Hello,

Was wondering if anyone has any experience with respect to the US requirements for protection due to internal arc fault containment of high voltage switchgear i.e. like the IEC 62271-200 standard.

Have checked both the NFPA 70 and IEEE C37.20.2 and they don't appear to suggest anything other than labelling the equipment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Hi,

I work in the UK and have covered arc flash requirements for around 7 years now. The NFPA and IEEE standards you mentioned are not compulsory here so I only used them for guidance.

We do have some arc containment switchgear on our sites both at HV and LV so the only thing that was done with these is to carry out the analysis and ensure that the arc faults cleared within 1 second. If this is the case we just issued engineers racking switchgear with a face mask and gloves.

Training is also given to ensure that both operators and maintenance techs understand the nature of arc contained switchgear and the need for seals / locks to be in place to maintain the integrity. All our switchgear is operated remotely so that was not an issue for us.

We have fitted labels to areas to warn people of residual arc flash risks, after that it is just case of controlled entry procedures for those areas.

Kind regards

Donald Lane

Hi Robo,

Have you looked at IEEE C37.20.7 "Guide for Testing
Medium-Voltage Metal-Enclosed Switchgear for Internal Arcing Faults"?

This would normally be regarded as the equivalent standard to IEC 62271-200.