Authorised Person Electrical

An authorised person electrical (APelectrical) is a senior electrician, charge hand, foreman or other person that is fully conversant with the site electrical distribution system, both practically and technically. Since the position is a specialised one it is appropriate to describe in some detail the duties and responsibilities of an APelectrical.

The requirement for an authorised person electrical can be traced back to the Electricity at Work Regulations and before that the various Factory Acts. The applicable regulation and the guidance notes thereto are reproduced below.

Regulation 16 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 states - Persons to be competent to prevent danger and injury.
No person shall be engaged in any work activity where technical knowledge or experience is necessary to prevent danger or, where appropriate, injury, unless he possesses such knowledge or experience, or is under such degree of supervision as may be appropriate having regard to the nature of the work.

The guidance notes to Regulation 16 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 state

233     The defence (regulation 29) is available in any proceedings for an offence under this regulation.

234    The object of the regulation is to ensure that people are not placed at risk due to a lack of skills on the part of themselves or others in dealing with electrical equipment.

"... prevent danger or, where appropriate, injury ..."

235    This regulation uses both of the terms, 'injury' and 'danger'. The regulation therefore applies to the whole range of work associated with electrical equipment where danger may arise and whether or not danger (or the risk of injury) is actually present during the work. It will include situations where the elimination of the risk of injury, that is the prevention of danger, for the duration of the work is under the control of someone who must therefore possess sufficient technical knowledge or experience, or be so supervised, etc to be capable of ensuring that danger is prevented. For example, where someone is to effect the isolation of some electrical equipment before they undertake some work on the equipment, they will require sufficient technical knowledge or experience, to prevent danger during the isolation. There will be no danger from the equipment during the work, provided that the isolation has been carried out properly; danger will have been prevented but the person doing the work must have sufficient knowledge or experience so as to prevent danger during that work, for example by knowing not to work on adjacent 'live' circuits.

236    But the regulation also covers those circumstances where danger is present, that is where there is a risk of injury, as for example where work is being done on live or charged equipment using special techniques and under the terms of regulation 14. In these circumstances, people must possess sufficient technical knowledge or experience or be so supervised etc, to be capable of ensuring that injury is prevented.

Technical knowledge or experience

237     The scope of 'technical knowledge or experience' may include:
(a)    adequate knowledge of electricity;
(b)    adequate experience of electrical work;
(c)    adequate understanding of the system to be worked on and practical experience of that class of system;
(d)    understanding of the hazards which may arise during the work and the precautions which need to be taken;
(e)    ability to recognise at all times whether it is safe for work to continue.

Allocation of responsibilities

238    Employees should be trained and instructed to ensure that they understand the safety procedures that are relevant to their work and should work in accordance with any instructions or rules directed at ensuring safety which have been laid down by their employer.

Supervision

239   The regulation recognises that in many circumstances people will require to be supervised to some degree where their technical knowledge or experience is not of itself sufficient to ensure that they can otherwise undertake the work safely. The responsibilities of those undertaking the supervision should be clearly stated to them by the duty holders who allocate the responsibilities for supervision and consideration should be given to stating those responsibilities in writing. Where the risks involved are low, verbal instructions are likely to be adequate but as the risk or complexity increase there comes a point where the need for written procedures becomes important in order that instructions may be understood and supervised more rigorously. In this context, supervision does not necessarily require continual attendance at the work site, but the degree of supervision and the manner in which it is excercised is for the dutyholders to arrange to ensure that danger, or as the case may be, injury, is prevented.

240     Further advice on working procedures is given in guidance publications listed in appendix 1. - Appendix 1 of the Electricity at Work Regulations.

The next question is when is it necessary to employ an APelectrical? The reverse is also true, an electrician, charge hand or foreman must also be able to recognise when the task to be carried out requires the intervention of an APelectrical.

The now defunct PSA had a poster that showed various distribution systems together with the level of expertise required to operate that system.
The PSA was a typical civil service department, the lazy and incompetent could not be dismissed - the only way of getting rid of those persons was by promotion, thus, in general, the more senior the person the bigger the idiot. An organisation run by incompetents will fail and the PSA was chopped by the government of the day because it was a failure.
Back to the poster or more properly Keemag Ltd.'s interpretation of it;
For LV systems where there is only one supply to a switchboard then any electrician competent for the tasks to be undertaken on that switchboard should be allowed to operate the switchgear.
For LV systems where there are two supplies to a switchboard that are mutually exclusive then any electrician competent for the tasks to be undertaken on that switchboard should be allowed to operate the switchgear.
For LV systems where there are two or more supplies to a switchboard that may be paralleled then an APelectrical should be appointed to operate the switchgear and issue permits to work for any work carried out on the switchboard.
For all MV and HV systems an APelectrical must be appointed to operate the switchgear and issue permits to work for any work carried out on the switchboard.
It must be noted that generation systems are not specifically mentioned above, the voltage output of either a generator or generating system and whether the system feeds a switchboard and the number of supplies at that switchboard should determine whether an APelectrical is required. For purposes of operation a MCC should be considered as a switchboard as should stand-alone change-over units; whilst UPSs should be considered to be the electronic equivalents of generators and generating systems.

The most important qualification for an APelectrical is a complete understanding of the electrical system that he/she is to be responsible for. It is therefore surprising that there are companies that run APelectrical courses at locations remote from the site to which the prospective APelectrical is to be based, how can a lecturer at a college instruct a student in a specific electrical distribution system and it's intricacies? The answer is they can not, the courses deal with the theoretical rather than the practical. But they can issue a certificate stating that an APelectrical course has been attended and that a student has passed the test that the lecturer has set, which the duty holders believe absolves them from the responsibility of the appointment of the APelectrical. The next most important quality for an APelectrical is to have the respect of those persons to whom he/she may issue permits to. Those that are about to work on electrical equipment where they may come into contact with the constituent components of equipment that are normally live but have been made dead and safe by the APelectrical must be confident in his/her abilities to make that equipment safe to work on.

That understanding of the system will range from a full knowledge of the distribution system, but not necessarily the final distribution, the operation of the switchgear, the supervision of all maintenance activities on the system, the checking of the competence levels of persons to whom permits to work will be issued all this is whilst the duty APelectrical. When an APelectrical hands over at the end of a shift to another APelectrical it is most important to appraise the 'incoming' APelectrical of the system status and all permits that are extant to effect a proper handover of duties.

To assist the APelectrical the system designer should issue, as part of the design documentation, operation instruction cards; these cards should contain step by step instructions for every conceivable switching operation and maintenance activity that may be required for the proper operation of the system.

The best way to show this is to give an example of an instruction card. The example used is that of isolating a system transformer for maintenance that operates in parallel with another system transformer. For the purposes of this example the transformer to be isolated has ident Tx/01, fed by 33kV circuit breaker ident HV1/2 and feeding 11kV circuit breaker ident MV1/1.

Circuit breaker HV1/2 is fitted with three Castell locks with idents:-

Circuit breaker MV1/1 is fitted with three Castell locks with idents:-

Transformer Tx/01 is fitted with two Castell locks both with idents:-

There is only one key with ident H12, one key with ident M11 and two keys with idents Tx1.

Circuit breaker HV1/2 is part of switchboard HV1 which is located in switchroom HV1. Circuit breaker MV1/1 is part of switchboard MV1 which is located in switchroom MV1. Transformer Tx/01 is located in transformer room Tx/01.

Instruction Card

To isolate transformer Tx/01 and facilitate access to the transformer windings

1. Determine whether the person requesting the permit to work is competent to undertake the works described in the request for the permit and that the relevant risk assessments and method statements (RAMS) for the works are in place. 2. At either the SCADA display or physically on site, check that circuit breaker HV2/2 is closed in service, circuit breaker MV2/1 is closed in service and that transformer Tx/02 is carrying load. - This will enable the site to continue to receive power when the parallel transformer is isolated. 3. At switchroom MV1 isolate the fire suppression system by padlocking the mechanical discharge mechanism. 4. Enter switchroom MV1. 5. At switchroom MV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard MV1 indication circuits. 6. At switchroom MV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard MV1 control circuits. 7. At switchroom MV1 control panel press button MV1/1 TRANSFORMER T1 INCOMER Lamp Test - check all indicators related to MV1/1 are illuminated. 8. At switchroom MV1 control panel check that circuit breaker MV1/1 SELECTOR IN SERVICE indicator is illuminated. 9. At switchroom MV1 control panel press circuit breaker MV1/1 button LOCAL to transfer control of MV1/1 to this control panel. - The REMOTE indicator should extinguish and the LOCAL indicator illuminate. 10. At switchroom MV1 control panel press circuit breaker MV1/1 button CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN to open the circuit breaker - The CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE indicator should extinguish and the CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN indicator illuminate. 11. At switchboard MV1 circuit breaker MV1/1 move the selector to Earth. 12. At switchboard MV1 circuit breaker MV1/1 withdraw Castell key M11. 13. At switchroom MV1 control panel check that circuit breaker MV1/1 SELECTOR IN SERVICE indicator has extinguished and SELECTOR IN EARTH indicator has illuminated. 14. At switchroom MV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard MV1 indication circuits. 15. At switchroom MV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard MV1 control circuits. 16. Exit switchroom MV1. 17. At switchroom HV1 isolate the fire suppression system by padlocking the mechanical discharge mechanism. 18. Enter switchroom HV1. 19. At switchroom HV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard HV1 indication circuits. 20. At switchroom HV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard HV1 control circuits. 21. At switchroom HV1 control panel press button HV1/2 TRANSFORMER T1 FEEDER Lamp Test - check all indicators related to HV1/2 are illuminated. 22. At switchroom HV1 control panel check that circuit breaker HV1/2 SELECTOR IN SERVICE indicator is illuminated. 23. At switchroom HV1 control panel press circuit breaker HV1/2 button LOCAL to transfer control of HV1/2 to this control panel. - The REMOTE indicator should extinguish and the LOCAL indicator illuminate. 24. At switchroom HV1 control panel press circuit breaker HV1/2 button CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN to open the circuit breaker - The CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE indicator should extinguish and the CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN indicator illuminate. 25. At switchboard HV1 circuit breaker HV1/2 move the selector to Earth. 26. At switchboard HV1 circuit breaker HV1/2 withdraw Castell key H12. 27. At switchboard HV1 circuit breaker HV1/2 insert Castell key M11. 28. At switchroom HV1 control panel check that the circuit breaker HV1/2 SELECTOR IN SERVICE indicator has extinguished and SELECTOR IN EARTH indicator has illuminated. 29. At switchroom HV1 control panel press circuit breaker HV1/2 button CHARGE CLOSING SPRINGS to arm the charging springs, the circuit breaker HV1/2 CHARGE CLOSING SPRINGS indicator should illuminate during the charging operation, when that indicator extinguishes check that the circuit breaker HV1/2 CHARGING SPRINGS ARMED indicator has illuminated. 30. At switchroom HV1 control panel press circuit breaker HV1/2 button CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE to close the circuit breaker - The CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN indicator should extinguish and the CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE indicator illuminate. - The circuit breaker is now closed in the earth position thereby earthing transformer Tx/01 primary winding. 31. At switchboard HV1 circuit breaker HV1/2 withdraw Castell key Tx1. 32. At switchboard HV1 circuit breaker HV1/2 padlock the circuit breaker open button to prevent operation. 33. At switchroom HV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard HV1 indication circuits. 34. At switchroom HV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard HV1 control circuits. 35. Exit switchroom HV1. 36. At switchroom HV1 re-instate the fire suppression system by unlocking the mechanical discharge mechanism. 37. Enter switchroom MV1. 38. At switchroom MV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard MV1 indication circuits. 39. At switchroom MV1 control panel unlock and switch on switchboard MV1 control circuits. 40. At switchboard MV1 circuit breaker MV1/1 insert Castell key H12. 41. At switchroom MV1 control panel press circuit breaker MV1/2 button CHARGE CLOSING SPRINGS to arm the charging springs, the circuit breaker MV1/2 CHARGE CLOSING SPRINGS indicator should illuminate during the charging operation, when that indicator extinguishes check that the circuit breaker MV1/2 CHARGING SPRINGS ARMED indicator has illuminated. 42. At switchroom MV1 control panel press circuit breaker MV1/1 button CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE to close the circuit breaker - The CIRCUIT BREAKER OPEN indicator should extinguish and the CIRCUIT BREAKER CLOSE indicator illuminate. - The circuit breaker is now closed in the earth position thereby earthing transformer Tx/01 secondary winding. 43. At switchboard MV1 circuit breaker MV1/1 withdraw Castell key Tx1. 44. At switchboard MV1 circuit breaker MV1/1 padlock the circuit breaker open button to prevent operation. 45. At switchroom MV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard MV1 indication circuits. 46. At switchroom MV1 control panel switch off and lock switchboard MV1 control circuits. 47. Exit switchroom MV1. 48. At switchroom MV1 re-instate the fire suppression system by unlocking the mechanical discharge mechanism. 49. At transformer room Tx/01 isolate the fire suppression system by padlocking the mechanical discharge mechanism. 50. Enter the transformer room. 51. Isolate transformer Tx/01 auxiliary supplies and padlock off. 52. Insert both Castell keys Tx1 into the transformer cubicle door. 53. open the transformer doors and test for voltage at the transformer terminals. 54. install temporary earth bonds to the HV and MV terminals of the transformer. 55. Place circuit breaker stop button lock keys and transformer auxiliary supply padlock key into transformer room Tx/01 AP/CP box, lock the box issue one key of the box to the CP (competent person) and retain the second key. 56. Issue a permit to work to the CP for the works to be undertaken. 57. Check either SCADA display reflects the status circuit breakers HV1/2 and MV1/1 or set mimic diagram to show their status. 58. Place transformer room Tx/01 AP/CP box AP key into secure storage.

The end of the instructions, that simple task will take at least 45mins to complete.

Prior to powering up the distribution system the system designer and APelectrical should verify the accuracy of the operating instruction cards by carrying out every operation on each operating instruction card, with the APelectrical actually performing the operations and the system designer verifying that the operating instruction is correct or where necessary modifying it to reflect actual operation. If an operating instruction card is modified due to these actions it is essential to repeat the verification process of that instruction card.

On a site where it is necessary to have an APelectrical it will be necessary to have at least four to cover for holidays and sickness, of those APelectricals there may only be one on duty at any time. On a large site it may be necessary to split the site into sub-sites with each sub-site having it's own APelectricals, the key point is to have distinct areas for the sub-sites so that there is a clear line of demarcation for the areas of responsibilities.