Design and build electrical safety into construction projects

Historically, electrical safety is managed within a construction project when the project has introduced electrical current to the site rather than in the design phase. Project management may have discussed electrical safety in the design phase. Without including construction management, some key issues of electrical safety may have been overlooked and can cause safety concerns during the actual building process. Construction projects should include electrical safety with prevention through design as a core design principle. Electrical Safety should begin upstream in the design process and follow through the entire lifecycle of the project. The paper proposes including construction management of electrical safety throughout the entire project. It will also cover three broad areas of concern: 1) Management of temporary and permanent electrical power during all phases of construction. 2) Electrical safety when moving from de-energized equipment to energized equipment, and safety during commissioning. 3) How the equipment and the relevant safe guards under the control of construction transfers to the control of commissioning and operations. Each of these areas should be planned, designed, and decided before construction begins. Through involvement of the contractor in the planning and design phases many incidents and safety concerns can be avoided. Also time and money can be saved through planning of equipment delivery, placement, and energizing.