How to Manage European Arc-Flash Safety Requirements Using ETAP

Of course, there's the NFPA 70E standard for electrical safety in the workplace. Engineers in the United States widely use it, and European standards sometimes directly reference it. There is also IEEE 1584, a technical standard for calculating the Arc Flash. It is very widely used in the European Union.
By Ms. Marcin Ruta, Chief Executive Officer at MR Power Systems

In this presentation, we'll explore how ETAP can assist in meeting European directives for Arc Flash studies and understand the distinctions between North American and European electrical safety standards, offering crucial insights for professionals. The base standard in the European Union is EN 50010. It is an overall standard for electrical safety and general safety operation of electrical installations. Annex B6 talks about the Arc Flash.

MR Power Systems is an electrical engineering company based in Poland. They are experts in power systems analysis, and they support customers in EMEA.  Their mission is to enhance electrical design, electrical safety, educate individuals and businesses about arc flash and shock hazards. They provide clients with deep expertise in electrical power studies, such as arc flash studies using the most current standards world standards.

Location: Jaworze, Silesia, Poland

Year: 2023

Ensuring high-quality Arc-Flash studies

Challenges

  • Identifying the set of European IEC standards concerning Arc Flash.
  • Identifying a collection of International and North American Standards related to the Arc Flash issue.
  • Trying to compare European, International, and North American Standards. Finding which standard is the most challenging.
  • Offering a proper solution to maintain security by confidently calculating working distances, arcing current, boundaries, incident energy, and all parameters depending on various inputs and factors, according to electrical standards.
  • Analyzing real industry cases to confirm the results of calculations.

Which solutions did they choose?

Selected applications

They use ETAP Safety & Protection Products, ArcSafety, which provides electrical engineers with an all-in-one solution for performing AC and DC arc flash analysis on low, medium, and high-voltage systems. Open architecture of the solution offers customization of the software in order to use European standards in calculations. With unrivaled tools for arc flash analysis, risk assessment, and mitigation, this software enables engineers to ensure safety and minimize risks in electrical systems.

The ETAP solution ensures compatibility with actual standards, particularly with Arc Flash - IEEE 1584-2018, Arc Flash - NFPA 70E, and DGUV 203-077 like a reference to compare.

Why do they use Etap?

Main Customer Benefits

  • The ETAP software's architecture is open, and European calculation methods can be declared. For example, a one-second disconnection limit, like in the DGUV standard, can be used.
  • The researcher modeled the testing project with six transformers and a big electrical distributed network with 280 locations. It was a real FMCG facility case.
  • During analyzes in ETAP, user detected lots of problem with transformer protection and selectivity.
  • ETAP 22 was updated to the latest version to enable appropriate analyses. The Arc Flash Result Analyzer panel is a nice tool for analyzing and comparing different scenarios, methods, and standards. It provides clear visibility of issues and eases the detection of problems in the electrical installation.
  • Users have the possibility to create multiple scenarios to allow comparing of the results. The researcher did four scenarios for the IEEE 1584-2018 standard with existing and recommended settings, and he did four scenarios for DGUV 2-3-077 with existing and recommended settings in the Schau-Halinka variation of the kp factor.
  • Using ETAP Arc Flash software, user can quickly compare the different calculation methods to count working distances, thermal incidents, boundaries, and maintenance rules.
  • Recommendations to improve selectivity settings include using the arc quencher in the LV switchgear, changing the functionality of the main circuit breakers in the LV switchgear, and modernizing the MV part.
  • We obtained confirmation that ETAP can be used as a tool for Arc Flash calculation in the European market and internationally.
  • There is awareness of the need to use different standards for different customers depending on the regulation, but by using ETAP software, it's easy to show the results.

What do they think about ETAP?

Opinions

From a hardware point of view, you might also look into other standards, like IEC 62271, which is generally a standard for making high-voltage switch gears. This standard has one part about the Internal Arc classification, so it's about passive design for the switchgear. This can be implemented in ETAP.
By Ms. Marcin Ruta, Chief Executive Officer at MR Power Systems

IEC60947 discusses arc quenching devices. If you have an Arc quencher now, there is a standard about it, that you can implement, and you should implement it in ETAP.
By Ms. Marcin Ruta, Chief Executive Officer at MR Power Systems


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Managing European Arc-Flash Safety Requirements using ETAP

Explore how ETAP can assist in meeting European directives for arc flash studies and understand the distinctions between North American and European electrical safety standards, offering crucial insights for professionals.


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