Sub mains rooms.

[chcnorris29]

Hello,
Been doing some work today in a high rise where there are sub mains cupboards on each floor however the communal fuse boards and all main connections for flats (before meter, meter and fb in flats) has previously been relocated to 1 sub mains room off of an old unused office on the ground floor to prevent vandalism. (not the nicest area in the world to work, we where working there because they had stolen an earth conductor).

Anyway:

Was told by people I was working with that as an apprentice I legally can not be in the sub mains room.
Sound weird as how can you learn to work on the sub mains if this is the case.
is this correct?

Thanks

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Was told by people I was working with that as an apprentice I legally can not be in the sub mains room.
Sound weird as how can you learn to work on the sub mains if this is the case.
is this correct?

This is crap. There is no legalities around you being in any location. What the Electricity at Work regs say, is that you must be competent, as you are an Apprentice, i will take worst case scenario and assume that you are not, but you are in there with a skilled person and working under his/her supervision and instruction, so you are now an instructed person. look up the definition of skilled and instructed persons in BS7671 part 2, and you will see where i am coming from, and why you can be in there.

Cheers.............Howard

 

[markc123]

Can't see how or why it is a problem aslong as you're supervised by someone competent. Was never a problem when i was an apprentice, like you say - how do you learn otherwise...they always say the best experience is the experience.

However, with Health and Safety these days it wouldn't suprise me if they have made it illegal.

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

Perfectly allowed in a sub mains it's the DNO transformer room you are not legally allowed access to

 

[telectrix]

as both above sensible replies ^^^ ^^^.

 

[Marvo]

I'm not suggesting this is the reason in your case but I had an apprentice many years ago who had some kind of attention deficit disorder. He couldn't keep his fingers off things no matter how many times he was told not to touch. I went through a stage where I wouldn't take him into certain plant rooms because I couldn't trust him to keep his fingers out of things.

Eventually I found a workaround. We had 2 large flashlights and these things were from the era before LED's so they were bulky and heavy and made of PVC, every time we went into a place that was risky it was his job to hold both of these flashlights, one in each hand and he was under strict instructions never to put them down and to point them wherever the light was needed. It all worked out well with this system, it was easy to keep an eye on where he was at all times because these things were bright and they occupied both his hands so it stopped him fiddling with things he shouldn't.

 

[chcnorris29]

Perfectly allowed in a sub mains it's the DNO transformer room you are not legally allowed access to

Are these at substations or are they located in highrise flats? is is apprentices or anyone who is not DNO that can not go there? also why?

 

[7029 dave]

Under supervision no problem.

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

You are allowed in Sub and apprentice to probably unsupervised if all covers are on etc,
Not sure on exact DNO transformer rooms just aware unless DNO you can't go in there,
Crazy as normally people more qualified than them but don't fancy messing with HV stuff myself

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Could be company policy, how old are you? Some forms have ott health and safety

 

[chcnorris29]

18. been in company over a year and from they i do not think there is an ott health and safety. don't think it company policy.

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

We have a young persons skill level we keep under 18s in and under that they would have to stand well back from any switchgear but would still be allowed it the room. I would just walk in and see what happens!

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

You are allowed in Sub and apprentice to probably unsupervised if all covers are on etc,
Not sure on exact DNO transformer rooms just aware unless DNO you can't go in there,
Crazy as normally people more qualified than them but don't fancy messing with HV stuff myself

Sorry doesn't make sense if all covers on etc apprentice can be in there but needs supervising if gonna start taking covers off etc

 

[sheephat]

Hello,
Been doing some work today in a high rise where there are sub mains cupboards on each floor however the communal fuse boards and all main connections for flats (before meter, meter and fb in flats) has previously been relocated to 1 sub mains room off of an old unused office on the ground floor to prevent vandalism. (not the nicest area in the world to work, we where working there because they had stolen an earth conductor).

Anyway:

Was told by people I was working with that as an apprentice I legally can not be in the sub mains room.
Sound weird as how can you learn to work on the sub mains if this is the case.
is this correct?

Thanks

As per your companies policy it may be unacceptable for you to work in a LV switchroom, ususally lone working, or lack of qualifications.

Most companies employ procedures to prevent against unauthorised access such as limitation of access and permits to work.

If something happens they are accountable hense the papertrails to cover themselves.

Anyone can work anywhere and on anything, doesnt mean they should regardless of thier qualifications.

For your own benifit if you dont know what your doing dont do it, your certianly not breaking any laws, but if your on a site and there are procedures in place that you were informed about on entering said site, you could be in trouble.... if that made sense

 

[Knobhead]

DNO switchroom’s are out of bound unless you are accompanied by a DNO representative.
Authorised persons of private networks where the intake and outgoing share the same board are allowed access unaccompanied.

Access to private switchroom’s is at the discretion of the site operator.

 

[Dizzy_Maskell]

(null)

Yes this us what I meant sorry, gut a little confused I meant you can access customers sub mains but not DNO room. Used to big sites where try and DNO switch room in same room and usually bolted on to side of clients sub.

 

[Engineer54]

DNO switchroom’s are out of bound unless you are accompanied by a DNO representative.
Authorised persons of private networks where the intake and outgoing share the same board are allowed access unaccompanied.

Access to private switchroom’s is at the discretion of the site operator.

And that just about sum's it all up in a Nutshell!! lol!!

The rest is just making things up as they go along, or mistakenly quoting a company policy as an actual industry regulation!!!!

 

[Knobhead]

I’ve worked on several setups. On the bigger sites the 33/11KV transformers belonged to the company, the 33KV coming from a separate building. Access to them would be accompanied. We would only go in there to confirm a feeder had been earthed and our locks applied.
Smaller sites had the boards combined so we needed access. You couldn’t do anything with the DNO gear, if it’s possible to get a lock on something they would.