NJ, the only time a qualified person can work 'hot' PPE or not is for troubleshooting and in cases where de-energizing presents more of hazard than not. (Loss of money, production etc. are not legitimate reasons)
1910.333(a)(1)
"Deenergized parts." Live parts to which an employee may be exposed shall be deenergized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that deenergizing introduces additional or increased hazards or is infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground need not be deenergized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.
Note 1: Examples of increased or additional hazards include interruption of life support equipment, deactivation of emergency alarm systems, shutdown of hazardous location ventilation equipment, or removal of illumination for an area.
Note 2: Examples of work that may be performed on or near energized circuit parts because of infeasibility due to equipment design or operational limitations include testing of electric circuits that can only be performed with the circuit energized and work on circuits that form an integral part of a continuous industrial process in a chemical plant that would otherwise need to be completely shut down in order to permit work on one circuit or piece of equipment.
Note 3: Work on or near deenergized parts is covered by paragraph (b) of this section.
Lets say you decide shutting down is more of a hazard than not shutting down.
Now lets say that with all the proper PPE and care someone gets injured.
It will be hard to defend that decision as at this point they are injuries.
It is unfortunate that what I see happening with more facilities addressing 70E is that they believe once suitable PPE is purchased that live work for any reason is allowed.
Bob
[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 01-29-2007).]
