Prioritizing Circuit Breaker and Protective Relay Maintenance Using an Arc Flash Hazard Assessment

In difficult economic times, companies sometimes delay the performance of maintenance on electrical power distribution equipment to save costs. If this happens, some circuit breakers (CBs) or protective relays will miss their scheduled maintenance and testing. This can create a significant safety risk if those protective devices are used to manage arc flash hazards. This paper describes a study method to determine which CBs and protective relays in a system are the most critical so that they can be prioritized for continued proper maintenance.