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Carelabs

IEEE 1584 · Engineering

Top Arc Flash Consulting Services In New Zealand

Carelabs delivers arc flash hazard analysis for industrial and commercial facilities across New Zealand, identifying incident energy levels and PPE requirements in line with AS/NZS 4836 and AS/NZS 3000. Our engineers use ETAP modelling and the IEEE 1584 calculation method to map arc flash boundaries across your electrical distribution system.

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Evidence an officer can rely on

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 the duty to understand your hazards sits with the officers of the business, not only with the people doing the work. An arc flash study is how an electrical hazard stops being an assumption.

What We Deliver

Incident energy, calculated not assumed

Energy is determined in cal/cm² at each working position to IEEE 1584-2018, using the electrode configuration, enclosure dimensions, gap and working distance recorded on site. Generic figures taken from a table are exactly the assumption the study exists to replace.

THE DUTY

Due diligence means knowing the number

HSWA 2015 requires officers to take reasonable steps to understand the hazards of the business. For electrical risk that is hard to evidence without a calculation, since nothing visible reveals the energy present at a switchboard.

  • Assessment to IEEE 1584-2018, with the model's validity range stated and any extrapolation beyond it identified rather than quietly absorbed.
  • Fault current established by a short circuit study to IEC 60909, using the supply fault level obtained from your lines company for the point of connection.
  • Both maximum and minimum source conditions assessed, since a reduced fault current can push arcing current below an instantaneous threshold and lengthen the burn.
  • Clearing times read from the protective devices as they are actually set, because settings schedules and relays diverge over the life of an installation.
  • Results aligned with AS/NZS 3000 for the installation itself, so design findings reference the standard your electrical work is already assessed against.
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DELIVERABLES

What you receive

A signed engineering report aligned to AS/NZS 3000 and IEEE 1584, issued by the engineer who carried out the site work.

  1. 1Incident energy and arc flash boundary by equipment and working position, with working distance stated for each
  2. 2Equipment labels ready to apply, with a placement schedule
  3. 3PPE specification per location, referenced to calculated energy rather than to a generic category
  4. 4Mitigation options for every position above the practical PPE limit, each with the clearing-time change it depends on
  5. 5The calibrated ETAP model, so the study can be re-run when the network changes
Reach Out

How the analysis runs

01

Define energised work

We establish which equipment is genuinely accessed live, since that is what determines scope. Exclusions are recorded rather than assumed, so the boundary of the study is auditable.

02

Site survey

Enclosure geometry, electrode configuration, gap and working distance are captured alongside nameplate data, because IEEE 1584 results are sensitive to all of them.

03

Supply and fault data

The fault level at your point of supply is obtained from the local lines company, and a short circuit study establishes bolted fault current at every bus.

04

Protection review

Settings are read from the devices and clearing time is taken from the real characteristic at the calculated arcing current, not from the nominal curve.

05

Calculate and label

Incident energy, boundaries and PPE requirements are determined per position, and labels are produced for application to the assessed equipment.

06

Report and brief

Findings are ranked, mitigation options are costed, and your engineering and safety people are briefed so the numbers can be explained rather than merely filed.

Frequently asked questions

Not by that name. HSWA 2015 requires a PCBU to eliminate or minimise risk so far as is reasonably practicable, and requires officers to exercise due diligence in understanding the business's hazards. The Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 and AS/NZS 3000 govern the installation. A calculation is the practical way an electrical hazard is shown to have been understood.
Your local lines company, for your point of supply, as both a maximum and a minimum figure. Maximum governs whether switchgear can interrupt the worst case; minimum governs whether protection picks up and how long an arc would burn. Requests can take time, so this is worth raising at the enquiry stage rather than after the site visit.
AS/NZS 4836 sets out how low voltage work is carried out safely, including the decision to work energised and the controls applied when doing so. It relies on the hazard being understood. The study supplies the incident energy and boundaries that turn those requirements into specific distances and PPE for your equipment.
Any change to the inputs: a lines company reinforcement, a transformer replacement, added generation including solar, a switchboard extension, or a protection setting change. Where the calibrated model has been retained the re-run is short. Labels calculated against a fault level that has since changed are confidently wrong, which is worse than none.

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