electrical safety
Daniel R. Doan
Focused Research on Arc-Flash Hazards
W
hen this column was written,
the IEEE Industry Ap­­pli­­cations
Society (IAS) had published
four issues of IEEE Industry Appli-
cations Magazine and three issues
of IEEE Transactions on Industry
Applications in 2018. Those issues
contained 319 peer-reviewed techni-
cal articles and papers. Of those, 24
covered electrical safety topics, and
seven of the 24 focused on arc-flash
hazards. The seven provided a good
picture of the breadth and depth of
the work being done to protect our
workers, showing the value of the
forum provided by the IEEE and
IAS for focused research to improve
workplace safety.
Two of the articles fell in the cat-
egory of new research, where indus-
try is learning more about arc-flash
hazards beyond the limits of previ-
ously published works. Many engi-
neers trying to analyze their systems
for arc-flash energy have been ask-
ing questions about the lower limits
of voltage and to what lower limits
should they be concerned about arc
flash. The authors of “Low-Voltage
Arc Sustainability” [1] made progress
in answering those questions. At the
other end of the scale, energy-stor-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIAS.2018.2860141
Date of publication: 10 October 2018
6 IEEE Industry Applications Magazine
age systems are getting larger, and
users need to understand arc-flash
analysis for those systems. In “Arc
Flash in Large Energy Storage Sys-
tems: Hazard Calculation and Mitiga-
tion” [2], the authors help engineers
and designers under-
stand and mitigate
arc-flash dangers in
large energy-storage Progress is
systems, such as bat-
tery banks. being made
T he analysis of internationally on
complicated electri-
cal systems is daunt- reducing the risk
ing, and engineers of arc flash.
are always searching
for methods that can
clearly show the maxi-
mum arc-flash energy in special situ-
ations. One new method for clearly
analyzing the hazard is described in
“A Graphical Approach to Incident
Energy Analysis” [3].
Progress is being made inter-
nationally on reducing the risk of
arc flash, and the IEEE is a good
forum for distributing this knowl-
edge across the globe. In “Basic Mea-
sures Assisting the Avoidance of
Arc Flash” [4], the authors provide
an analysis of the IEC/EN approach
to reducing the risk of arc flash. A
detailed study of this paper is recom-
mended for engineers interested in
œ November/December 2018
reducing the chance of an arc flash
in their equipment.
In equipment design, manufac­
turers are leading in the move toward
safer equipment and including
concepts for safer operation and
mainte­nance in their
de­s igns. One exam-
ple is de­­s cribed in
“Applying Arc-Resis-
tant Technologies
to Medium-Voltage
Variable Frequency
Drives” [5], w h e r e
t h e a u t h o r s show
the application of arc-
resistant technology
to large drive systems.
Transmitting arc-
flash hazard knowledge to compa-
nies and ultimately to the workers,
through regulations and workplace
safety compliance, is a challenge. Safe-
ty leaders and engineers are con-
stantly looking for best practices to
bring knowledge to the workers in
harm’s way. The paper “Arc-Flash
KPI Compliance at a Large Oil and
Gas Company” [6] describes meth-
ods to improve the application of
requirements and ensure mitiga-
tion is in place. Finally, “Arc-Flash
Safety ­Compliance” [7] describes the
progress a global company can make
with a focused commitment to safety.
 Search for these publications on
IEEE Xplore. It is encouraging to see
this progress; let’s look forward to
more focused research in the future.
References
[1] M. Eblen and T. Short, “Low-voltage arc sus-
tainability,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no.
3, pp. 2934–2946, 2018.
[2] F. M. Gatta, A. Geri, M. Lauria, S. Maccioni,
and F. Palone, “Arc flash in large energy stor-
From the Editor’s Desk
the managing systems and set a
high bar for providing a valuable
publication for IAS members
●● my wife Pam and daughter Anna,
who provided support through
their many constructive comments
and suggestions.
“From the Editor’s Desk” provid-
ed timely news related to publication
policies and procedures relevant to
content quality. From time to time, I
also highlighted character strengths
of highly successful IAS members and
others I have admired as mentors,
friends, and professional colleagues.
Without naming those individuals, I
would like to thank them for living
their lives in ways that inspired me.
President’s message
also working on web-based tutorials
that can be accessed through the
resource center.
I dedicated an earlier column to
standards activity within the Society.
For the IAS, this is an extremely impor-
tant activity to support the industries
we serve. In terms of the number of
standards, the IAS is the third-largest
IEEE Society. Our Standards Depart-
ment is actively working on increasing
the number of standards in different
areas within the scope of the IAS.
age systems: Hazard calculation and mitiga-
tion,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no. 3, pp.
2926–2933, 2018.
[3] R. Lutz, M. Charbonneau, and M. Garcia, “A
graphical approach to incident energy analy-
sis,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no. 1, pp.
815–821, 2018.
[4] G. Parise, L. Parise, and E. Berenato, “Basic
measures assisting the avoidance of arc flash,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 1842–
1847, 2018.
[5] R. Paes, J. A. Kay, and B. Cassimere, “Apply-
ing arc-resistant technologies to medium-volt-
(continued from page 3)
I hope you found something motiva-
tional in these articles:
●● “The Power of Gratitude” (July/
August 2018)
●● “What Is Worth Mentioning Today”
(May/June 2018)
●● “Making a Difference” (Novem-
ber/December 2017)
●● “The Power of Networking” (July/
August 2017)
●● “A Conversation with Your Future
Self” (March/April 2017)
●● “Advancing Technology for Human-
ity” (September/October 2016)
●● “The Elevator Speech” (July/August
2016)
●● “Bending the Universe” (May/
June 2016)
(continued from page 4)
As the IEEE is a volunteer-run
organization, recognizing our peers
for technical and leadership con-
tributions to our community is an
important function of the Society.
The IAS Awards Department is cur-
rently working on instituting an out-
standing educator/mentor award.
The IAS volunteers have worked
very closely with our sister Societies
and cooperated on several projects,
including conferences, publications,
and technical communities. In all of
No v e m be r/De ce m be r 2018
age variable frequency drives,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 1930–1937, 2018.
[6] R. Pragale, A. Patel, and R. Bresden, “Arc
flash KPI compliance at a large oil and gas
company,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 54, no.
1, pp. 889–894, 2018.
[7] D. B. Durocher and L. A. Kay, “Arc flash
safety compliance: A journey toward electrical
workplace safety and production reliability,”
IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 48–57,
May-June 2018.

●● “My Father’s Toolbox” (March/
April 2016)
●● “On Being Authentic” (Septem-
ber/October 2015)
●● “Searching for Excellence” (Sep-
tember/October 2014)
●● “Heroes Among Us” (March/April
2013)
●● “If You Can Read This, Thank a
Teacher” (May/June 2012).
In closing, I would like to thank and
wish all the best to incoming Editor-
in-Chief Dave Durocher. I look for-
ward to the fresh perspective that
our new editor-in-chief will bring.

these cases, the synergies that Societ-
ies bring have given greater value to
our members.
As I hand over the presidency
of this great Society to Prof. George
Zissis at the end of the year, I will
be transferring the leadership of a
vibrant, energetic, and growing Soci-
ety. I hope that you will support the
next leadership team as you did with
the current team!

œ IEEE Industry Applications Magazine 7