The employer is responsible for an electrical safety program that includes “elements to verify that newly installed or modified electrical equipment or systems have been inspected to comply with applicable codes and standards prior to being placed into service” [110.1(B)].
In practice, what does this mean?
Company A. There’s language in the program write-up, but there’s not much said about it otherwise. The assumption is people understand the NEC and won’t create Code violations. Whether other standards are applicable doesn’t come up in discussion.
Company B. The company has a checklist to cover basic NEC requirements such as all unused openings being closed and whether the equipment has a laboratory marking.
Company C. Rotated into the regular safety training is a module on inspecting equipment to ensure it complies with all applicable codes and standards. Among other things, that module addresses how to determine which codes and standards apply.
Company C has an electronic library of as many codes and standards as it can get in electronic form and all electricians have access via company-issued tablet computers (all properly licensed, no pirating). With each installation, electricians follow equipment-specific checklists on their tablets; each completed list is sent wirelessly to a central database. The asset number is automatically supplied in each checklist.
At Company C, equipment that should have a listing or label but does not is sent back to the supplier rather than provided to the installing electricians.
