What is an Electrical Safety Program (ESP)?
This is a question that I don’t think has been asked much in the past. An Electrical Safety Program is many things:
- Document that confirms Management’s commitment to electrical safety.
- Defines roles and responsibilities for Management, Supervisor, Qualified Electrical Persons and Un-qualified Persons, etc..
- Tool for electrical hazard identification and risk assessment.
- Outlines the requirement to Establish an Electrically Safe Work Condition.
- Provides guidance and requirements for Working Energized and the use of an Energized Electrical Work Permit.
- Provides direction on preventive and protective control measures to mitigate or reduce risk of exposure to electrical hazards.
- Provides direction on the need for work planning and the use of procedures.
- Provides direction on Electrical Specific PPE, Tools & Equipment.
- Provides direction on emergency preparedness and response.
- Identifies the need for training and competency validation.
- Provides direction on incident investigation.
- Outlines a requirement to audit the Electrical Safety Program.
Completing an engineering based Arc Flash Hazard Analysis and applying detailed Arc Flash & Shock Warning labels is only a small component of developing and implementing an Electrical Safety Program. Make sure you consider the elements listed above to effectively address management of risk and due diligence. If you need guidance in how to structure an Electrical Safety Program, you can reference CSA Z1000, Occupational health and safety management Standard or ANSI Z10 Occupational Health & Safety Management Standard. Additional you can refer to Annex A in CSA Z462 Aligning implementation of this Standard with occupational health and safety management Standards, which provides additional direction related to other International Management System Standards and the application of CSA Z462: ILO-OSH 2001, OHSAS 18001, adn ISO 14001.