Brazil moves from divisions to zones [hazardous location safety]

After decades of using the National Electrical Code/spl reg/ (NEC) and North American standards to classify hazardous locations according to the National Electrical Code/spl reg/ (NEC), Brazil is now starting to use the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. Because of these revised directives, the electrical installations and designers of oil and gas industry plants have faced the challenge to harmonize the electrical installations between the NEC and IEC requirements. Considering that the Brazilian Oil and Gas Sector is expected to invest approximately US$ 100 billion in the next ten years, this change will cause a huge impact. Although this paper is mainly focused on the Brazilian market, it discusses very similar difficulties founded by other countries in the same process of changing to IEC. As Brazilian regulations also require National compulsory conformity certification for electrical and electronic. equipment used in hazardous locations, these aspects and installation details are also discussed.