Rank: New forum user 
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Hi fellow IOSH'ers,
I currently work for an electrical contractor, As I'm from a non-electrical background, Can anyone suggest an appropriate course for a Health and safety professional that would give a good overview of both LV and HV safety without becoming and actual electrician? I'm constantly being asked to review sub-contractor method statements which our company AP looks over for me. I would like to learn a bit more as its not always convienient thanks in advance
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Is your company actually doing HV, or are you mixing this up with 400V 3ph work? Edited by user 24 July 2019 13:39:32(UTC)
| Reason: Typo
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Rank: New forum user
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Originally Posted by: paul.skyrme  Is your company actually doing HV, or are you mixing this up with 400V 3ph work?
we have a site that has a customer owned 11kv (x 2) transformers feeding a number of LV dist boards 400v 3p. There are a number of issues with a proposed 'go live' and I feel undertrained to make a subjective decision. My heart and head says its desperately unstafe having 11Kv feeds on a live building site, our team are under pressure from the client and are giving in to the demands. There are a whole host of other issues like common earthing arrangements between HV and LV that i feel could cause catastrophic problems should the HV side encounter earth fault. I feel woefully undertrained to make a call.
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Rank: Super forum user
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To be brutally honest, you are woefully undertrained to make the call and the all is not one for the H&S department to make.
The design of HV/LV earthing is down to the engineers. If you want to undertake this, then you need to be going back to University and doing your degree in electrcial engineering, get a few years experience as a junior designer, and then start taking on your own designs under the wing of a senior, so give it about 10 years and you should be fine.
On a more serious note, if. you have competent people, and the job is installed and commissioned (with I&T) to the design spec, then you have nothing to worry about.
HV & LV earths are often combined.
As long as the design etc. has been done correctly then there will be no issue.
As far as kV on a site, goes, it should be safe, if it’s not safe, then it never will be.
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Rank: Super forum user
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dandhstanley
Most of us are a constant learning curve, which curve is made of various strands where we are lower down the curve on some strands and further up on others. Which, of course, is one reason why your IOSH CPD record provides for different categories of development. Since, the electrical experts are not going to be experts in all the issues associated with electrical contracting, it seems to me to be entirely valid to apply a team approach to the consideration of things such as method statements. It also seems entirely valid that you might wish to raise your own understanding of electrical safety issues. How far up that particular scale is a matter for you to determine. The higher up, the easier it is to spot when the experts are trying to pull the wool over your eyes!! I've investigated ten roof work fatalities, all involving inability to resist gravity, but some roofers will always know about some aspects of roofwork safety than me. Doesn't mean that my opinion is not going to carry weight, but equally I understand that I need to consider the views of those at the sharp end. Same applies to your job.
Life is very complex. Of those ten fatalities there was very little in common to more than one of the accidents (other than gravity). One involved a man falling off his own roof, as one of the tenants in a four storey block of flats with a 30 degree pitch, when he was four times over the, then, drink driving limit for alcohol. Another man fell when a guard-rail gave way, and the Sheriff quite justifiably fined the main contractor more for other failings than for that which was the immediate cause. How he fell was very improbable (in terms of looking at the corporate defendant), how he could so easily have fallen much more likely.
Good luck, Peter
Edited by user 28 July 2019 10:50:07(UTC)
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 1 user thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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You might benefit from an HV "authorised person" course. There are various commercial suppliers and most if not all distribution companies also run them (primarily for their contractors). You may need the quali anyway to legitimately access areas where your guys are working/having accidents.... I led h&s for a large powerline project. I have no background in leccy other than kettles (and 5/15 amp sockets) but most of the stuff on the AP course is fairly straightforward to understand - arc behaviour and required safety clearances. I actually became a bit of a nerd on step and touch potentials, and installation of earth dissipation mats... But still would need to use a competent elec. Engineer for the techie stuff.
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Rank: New forum user
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Great information and perceptions. thank you all for your input, I'll try and get on a HV AP course I think
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