03.3 – Z462-24 Updates and Changes

There are many changes in this 2024 (6th edition), in fact upwards of 80 changes in this edition.

Major Points:

Several editorial changes throughout the standard that will result in updates to an employer’s electrical safety program.
Arc flash PPE categories were removed entirely in favour of referring to the minimum arc rating requirements for PPE: reported as arc thermal performance value (ATPV), energy at breakopen threshold (EBT), or arc rating limit (ARLIM). Employers will be required to address this global change in their electrical safety program documentation. Workers can still use the Arc Flash PPE Table methods for PPE selection, with the only difference being the terminology used to describe the required protection levels.

An important clarification has been added for establishing and verifying an electrically safe work condition, requiring each phase conductor or circuit part to be tested for the absence of voltage at each point of work (i.e., not upstream).
As part of an employer’s electrical safety program, a new requirement for an emergency response plan was added to Job Safety Planning. This requirement aligns with contact release training requirements for all qualified electrical workers.
Additional exemptions were added for the Energized Electrical Work Permit.
Leather Protectors have changed to Protectors (worn over rubber insulating gloves) since new materials are permitted that provide enhanced protection such as cut resistance. A new standard, ASTM F3258, has been added for non-leather protectors for rubber insulating gloves.
A new annex, “Working with Capacitors” (Annex W), was added with extensive content, figures, tables, and equations.

For extra reading here is the full list of changes as published in the 6th edition – see below:

the definition of “arc rating” has been modified to include an arc rating limit for faceshields (Clause 3);
definitions for “laser”, “radiation, ionizing”, “radiation, non-ionizing”, and “temporary protective grounding equipment” have been added (Clause 3);
the requirements related to an electrically safe work condition were reorganized into three clauses (Clauses 4.1.6.1, 4.1.6.2, and 4.1.6.3);
the exception to the requirement to establish an electrically safe work condition (Clause 4.1.6.3) was revised to a single exception, i.e., when it is “not practicable” to do so, to align with Canadian occupational health and safety regulations;
added that the requirement to verify the absence of voltage must be done “at each point of work” (Clause 4.2.5);
added several items to the list of activities exempted from requiring an energized electrical work permit in Clause 4.3.2.3;
Table 2, which can be used to estimate the likelihood of occurrence of an arc flash incident for ac and dc systems, was relocated to Annex F as Table F.2;
the term “leather protectors” (as applied to gloves worn over rubber insulated gloves) has been changed to “protectors” throughout this Standard (Clauses 3, 4.3.5.6.2, 4.3.7.2.1, 4.3.7.3.7, 4.3.7.3.10, Q.4, and R.3.3, and Tables H.1 and H.2) to permit the use of protector gloves constructed of leather or materials other than leather, and a definition of “protectors” has been added to Clause 3;
the arc flash PPE category method requirements (Clause 4.3.7.3.15 and Tables 6A and 6B) were relocated to follow Table V.1 in Annex V as Tables V.2 and V.3, respectively, and the method was revised and retitled as the “arc flash PPE selection table method”; a new figure was added to Annex V to provide guidance for the use of Table V.1, and several entries were added to Table V.1 to increase granularity; the arc flash personal protective equipment, Table 6C, has been deleted, all references to “arc flash PPE category” have been replaced with “arc flash PPE minimum arc rating”, and the arc flash PPE category numbers of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been replaced in Tables V.1, V.2, and V.3 with a minimum arc rating of 4, 8, 25, 40, and 75 cal/cm2 , respectively;
the determination regarding whether a circuit can be safely re-energized after it has been de-energized by the automatic operation of a circuit protective device shall now be done by a qualified person or persons (Clause 4.3.8.13);
energy thresholds for safety requirements related to batteries and battery rooms or battery enclosures (Clauses 6.3.1 and 6.3.2) were revised;
information on battery risk assessment (Clause 6.3.2.2) was added to Annex F;
added capacitor stored energy thresholds for safety-related work practices for use of lasers (Clause 6.4.2.1);
added several categories of power electronic equipment and the associated electrical hazard thresholds (Clause 6.5);
added new safety-related requirements for capacitors (Clause 6.7) and new information on working with capacitors (Annex W), and added the following terms used exclusively in Clause 6.7 to Clause 3 and identified these terms by the parenthetical phrase (“as applied to capacitors”): “boundary, hearing protection”, “boundary, lung protection”, “charge transfer”, “dielectric absorption”, “ground stick”, “grounding, hard”, “grounding, soft”, “hazard, arc blast”, “protector”, “resistor, bleeder”, “time constant”, and “time, discharge”;
added guidance on assessing the condition of maintenance of electrical equipment and systems (Clause B.5); and
reorganized the types of electrical hazards in Annex K into two categories of shock and arc flash and added guidance regarding electrical hazards and associated injuries, including “electric shock sequela”.