Living With Arc Flash Mitigation: Finding the Best Strategy for Protecting Workers and Equipment

Developing a sound arc-flash protection strategy for a given facility can be difficult due to the many measures and system variables involved. The best way to reduce arc-flash hazards is by establishing an overall system-protection strategy that accounts for safety and operational requirements as well as system reliability and availability. To assist engineers trying to implement safetyby-design principles to deal with arc-flash hazards, an overview of available measures and application guidance based on experience in a wide variety of facility types is presented. This approach addresses the complexities of the tradeoffs between competing priorities and provides tools to help users develop effective protection strategies for the unique circumstances in a given facility.