Working with De-Energized Parts

Live parts to which an employee may be exposed must be de-energized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that de-energizing introduces additional hazards or is infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations.

Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground do not need to be de-energized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.

• Examples of increased or additional hazards include interruption of life support equipment, deactivation of emergency alarm systems, shutdown of hazardous location ventilation equipment, or removal of illumination for an area.
• Examples of work that may be performed on or near energized circuit parts because of infeasibility due to equipment design or operational limitations include testing of electric circuits that can only be performed with the circuit energized and work on circuits that form an integral part of a continuous industrial process in a chemical plant that would otherwise need to be completely shut down in order to permit work on one circuit or piece of equipment.

Working on or Near Exposed De-Energized Parts

Working on exposed, de-energized parts or near enough to them to expose the employee to any electrical hazard they present requires that employees be protected.

Conductors and parts of electric equipment that have been de-energized but have not been locked out or tagged must be treated as energized parts.

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