I was once on a gig where, for no apparent reason, the power distro went snap, crackle, pop. Really, it was more like crackle, big snap, bright flash, little pop, smoke puff. That’s not a sight and sound you want to experience first thing in the morning, not even when you’re having cereal. The dimmer tech who energized the PD, just before the impromptu light and sound show, went looking for the house electrician who had just tied in the feeder cables. He was nowhere to be found. Then he went looking for someone more qualified than himself to resolve the problem before doors a few hours later.
If you’re on a gig and you’re looking for a qualified electrician or rigger, you probably know who in your crew to turn to. But what if you’re a pro-duction manager or a venue that is looking for qualified personnel to hire?
The Standards Committee of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) wondered the same thing when they were writing the Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, also known as NFPA 70E.
When the 1984 Olympics came to Los Angeles, one of the production vendors wrote to the City of Los Angeles asking permission to use a particu-lar type of cable for feeder. Until that time, there was no related code, so the letter put the onus on the city. That incident eventually forced the NEC to address it in section 520 of the NEC Code.
But the code panel requirement was that there must be a separation between professionals and amateurs. As a result, a “Qualified Personnel” clause was put in. Now, “qualified personnel” is a requirement for installing single conductor feeders, feeders over 150A, feeders without connectors and feeders without coordinated overcurrent protection.
Qualified Personnel is defined in Article 100 of the NEC Code as “one who has skills and knowledge related to the construction and operation of the electrical equipment and installations and has received safety training on the hazards involved.” Then there’s a fine print note: “Refer to NFPA 70E-2004, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, for electrical safety training requirements.
In the Foreword to the NFPA 70E, it says that part of the reason it was created is because the “NEC is intended for use primarily by those who de-sign, install, and inspect electrical installations. OSHA’s electrical regulations address the employer and employee in their workplace. The technical content and complexity of the NEC is extremely difficult for the average employer and employee to understand.” But if you consider the challenge of writing a document to describe electrical safety training, that can be a bit perplexing as well. Try as they might, the recently expanded descrip-tion still leaves room for interpretation.
In some places, it’s easy to identify qualified personnel. For example, in Oregon, it’s anyone with a Stage Electrician’s Journeyman’s License. Un-fortunately, it’s the only state with such a license. But now we do have an ETCP Certified Entertainment Electrician.
According to Ken Vannice, who is a chairperson on the ESTA Electrical Power Working Group and was a USITT code panel member, “Whether it’s a legal requirement or not, whether a licensing requirement or not, an entertainment electrician has a need to be able to demonstrate he is quali-fied to anyone who requires it in some acceptable manner. A defendable Certification program goes a long way toward doing that. It documents skills and knowledge, related to the construction and operation of electrical equipment and installations, and of having had safety training regarding the hazards involved.”
It turns out that the dimmer tech who went looking for qualified personnel tracked me down and asked me to sort out the problem with the power distro. After disconnecting each piece of the puzzle, I put it back together bit by bit, applying power along the way, to make sure everything was okay. In the end, everything checked out and worked fine. I suspect that someday someone will open up the PD rack to find a badly charred stray loose conductor or perhaps a fried rat.
