Categories: OSHA

Written By:  Eric J. Conn

OSHA is signaling a major departure from its position on acceptable exceptions to the Lockout/Tagout requirements in the agency’s electrical safety standards. Historically, employers have been permitted to conduct electrical maintenance near energized parts in data centers that host critical business operations (i.e., operations which must stay live 24/7), under an “infeasibility” exception to the general rule that electrical equipment must be deenergized and locked out before maintenance is permitted. A series of recent enforcement actions suggests this exception may no longer be available to data center operators.

 OSHA’s electrical safety standards at 29 CFR 1910.333 generally require employers to deenergize and lockout electrical supply to a circuit before work can be performed nearby. However, the OSHA standard includes an exception to deenergization if doing so is “infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations.” OSHA’s infeasibility exception is derived from the National Fire Protection Association’s industry guidance document 70E (“Work Involving Electrical Hazards”), which includes an identical infeasibility exception. Under the infeasibility exception, employers are permitted to perform work on or near energized equipment provided the employees performing the work use other safety-related work practices, such as approved electrical personal protective equipment (e.g., insulated gloves and sleeves), appropriately rated tools, and take other appropriate measures to guard against electric shock and arc flash hazards (e.g., installing barriers or rubber insulation blankets).

Data center operators have long relied on this exception to perform work inside live electrical panels, because shutting down the entire panel will take down all equipment powered from that source, often including critical hardware hosting critical business operations. The OSHA Practice Group at Epstein Becker & Green has become aware, however, of several OSHA enforcement actions in the Northeast, in which OSHA cited employers who operate 24/7 data centers for violations of OSHA’s electrical safety standards, because they performed electrical maintenance on or near energized equipment, under the auspices of the infeasibility exception. An OSHA representative involved in two such cases indicated that OSHA intends for this enforcement initiative will apply nationwide.

Accordingly, what OSHA is now requiring from data center operators, is that no electrical work may be done in power cabinets/centers in which any portion of the cabinet is energized. This new policy creates significant operational problems and costs. Businesses and customers place a high premium on avoiding data center outages, and this new OSHA requirement necessarily has that result. We are not aware of any employer challenging OSHA’s new data center policy to the point of an ALJ or OSH Review Commission judgment, and such a challenge may be worthwhile if the costs of complying with this new policy are too prohibitive.

Back to Workforce Bulletin Blog

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Workforce Bulletin posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.