couple hundred amperes of available power for vehicle charging, for example, is often unrealistic and can only be achieved with clever management of the existing electrical system. Fortunately, we have the technology to address these concerns — and that technology is the PCS. Just like an EMS, the PCS monitors and controls power. But unlike an EMS, the PCS can also prevent overloads. The PCS is further broken down into two types: multisource and single source. As both the name and the definitions indicate, a multisource PCS controls multiple

power sources, such as those found in a microgrid. A single-source PCS would be more appropriate if only one power supply exists, such as an electric utility service.

Section 110.3: Examination, identification, installation, use, and listing (product certification) of equipment

An Informational Note regarding cybersecurity was added, and the issue of NEC requirements versus product instructions is now addressed.

Cybersecurity has been a hotly debated topic over the last few years in the NEC revision process. Everyone seems to agree that cybersecurity is critically important for electrical equipment that is connected to a network, but what role the NEC should play is not universally www.ecmweb.com • August 2026

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agreed upon. There are standards from UL, IEC, and NEMA that are all included in this Section in the form of Informational Notes, and NFPA has even created a Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, which, according to NFPA, is for “reviewing and standardizing cybersecurity best practices across the landscape of NFPA standards; … advising on current cybersecurity threats, technologies, and emerging technology in NFPA standards; and reviewing and recommending, as appropriate, proposed NFPA standards addressing cybersecurity requirements.”

The issue of cybersecurity is unlikely to go away anytime soon, and it will be interesting to see if the NEC eventually incorporates specific requirements in this area or if a new NFPA standard is created to offer more guidance or specific requirements.

For as long as the NEC has required instructions to be followed, there has been discussion of which takes precedence: the product instructions or the NEC itself. The answer to that has always been neither. Both the NEC and the instructions must be followed, and that has always been the case. Now it is quite clear in Sec. 110.3(B) that both must be followed (Photo 1 on page 59).

Section 110.16: Arc flash hazard warning

The arc flash marking requirements were revised to correlate with NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace.

Since its inception in the 2002 NEC, Sec. 110.16 has been revised every three years like clockwork. Without a doubt, the most significant of those changes is this one.

Without saying it directly, it is clear that the NEC requires the installer to apply the label based on NFPA 70E requirements. As in NFPA 70E, the label must include the voltage, the arc flash boundary, and guidance on the required personal protective equipment (PPE) based on the estimated incident energy level or the PPE Category. Unlike NFPA 70E, the date that the values on the label were determined must also be included. These values will help qualified persons understand the required ratings or levels of their PPE if energized work is performed, such as troubleshooting or measuring voltage (Photo 2). These values are typically derived using specialized software. Those without access to that software will likely need to hire an engineering firm or similar provider, or become familiar with the “table method” in NFPA 70E.

Sec. 110.26: Spaces about electrical equipment The access/egress obstruction requirements were clarified, exposed versus enclosed live parts are better addressed, and DC voltages were added.

Since its addition to the 2020 NEC, the language regarding access and egress obstruction has been controversial.

Changes in the 2023 Code clarified that obstruction is a reduction of width and height to less than 24 in. wide and 6 ft 6 in. high, which was a welcome clarification. But is this to be measured with equipment doors opened to 90° or opened to greater than 90°? If two pieces of equipment facing each other have doors that can open 180°, it would be hard to imagine an obstruction of access and egress. But the clarification in the opening text of Sec. 110.26 indicates that 60

Photo 2. This arc flash warning label contains the information required by Sec. 110.16 and some extra information as well.

Small electrical contractors may find it difficult to determine the information now required for the label.

you must measure for this obstruction for equipment that can be opened 90°, which seems to require you to measure with the doors at 90° — even if they can open to 180°. This means the required width is not reduced for equipment with doors that can open 180°. According to proponents of this clarification, this was put in place to address the worstcase scenario of a worker propping the doors open 90°, even if the doors could possibly open 180°. A good example of that scenario is an electrician working on switchgear with door-mounted equipment.

The language regarding low voltages that was formerly found in Sec. 110.26(A)(1)(b) was relocated to a more appropriate location, namely Sec. 110.26(A). This allows the AHJ to use special permission to allow smaller working spaces. Where this text was formerly located was problematic because it insinuated that special permission could only be used to reduce the required depth, but not the width, height, or anything else in Sec. 110.26. The truth is, the AHJ can use special permission whenever they feel that equivalent safety has been provided (see Sec. 90.4), so the relocation of the text makes good sense.

Section 110.26(A)(1) was revised to more clearly address the requirements for enclosed live parts. Although the text in Sec. 110.26(A)(1) told the reader that measurements are taken to the enclosure when live parts are exposed, the conditions beneath the table only referred to exposed live parts. Adding language about enclosed live parts is a welcome addition.

Lastly, DC voltages were added in multiple locations throughout Sec. 110.26. These changes should be viewed as editorial, as the text ultimately required this before.

Similar changes were also made in Part III of Art. 110 for higher voltages (Photo 3 on page 61).

Section 120.7: Power control systems

Using a PCS for load calculations is now a general provision (Part I), and the allowances were clarified.

Section 220.70 was added to the 2023 NEC to recognize EMSs. However, that Section provided very little in the way of technical requirements. For the 2026 edition, the Section was moved to Part I, which is where it likely

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Section 120.41: Dwelling units

The lighting and general-purpose load calculations for dwelling units were reduced by 33%.

This Section provides the load calculations for general-purpose receptacles and lighting in dwellings.

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should have been placed all along.

The term EMS is no longer used in the Section because it was replaced

by PCS. An EMS simply monitors and controls loads, which could be as simple as turning them on and off. A PCS, however, monitors and controls loads to prevent overloading of conductors and equipment. If a simple EMS is used to turn things on and off and prevent simultaneous operation of loads, Sec. 120.6 applies. If a PCS is used, which controls loads to prevent overloading, this section applies.

Photo 3. This questionable design is a good reminder of why the equipment doors are not permitted to obstruct safe access to and egress from electrical equipment.

Note that the doors do not open 180°, and even if they did, the added 2026 language makes the point moot.

dwellings needed updating. Although the NEC needed updating, it cannot be changed until data has been collected to support the change. Now that it has been, the Code has changed. This is exactly how the process is supposed to work, and this change should be welcomed by all. A similar change

was made to the optional calculation method in Sec. 120.82.

Ryan Jackson is a National Electrical Code instructor and textbook author. He can be reached at ryan@ ryanjacksonelectrical.com.

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PRACTICALLY SPEAKING

Painted Into Obscurity

Do spray-painted yellow circuit breakers violate the NEC?

BY RUSS LEBLANC, NEC CONSULTANT

When I first spotted these circuit breakers that were spray-painted yellow, my first thought was, “Well, that must be a violation.” But then I needed to substantiate that thought, so I started looking in the Code to find which Section or Sections would contain the wording needed to back up my suspicions. That is where I ran into a few dead ends.

Section 240.83(A) requires the ampere rating of circuit breakers to be marked in a manner that will be visible after installation. I’m sure these circuit breakers were originally marked that way by the manufacturer, but what about all the other manufacturer markings on the front of these circuit breakers?

Section 240.83(A) only requires the ampere rating to be visible. Section 240.81 requires the circuit breaker to clearly indicate whether it is “on” or “off.’

I can still see those markings, but these yellow-painted breakers have a lot of markings other than the ampere rating or the “on” and “off ” that are obscured 62

by paint. Are those markings required to be visible too? Several of the other circuit breakers in this panel have similar manufacturer markings that are not obscured and are clearly visible.

For air conditioning or refrigeration equipment, Sec. 440.14 contains language that prohibits a disconnecting means from being installed on air conditioning or refrigeration equipment where it would obscure the equipment’s nameplate. What if the manufacturer’s nameplate for a motor, a luminaire, a heater, or some other appliance was covered with spray paint or other material so that the information was obscured? Would that be a violation? If so, which Code Section?

Sections 760.41(B) and 760.121(B)(4) both have requirements prohibiting any field-applied markings or identifiers from damaging the equipment and obscuring the manufacturer’s markings as applicable to branch circuits supplying power for fire alarm circuits. But these yellow-painted breakers are not for fire

alarm circuits, so Art. 760 does not apply.

Personally, I feel the language in Art. 760 is a great idea and should be applied to circuits other than those for fire alarm circuits. This should probably be a general requirement for all equipment.

Section 110.21(A) has requirements for markings that must be applied or affixed to all electrical equipment, but does not contain wording like Sec. 760.41(B) or Sec. 760.121(B), making it a violation to obscure any manufacturer’s markings after the initial installation. I feel that equipment markings should never be obscured. But when it comes to your specific installation, you may want to have a discussion with the AHJ if your equipment markings are obscured, such as the circuit breakers in this photo.

Russ LeBlanc is an instructor and IAEI certified electrical inspector. He can be reached at russ@ russleblanc.com.

August 2026 • www.ecmweb.com

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ILLUSTRATED CATASTROPHES All references are based on the 2023 edition of the NEC.

BY RUSS LEBLANC, NEC CONSULTANT

Alive and Kickin’ The voltage tester does not lie.

There are many energized 277V power circuits wired with brown, orange, yellow, and black, 600V-rated, THWN-insulated conductors in this wireway and raceway. That, however, is not the problem. The real problem is the white 18 AWG CL3P cable installed in this same wireway and raceway with those very same 277V power circuits.

Some installers may think that Sec. 300.5(C)(1) allows this type of installation because the Class 3 (CL3P) cable is rated for 300V as specified in Sec. 722.140(A)(3), and all the conductors are operating at 277V or less. However, Sec. 722.15(A) generally prohibits limited energy cables such as this Class 3 (CL3P) cable from being installed in the same raceway, compartment, enclosure, manhole, or box with

power conductors unless specifically permitted by Sec. 722.15(B) through Sec. 722.15(K). None of the prescriptive measures described in (B) through (K) were used to provide the required separation for

these circuits. This type of violation is common enough to need the important Informational Note No. 2 for Sec. 300.5(C)(1), which alerts Code users to Sec. 722.15 for Class 2 and Class 3 circuit requirements.

A Pig Pile of Cables and Raceways Buried underneath this cluster of cables and raceways is the original 3/4-in. electrical metallic tubing (EMT) raceway that was installed before all of these cables and another raceway were attached and secured to that very same 3/4-in. EMT. That poor EMT is working really hard carrying all this added weight. While the original EMT installation was probably Code compliant, the installers who kept piling on more and more cables and another raceway violated the Code by using the EMT to support their cables and raceways.

Generally speaking, Sec. 300.13(C) does not permit EMT as a means of support for other raceways, cables, or non-electrical equipment. This EMT is supporting power supply cords, communication cables, fiber-optic cables, several other types of limited-energy cables, and a communication raceway. Section 358.12(2) also prohibits EMT from being used for the support of equipment other than conduit bodies. Some limited energy cables in this bundle are secured with cable ties to other limited energy cables in this bundle too, which is a violation of Sec. 722.30(D). Cables cannot be used to support other cables. Lastly, the missing box cover is a violation of Sec. 314.25.

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All questions and answers are based on the 2026 NEC.

Test Your Code IQ How much do you know about the National Electrical Code?

BY RYAN JACKSON, NEC CONSULTANT ID 16004896 | Abstract © Win Nondakowit | Dreamstime.com

N AT I O N A L E L E CT R I C A L CO D E

CODE QUIZ OF THE MONTH

Q1. Fill in the blank. For electrically operated in-sink waste disposers, the length of a flexible cord shall not be less than 18 in. and not over in. a. 36 b. 48 c. 60 d. 72 Q2. Fill in the blank. All cut ends of

flexible metal conduit (FMC) shall be trimmed or otherwise finished to remove rough edges, except where fittings that into the convolutions are used. a. cut b. pierce c. thread d. any of these

Q3. Fill in the blank. In hotels, motels, dormitories, and assisted living facilities, all guest rooms and guest suites with permanent provisions for shall have branch circuits installed to meet the rules for dwelling units. a. cooking b. dining c. living d. sleeping Q4. Fill in the blank. Noncombustible surfaces that are broken or incomplete shall be repaired so there will be no gaps or open spaces greater than in. at the edge of a cabinet or cutout box employing a flush-type cover. a. 1/32 c. 1/8 b. 1/16 d. 1/4

Q5. Which of the following is/are recognized as an equipment grounding conductor? a. Electrical metallic tubing (EMT) b. Intermediate metal conduit (IMC) c. Rigid metal conduit (RMC) d. All of the above Q6. Fill in the blank. Where multiple services supply portable structures at carnivals, the equipment grounding conductors that serve structures separated by less than shall be bonded together at the portable structures. a. 10 ft b. 12 ft c. 15 ft d. 20 ft

See the answers to these Code questions online at ecmweb.com/55392574.

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(Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this index. However, the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions.)

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N AT I O N A L E L E CT R I C A L CO D E

WHAT’S WRONG HERE? All references are based on the 2026 edition of the NEC.

How Well Do You Know the Code?

BY RUSS LEBLANC, NEC CONSULTANT How well do you know the Code? Think you can spot violations the original installer either ignored or couldn’t identify? Here’s your chance to moonlight as an electrical inspector and second-guess someone else’s work from the safety of your living room or office. Can you identify the specific Code violation(s) in this photo? Note: Submitted comments must include specific references from the 2026 NEC. Hint: A disastrous disconnect location

‘Tell Them What They’ve Won...’

Using the 2026 NEC, correctly identify the Code violation(s) in this month’s photo — in 200 words or less — and you could win a 40-oz. insulated tumbler valued at $39.99, courtesy of ABB. E-mail your response, including your name and mailing address, to russ@russleblanc.net, and Russ will select two winners (excluding manufacturers and prior winners) at random from the correct submissions. Note that submissions without an address will not be eligible to win.

June Winner Our winners this month were R.D. (Ralph) Jenkins, a building inspector in Palestine, Texas, and Scott Colledge, a project foreman for Wilkerson Electric, Inc. in Spanish Fork, Utah. They were both able to correctly cite Code violations in this photo, including Sec. 406.9(B)(1)(a), which requires enclosures for 20A, 125V receptacles installed in wet locations to be weatherproof whether any attachment plug is inserted or removed. In this case, the unbroken cover would have been weatherproof

only when no attachment plug was inserted into the receptacle, and the hinged cover was closed. With the cover broken, there is no way for this enclosure to be a weatherproof enclosure.

The broken cover results in a violation of Sec. 110.12(B). There must be no damaged parts that can affect the safe operation or mechanical strength of the equipment. The receptacle installed here is also not a weather-resistant (WR) type as required by Sec. 406.9(B)(1)(d).

— Demand is surging for certified electrical installers.

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