Source: Radio New Zealand
Two electricians work on an EV charging station Supplied / New Zealand Electrical Inspectors Association
The country’s main engineering industry group has joined warnings that changes to electrical safety rules create a new electrocution hazard for people.
The change lifts a ban on inserting a switch, circuit or fuse into mains power earthing systems.
The electrical inspectors association earlier warned this could expose households and businesses to a new “lethal” risk, saying it removes “critically important protections for the most important safety wire in any New Zealand electrical installation”.
The association upped the ante on Monday, after a month trying to get authorities to rescind the change, releasing a Youtube video that says they considered: “Our escalations to Worksafe have now failed and that Worksafe is in full cover-up mode.”
WorkSafe said it acknowledged the association’s concerns and was in contact with it, and would put out some guidance this week for electrical workers.
Now Engineering New Zealand has written to Worksafe’s Energy Safety unit saying the change was sudden and concerning.
A switch in the conductor “creates conditions where hazardous touch voltages arise, even in the absence of faults on either the network or the installation”, its Electrical Engineering Group wrote on Monday.
‘Surprising that it proceeded’
“All the electrical engineers and electrical technicians I’ve talked to have advised against this change,” ENZ chief executive Dr Richard Templer told RNZ on Tuesday.
“It was on the base of advice from Energy Safety New Zealand and we don’t quite fully understand their thinking behind it, so, yes, surprising that it proceeded in this manner.”
The ENZ letter said other comparable countries did not allow it, and Australia had retained the protections.
WorkSafe said it planned to meet ENZ as soon as possible and would invite it to give feedback on further technical information to follow next year.
“MBIE consulted on and made the recent regulatory changes and is responsible for any further amendments,” Worksafe said.
‘Significant risk of fatal electric shock’
Master Electricians has written to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, saying that modelling showed a switch in the earth created “a significant risk of fatal electric shock from household appliances and other exposed metalwork”.
Templer said the change needed to be reversed but meantime it was imperative to get more information out.
“We think it’s incredibly important that they get very strong guidance out this week or out as soon as possible.
“Because at the moment, of course, all designs are perfectly safe because people haven’t followed this new standard. What we want is guidance that very clearly says you need to maintain a good earth.”
Worksafe said it would publish the interim information ENZ seeks for electrical workers this week.
The inspectors’ association on Tuesday said it had “lost confidence” in Worksafe and Energy Safety to issue properly peer reviewed legislation and changes to safety regulations.
‘Extremely narrow’ advice
In earlier pushback against the association, Worksafe had said the change was needed, and would enable safer electric vehicle charging, as well as future technologies and disaster resilience – such as to help with charging generators.
But ENZ in its letter said it had seen no evidence the change was needed.
“The sudden removal of the PEN [protective earth neutral] protections will lead to misunderstandings, particularly in the domestic and light commercial sectors,” it said.
Templer said people acted with good intentions and the rule was among many good updates to electrical safety rules, but as it was enacted in legislation it did not go through the usual standards-setting process.
The inspectors, ENZ and Master Electricians have all faulted authorities for a lack of consultation and guidance.
“To be candid, our concern is that this situation has arisen due to inadequate consultation and insufficient technical oversight during the regulatory drafting process,” the Master Electricians told MBIE.
“The technical advice relied upon appears to have been extremely narrow.”
It suggested someone with “a gas background” was relied on as the primary advisor on EV-related standards.
“While industry is supportive of the updated regulations overall, a number of the exclusions included late in the process have raised genuine safety concerns. Had wider consultation been possible before publication, these issues would likely have been identified and addressed,” Master Electricans wrote.
‘Restrictions that remain’
Worksafe in a statement to RNZ referred to “upcoming information for electrical workers, which outlines the restrictions that remain in place to prevent switching from occurring”.
However, the inspectors’ Youtube video said no one who was competent would make a change like this.
“Instead of working rapidly to address this, Worksafe denied the issue existed, made up extraordinary claims, and then threatened electrical workers that Worksafe would prosecute them for work that was compliant but unsafe due to Worksafe’s changes.”
An Official Information Act request the association lodged to find out what experts Worksafe had consulted had been delayed. It was challenging this due to “life-threatening” nature of the rule change.
The criticism only became public after five weeks of to-and-fro between the association and Worksafe. It has pushed the agency to move to set up an independent review next year of the advice it gave on the regulatory amendment. The association says that is too slow.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
