Electrical Switchgear Risk Assessment in Mexico

Care Labs provides several services for electrical installations such as electrical safety inspections, electrical system design simulations, power quality analysis, power systems study, and analysis.

Care Labs offers professional and comprehensive electrical switchgear risk assessment services for companies across Mexico in compliance with OSHA, RFSHMAT, IEEE, IEC and NOM-022-STPS safety standards.

We assess and manage the electrical switchgear to make sure safe operating condition and reduce the risk of injury.

Importance of Switchgear and its Associated Safety-Related Risk:

Electrical switchgear assembly is a collection of electrical disconnecting switches, relays, fuses or circuit breakers– used to control, protect and isolate equipment.

In an electrical network, it serves important functions like interruption of short-circuit and overload fault currents while maintaining service to unaffected circuits. Its performance directly linked to the reliability of the electricity supply.

Switchgear failures are very rare, but when it occurs, the results can be catastrophic. So, regular inspection & risk assessment of switchgear is mandatory.

What are the Common Accidents involved with Electrical Switchgear?

The human body is a good conductor, coming into contact with a medium or high voltage electrical flow can cause fatal injuries or even death. Some common electrical accidents include:

Electrical shocks and burns:

When anyone touches an exposed cables or a location with an electrical supply current, they can be shocked. Electrical shocks can throw a working people across the room. Electrical burns can happen when the electrical current flows through your body, causing injuries, severe burns for the employee and bad news for an employer’s insurance premium.

Fire and explosion:

Electrical equipment that is used in associate with oil circuit breaker or oil mini stations can cause fire hazards. Fire can also happen when poor insulated cable touching and cause spark hazards to near flammable substances.

Heat build-up:

Heat can build up in cables and wires that cannot handle high voltage. It can cause wires and cables to meltdown.

Safety Risk Factors of Switchgear:

Signs of water getting in the assembly
Signs of unauthorized access
Lack of warning notices
Regular maintenance
Signs of abnormal conditions
High temperature,
Smell of substances or ozone,
Presence of smoke,
Signs of leakage of oil,
Conditions like-corrosion, evidence of leaks, fluid levels, condition of instruments and protection equip

Hazard categories:

The hazards are divided into following main categories. Each category is again divided describing specific hazard sources. The whole list facilitates a thorough check whether all the safety aspects are covered. The main categories are:

HC 1 Required health and safety needs
HC 2 Design and construction
HC 3 Information requirements
HC 4 Control systems
HC 5 Guards and protective devices
HC 6 Installation, operation and maintenance

Scope of the Risk Assessment:

Risk assessment is a proactive accident prevention technique. Risk analysis involves the identification of undesired events, the causes, consequences of these events, identifying and taking sensible and proportionate measures to control the risks in your workplace.

The risk assessment covers:

Identifying potential hazard areas
Identifying representative failure cases
Visualizing the result scenarios in terms of fire and explosion
Assessing the potential damage of the identified hazardous events and the impact areas.
Assessing the suitability of the workplace environment from a hazard minimization, and disaster mitigation point.
Specific recommendations and suggestions on the minimization or elimination of the possibilities of the worst accident
Preparing the emergency plan that includes occupational health and safety plan

Risk Assessment Methodology:

The process of assessing the risks of electrical switchgear is as follows:

Obtaining the switchgear’s design, type, and ranking details.
Examining the working environment, work practices, and equipment requirements
Examination of the site location with potential electrical risks
Examining the recent electrical hazardous incidents
A risk estimation report is developed based on the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of the threat.
Identifying & defining risk thresholds or limit risk levels
Implementing risk reduction methodologies

Benefits of Availing Service from Care Labs:

Get a single point of contact for all your queries throughout the project life cycle
Offers highly skilled electrical engineers to carry out Electrical Installation Condition Report availed by you
Achieve compliance with relevant regulations and standards in Mexico.
Meet employee/staff safety demands and dedication to electrical safety
Identify and eliminate issues of your electrical installation
Reduce the risk of expensive litigation.
Improve your business productivity by reducing outages due to electrical issues
Care Labs detailed study and analysis report will help your technical persons to find any hazard risks or general wear and tear that could affect your safety