Requirement
The Emerson Electric Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri, United States. This Fortune 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for a wide range of industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. Emerson has approximately 103,500 employees and 205 manufacturing locations worldwide. Emerson global standards for electrical safety require that Arc Flash Risk Assessments are carried out at all manufacturing facilities.
Solution
Electrical Safety UK Ltd were contracted to undertake an Arc Flash Study at the Cookstown Plant, Northern Ireland to IEEE 1584, and to deliver awareness training to staff and contractors.
Approach
ESUK agreed the scope and strategy with site management in Northern Ireland. ESUK’s standard Windows based software tool, EasyPower® was used to model the electrical systems. ESUK supply a copy of EasyPower® with every completed Arc Flash Study. ESUK carried out the discovery phase of the work, gathering information on the substantial 11kV distribution system and the large amount of low voltage switchboards, Load Centres and equipment.
Once the distribution model in EasyPower® was completed: short circuit; simple co-ordination; & arc flash studies were carried out. Any instances where the 3-phase prospective short circuit current exceeded the breaking capacity of protective devices was highlighted in the report. Protection curves showing any instances of mis coordination were provided. Incident energy levels and arc flash boundary distances were listed for all equipment included in the scope.
Single line diagrams for the network were provided. Incident energy analysis was then carried out and preferred options and order of magnitude costs were given for the reduction of the incident energy, including guidance on the ALARP requirement. Arc flash equipment labels were dispatched to site once the design was approved by site personnel. Arc flash PPE guidance was included in the report as was guidance on equipment risk assessment. Finally, electrical personnel on-site received site-specific arc flash awareness training.
