The following questions and answers are provided.  The questions may have been posed to ESPS in presentations, from clients, in informal discussions, between colleagues, or on a forum where ESPS provided a response to a question:

We are looking in to PPE to comply with NFPA 70E.  What suppliers do people use?

You need to start with defining an Electrical Specific PPE Program and a plan for procurement. For example what do you need for arc rated PPE, a level/tier system with everyday wear first and layering, or a second level as a specific arc flash suit? You should develop a document outlining what you need for electrical specific PPE.

After this what is your procurement strategy, three bids and a buy, or from the local supplier (if there is one)?

Do I have any concerns with respect to inherent or chemical treated fabric? Both are perfectly accepteable and meet the applicable Standards. No issues.

After all of this work (there are other details you should review), then you should talk to the the fabric manufacturer, make sure they are credible, have the technical information you need. I say this as the distributor/retailer may not have the information you need. Most distributors/retailers are not knowledgeable in Canada yet about NFPA 70E and CSA Z462. You may have to buy from out of Province if you can't find a reputable supplier in the Province you are from.

Anyways you can see there is a process here, you have to make a plan, take a stepped approach, and work the issue in parallel paths to get it done.

Can the incident energy level calculations of the different software packages be compared, can we evaluate the results obtained?  Which software provides the best results?

Interesting we are debating the software's capabilities for "doing the arc flash calculation" when it is really the engineer using the software that is doing it, and in a lot of cases is the engineer qualified and competent to be doing the analysis. Let me ramble on a bit, we need an engineer that first understands Power System Design, and Protection & Coordination, then we layer in Arc Flash Hazard Analysis.

There are quite a few software packages out there:

SKM
ESA Easypower
ETAP
EDSA
ArcPro
Cyme
Aspen
Excel Spreadsheets
Duke Heat Flux
?
?

All of these are software tools for the design engineer. Some of them only do the arc flash calculation, and no more. So I would questions how in depth your arc flash hazard analysis really is, as my opinion is you have to not only do the AFHA, but you should be able to consider "Safety by Design" techniques to consider how to reduce the calculated incident energy.

Oh, and what about having an engineering specifciation for this analysis? I see a lot of $$$$$ been wasted by Owners (all industry sectors in Canada), as they ask the engineer for the study and it's like a blank cheque. Engineers are learning how to do this calculation, how to run scenarios, how to complete "Safety by Design." As a client you should provide the engineer with a specification, even if it is one page, so that you control $$$$ and the report content. You pay for what you asked for, not what they gave you.

These studies if not controlled by the Owner can be in the ten of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands (depending on the power system complexity). Yes some of them should be costly, but not all of them.

You can template a lot of the front end single lines, then work from these to complete multiple studies, a sample as was the case in my previous employment where we had 2400 electrical services, and two 100MW+ power plants.

Besides all of that did you check, or pre-qualify the engineer doing the work? If you don't know them or their capabilities, did you get a resume, examples of previous reports issued. Were the reports thorough, but not a book?

As well did you get the study "stamped" by the Professional Engineer in the Province or Territory that your facilities are in?  My Professional opinion is that you should have this "safety" related analysis signed by a P.Eng. in Canada.

Did you put the Flash Protection Boundary and incident energy information on your Single Line Diagram? Did you get the engineer to complete a Arc Flash Hazard Analysis Data Sheet for the calculation, a record of the key assumptions made in the configuration of the "arc flash module" or in "the various locations within the software" where you configure the variables for the calculation?

Sorry for running on, but my opinion is that before we over analyze the software's use of IEEE 1584 etc... we should do a detailed review of the Professional Engineer that will be using the software tool. After all the software is just a software tool, the intelligence, experience, knowledge, expertize, is with the Professional Engineer who will be using the tool, and of course he/she should understand what methodology and what it is been used for (i.e. IEEE 1584, 70E, Lee, etc...).