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.
The attribution of fires caused by electrical faults cannot be overstated. The National Fire Protection Agency published Fires in Industrial and Manufacturing Properties in March 2018 and reported that “electrical distribution and lighting equipment (24%) was the leading cause of structural fires in industrial properties from 2011-2015.” The International Union of Marine Insurance issued a press release IUMI Voices Concerns over Growing Number of Roro Fires reporting that, “marine accident reports in recent years have identified several sources of fires….a significant (leading) number of these incidents have occurred because of electrical fires.”
The Coast Guard strongly recommends that owners, operators, shipboard personnel and service providers:
- Familiarize themselves with additional IEC standards that are called out by IEC 60092-502:1999 and in particular IEC 60079-14, 60079-17, and IEC 60079-19 as it relates to the proper training, inspection, maintenance, and documentation of electrical equipment installed in hazardous areas to ensure that no potential ignition source is present in hazardous areas aboard tank vessels, gas carriers and vessels using gases or other low flashpoint fuels.
- Ensure proper training for operators and persons with executive functions conducted to a standard not inferior to the IEC at all appropriate levels.
- Implement an appropriate periodic inspection and maintenance program by competent personnel.
- Any repairs should be made by a competent technician or repair facility. When in doubt, a representative of the equipment manufacturer should be consulted.
- Any modifications to existing systems must be discussed with and approved by the appropriate regulatory authority (i.e., USCG, flag administration, or vessel classification society).