De-energizing Transmission & Distribution Lines

Who's in Charge?

The following guidelines for overseeing work sites with transmission and distribution lines must be observed:

• If a system operator (a qualified person designated to operate the system or its parts) oversees the lines or equipment and their means of disconnection, the employer must designate one employee in the crew to oversee the clearance. In addition, all the requirements of this section must be followed in the order specified.
• If no system operator oversees the lines or equipment and their means of disconnection, the employer must designate one employee in the crew to oversee the clearance and to perform the functions that the system operator would otherwise perform. All the requirements of this section apply, in the order specified, except as provided here:
  • If only one crew will be working on the lines or equipment and if the means of disconnection is accessible, visible to, and under the sole control of the employee in charge of the clearance, the following sections titled "Request to De-energize," "Automatically and Remotely Controlled Switches," and "Test for Energized Condition" do not apply. Additionally, the employer does not need to use the tags required by the remaining provisions of this section.

Oversight

If two or more crews will be working on the same lines or equipment, then the following guidelines must be observed:

• The crews must coordinate their activities with a single employee in charge of the clearance for all the crews, and together they must follow the requirements of this section as if all the employees formed a single crew, or
• Each crew must independently comply with this section and, if there is no system operator in charge of the lines or equipment, each crew must have separate tags and coordinate de-energizing and reenergizing the lines and equipment with the other crews.

General Public

The employer must render inoperable any disconnecting means that are accessible to individuals outside the employer's control (for example, the general public) while the disconnecting means are open to protect employees.

Request to De-energize

The employee that the employer designates as overseeing the clearance must make a request of the system operator to de-energize the relevant section of line or equipment. The designated employee becomes the employee in charge and is responsible for the clearance.

Open Disconnecting Means

The employer must make sure that all switches, disconnectors, jumpers, and taps - through which known sources of electric energy may be supplied to the lines and equipment to be de-energized - are open. The employer must render such means inoperable, unless their design does not permit them to be inoperable. In that case, the employer must make sure that such means are tagged to indicate that employees are at work.

Automatically and Remotely Controlled Switches

The employer must make sure that automatically and remotely controlled switches that could cause the opened disconnecting means to close are also tagged at the points of control. The employer must render inoperable the automatic or remote-control feature, unless its design does not so permit.

Network Protectors

The employer does not need to use tags on a network protector for work on the primary feeder for the network protector's associated network transformer when the employer can demonstrate all the following conditions:

• Every network protector is maintained so that it will immediately trip open if closed when a primary conductor is de-energized.
• Employees cannot manually place any network protector in a closed position without the use of tools, and any manual override position is blocked, locked, or otherwise disabled.
• The employer has procedures for manually overriding any network protector that incorporates provisions for determining, before anyone places a network protector in a closed position, that:
  • The line connected to the network protector is not de-energized for the protection of any employee working on the line; and
  • (If the line connected to the network protector is not de-energized for the protection of any employee working on the line) the primary conductors for the network protector are energized.

Tags

Tags indicate that employees are at work and must serve to prohibit operation of the disconnecting means.

Test for Energized Condition

After the system operator gives a clearance to the employee in charge, the employer must make sure that lines and equipment are de-energized by testing them with a device designed to detect voltage. Furthermore, the employer must make sure protective grounds are installed (as required by §1926.962.)

Only after the applicable requirements of this section have been followed can the lines and equipment involved be considered de-energized.

Transfer and Release of Clearance

To transfer the clearance, the employee in charge (or the employee's supervisor if the employee in charge must leave the worksite due to illness or other emergency) must inform the system operator and employees in the crew; and the new employee in charge must be responsible for the clearance.

To release a clearance, the employee in charge must do the following:

1. Notify each employee under that clearance of the pending release of the clearance.
2. Make sure all employees under that clearance are clear of the lines and equipment.
3. Make sure all protective grounds protecting employees under that clearance have been removed.
4. Report this information to the system operator and then release the clearance.

Only the employee in charge who requested the clearance may release the clearance (unless the employer transfers responsibility due to illness or emergency).

No one may remove tags without the release of the associated clearance.

Action to Reenergize the Lines

The employer must make sure that no one initiates action to reenergize the lines or equipment at a point of disconnection until:

• All protective grounds have been removed,
• All crews working on the lines or equipment release their clearances,
• All employees are clear of the lines and equipment, and
• All protective tags are removed from that point of disconnection.

To learn more about Construction Lockout/Tagout visit our Construction Lockout/Tagout Online Training web page.