CSA Producing Updates to Key Standards in 2024

Kerry Heid, Shermco IndustriesSpecifications & Standards, Spring 2024 Specifications & Standards

The Canadian Standards Association will be producing two new editions of their electrical safety and maintenance standards in 2024. These standards have been developed in compliance with the Standards Council of Canada’s requirements for the National Standards of Canada. Both standards have been published as a National Standard of Canada by CSA Group. Electrical safety and equipment maintenance are closely …

Committee Report: CSA Z462 and CSA Z463

Kerry Heid, Shermco IndustriesFall 2021 Specifications & Standards, Specifications & Standards

NETA supports two main CSA standards in Canada: CSA Z462, Workplace Electrical Safety and CSA Z463, Maintenance of Electrical Systems. Both of these standards are entering a new  revision phase. TWO NEW TECHNICAL COMMITTEE CHAIRS CSA Z462 is now chaired by Daniel Roberts. Daniel is well-known in electrical safety circles as an expert in electrical shock and arc flash exposure mitigation as …

Low-Voltage Air Circuit Breakers—A Maintenance Must!

Kerry Heid, Shermco IndustriesFeatures, Spring 2021 Features

Low-voltage circuit breakers are predominant in virtually every electrical power system. A 2008 NETA survey and associated IEEE paper showed that 22% of these breakers did not follow their time-current characteristics, and 10.5% did not operate at all when service-aged maintenance was undertaken. The majority of failures were mechanical in nature; this indicates regular maintenance must be a priority. Low-voltage …

Arc Flash Maintenance: Not All Equipment Is Created Equal

Kerry Heid, Shermco IndustriesFeatures, Summer 2020 Features

Not all equipment is created equal when it comes to production objectives versus safety objectives in an electrical power system. Certain devices should be tested and maintained to ensure uptime; others should be inspected to ensure they perform properly to protect workers in an arc flash event. When considering arc flash safety and selecting the associated PPE, the condition of …

Electrical Canada Update

Kerry Heid, Shermco IndustriesSpecifications & Standards, Winter 2019 Specifications & Standards

There has been much emphasis in Canada recently on looking at electrical maintenance from two perspectives: safety and production. Many times, these go hand in hand. The standards committees in Canada are paying specific attention to devices that — when not maintained properly — can have an adverse effect on the electrical safety of workers. These include the most commonly …