Following an appeal against the work of the SABS subcommittee SC 67F, lodged by C.P. Yelland and the Association of Municipal Electricity Undertakings of Southern Africa (AMEU) on 23 January, the mandatory surge protection requirements of SABS 0142-1 have been set aside and declared non-mandatory.
On 1 April 2002, the SABS (South African Bureau of Standards) implemented the new Code of Practice for the Wiring of Premises - Part 1: Low Voltage Installations (SABS 0142-1, edition 1.0, 2001) - which included a new section (paragraph 6.7.6) requiring that 'surge protection devices (SPDs) shall be fitted to all electrical installations irrespective of the lightning ground flash density of the area or whether or not lightning protection is required in terms of the risk analyses carried out in accordance with SABS 0313.' In addition, the Code requires that from 1 January 2005, SPDs will also have to be retrofitted to all existing electrical installations in order for these to be issued with a valid Certificate of Compliance (CoC).
For many years, SABS 0142-1 has been listed as a safety standard in the Electrical Installation Regulations in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993), which therefore makes the new surge protection requirements mandatory with the force of law for every domestic, agricultural, commercial and industrial low voltage electrical installation in South Africa, regardless of risk, cost or benefit.
Since coming into effect on 1 April 2002, a proposed Amendment 1 to the new SABS 0142-1 was drafted by the relevant SABS working group WG 0142-1 and accepted by its parent subcommittee SC 67F, further increasing the technical requirements and costs of the mandatory SPDs to include a mandatory thermal disconnect device and end-of-life indicator.
Strong objections to both paragraph 6.7.6 as well as to the proposed Amendment 1 were lodged by Eskom. The response by WG 0142-1 was to revise the proposed Amendment 1 in such a way as to allow Eskom and municipal electricity distributors to use their own proprietary SPD specifications for their electrical installations, thereby introducing a discriminatory aspect to Code, effectively creating different customer/installer classes, with different mandatory technical requirements, features and costs, this being applied in an arbitrary manner without a sound engineering or other logical basis. The revision was not acceptable to Eskom or municipal electricity distributors.
The result was the appeal lodged with the SABS by CP Yelland (the Yelland appeal) on 3 December 2002. This was quickly followed by a similar appeal from Association of Municipal Electricity Undertakings of Southern Africa (the AMEU appeal). Both appeals called for the mandatory surge protection requirements to be suspended so as to afford an opportunity for a proper, independent review and risk, cost and benefit impact study.
Says Yelland: "Further to the outcome of the appeal on 23 January 2003 against the mandatory surge protection requirements of paragraph 6.7.6 of SABS 0142-1 and the draft Amendment 1, and the subsequent decisions taken by SABS technical committee TC 67, I believe it is incumbent on the SABS now to officially inform the industry and the public properly in a proactive manner about the fact that surge protection is now no longer mandatory in respect of both new and existing domestic, agricultural, commercial, business and industrial installations."
"This especially in view of the significant publicity and information put out by the SABS and other organisations (particularly those with vested commercial interests in the manufacture, supply and installation of surge protection devices) that occurred after edition 1.0 of SABS 0142-1 was published and became effective on 1 April 2002, thereby making the surge protection requirements of paragraph 6.7.6 mandatory with the force of law in terms of the OHS Act, ie, road shows around the country, articles in the media, etc." he adds.
For more information contact Chris Yelland, EE Publishers, 011 659 0504, [email protected]
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