Arc Flash Hazard and Analysis Gautham Ashokkumar

An estimated five to ten arc flash explosions occur in North America every year.
These cases that make up the statistic are so severe that the victims require
treatments from a special burn unit. Thus, a thorough understanding of Arc flash, its
hazards, analysis, prevention and protection is required.
An arc flash is caused when a short circuit occurs between the live current
conductor and ground via the ionized air. This could also escalate to arcing between
two live conductors, sometimes causing explosions. For analysis of the potential arc
flash hazard from an energized equipment, significant data collection and a detailed
system model is required. Data required is similar to the data needed for a short
circuit study. The primary objective of this entire process is to determine the
personal protective equipment (PPE) to be worn, with levels specified in cal/cm 2
(which is also part of the arc flash label). For any organization interested in arc flash
studies, the NFPA 70E and IEEE 1584 are indispensable guides. The takeaway here
is that NFPA 70E is more oriented towards worker training and suggesting PPE based
on voltage and equipment. A common pitfall is circumventing the detailed
calculation and specifying PPE with only voltage levels based NFPA tables a
hazardous mistake. The IEEE 1584 provides a more of a calculative approach to
figure the exact arc flash energies from the electrical power system parameters.
With powerful tools such as ETAP, SKM and EasyPower, the procedure to determine
the incident energy generated in cal/cm 2 is simplified. This study provides an
opportunity to reconsider protective relaying, and consider opting a high resistance
grounding (HRG) scheme in place of ungrounded or solidly grounded systems. With
better relaying technology, the risk of lower fault current sensitivity is not a greater
danger in comparison to exponential reduction in arc flash incident energy due to
reduction in arc current magnitude by the HRG method. Recent advancements

Arc Flash Hazard and Analysis Gautham Ashokkumar

include arc detection systems that use optical sensors to immediately detect the
occurrence of internal arcs, thereby allowing clearing times of less than 50 ms.
Finally, there are economic benefits to performing a detailed arc flash study, since it
gives an opportunity to have a closer look at power system equipment, order
replacements, and have a detailed system model. This inherently enhances the
system reliability.