The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has issued a Safety Alert to emphasize the importance of properly installed and maintained listed or certified safe electrical equipment in hazardous areas in order to reduce the risk of fire or explosion on board vessels. The publication follows an increasing number of instances by the Coast Guard where there was a lack of knowledge regarding the installation, training, maintenance, and inspection of these certified systems.
Since 2012, the Liquefied Gas Carrier National Center of Expertise (LGC NCOE) annually publishes the Top 5 deficiencies found on liquefied gas carriers during Certificate of Compliance (COC) exams. Since initially publishing this document, electrical equipment in hazardous areas continues to be a common deficiency. This past year 12% of all deficiencies written to gas carriers involved hazardous area electrical equipment. Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) have found certified safe equipment improperly installed or identified missing components, which compromises the certification of the system and nullifies this critical protection in a flammable environment. In other cases, PSCOs found degraded components and evidence of equipment not being maintained or inspected. Additionally, USCG personnel nationwide have discovered instances where individuals responsible for the installation, maintenance, and oversight of this equipment onboard foreign and domestic vessels were unfamiliar with the appropriate standards to follow.