Posted By R Joe
As well as electrical plant and equipment, joint ownership issues can also include ownership of the substation building itself and its associated maintenance and security. Putting this aside, electrical utilities will own high voltage electrical plant and equipment including switchgear up to a specific ‘supply point’. Beyond this supply point, the customer will own electrical equipment that will supply the premises itself.
The starting point is to identify where the supply point is and, therefore, who owns what, and for the customer to be clear about what their equipment consists of. Once ownership is clear, responsibility for maintenance follows, and the type of maintenance that is required can be clarified.
In many situations, because customers do not have sufficient in-house expertise, they will contract specialists to maintain their equipment for them. Quite often the electrical utility will have an associated contracting company that specialises in this type of work. The key point, of course, is competence to carry out the maintenance.
The current level of in-house competence and knowledge (including all available information about the equipment) needs to be established, possibly in conjunction with Central Networks as the respective maintenance requirements can then also be discussed. Whatever approach is taken, however, as well as demonstrable competence to do the work, the issue of effective procedures for liaison and joint control of danger is vital when work is carried out in the substation. Central Networks should have formal procedures for this, which is something else that should be discussed with them as well as the customer’s responsibilities in this regard. There have been a number of serious accidents where the two parties have not co-operated and co-ordinated effectively to control danger during maintenance work in substations.
HSG230 does concentrate on the detail of maintenance and was clearly written by specialists, but the following extracts are relevant to the points I have made:
Level of Competence Required - Some users may not have any 'authorised persons' on their staff and may have chosen to contract out all operational work and maintenance of their switchgear. As a result, there may be no one within the organization who understands the equipment, its safe operation or the need for maintenance. This should be treated as unacceptable and steps should be taken to remedy the situation.
Overall Duty - It is the duty of all users of switchgear to provide management systems that will ensure safe operation and minimise the risk of injury. Such management systems should include the following:
(a) policies and procedures covering the installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and removal of the equipment;
(b) an appropriate system of records;
(c) definition of responsibilities and training requirements;
(d) auditing of the effectiveness of procedures.
Importance of Information - An important pre-requisite is to identify all switchgear in service and to ensure that up-to date records of network diagrams and configurations (including prospective fault level values at every relevant point on the system) are available.
As a final thought, you can always talk to your nearest HSE specialist Electrical Inspector - hypothetically if necessary.
Hope this helps.