Posted By Roger the Dodger You need to consider Regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regs 'Work on or near live conductors' No person shall be engaged in any work activity on or so near any live conductor (other than one suitabl covered with insultating material so as to prevent danger) that danger may arise unless - a) it is UNREASONABLE in all circumstances for it to be dead; and b) it is REASONABLE in ALL the circumstances for him c) suitable precautions (including where necessary the provision of suitable equipment) are taken to prevent injury In everyday language I take this to mean that there must be a damned good reason to work live. This is because it is very easy to render an electrical system/conductor safe by turning it off. Which compared to the hazard presented by electricity and the risk of death it presents seems entirely reasonably practicable in just about all factory situations that I can think of. Loss of production/cost is not good enough. I think the argument used by the power companies, is that becuse the national grid system provides power to everyone, turning it off on purpose is unacceptable because there will be machines/computers/processes operating which may cause further accidents if turned off e.g. hospital life support machines, trains, etc etc.

Posted By Chris Pope I think you will find that the organisations referred to have developed safe systems of work, which they use to train their staff. They have a sort of rule book of all of these procedures. SWEB told us that the index to their safety policy alone runs to about 170 pages. It is very unlikely that your organisation is likely to be in the same league. I believe that there are technical alternatives to your problem which involve separate isolate able supplies. You should engage a technical specialist to give you a feasibility study for this problem,

Posted By Stuart Nagle In addition to the above excellent replies, I would add that in a continuous manufacturing environment, it is not beyond the realms of possibility for the works engineer to have implemented alternate supplies to machines so that isolation and maintenance on supplies, repair and replacement of cables and switch gear etc, as well as breakdowns through failures can be adequately controlled and managed within a safe system of work, without the need to work live in any but the least ocassions when there is absolutely no reasonable alternative!! In most 24/7 manufacturing industries, time is usually set aside during a week, fortnight etc for specific maintenance tasks to be undertaken, usually pre-planned, that enable routine shutdowns to undertake 'essential' maintenance works. I would like to think that such systems are in place in your workplace, and that your works engineer has a pre-planned and safe system of work in place for the kind of works to which you refer. Stuart