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Home > Electrical Safety > Law and penalties > Code of Practice for Electrical Work > Appendix A – Meaning of terms

Appendix A – Meaning of terms

Access permit or authority means a document that forms part of a safe system to work, to provide electrically safe access to high voltage parts. At least one set of earths and short circuits must be applied before an access permit or authority is issued. Under an access permit or authority, earths and short circuits should not be removed.

An appliance is a device that consumes electricity at a voltage greater than extra low voltage and in which the electricity is converted into heat, motion or another form of energy or is substantially changed in its electrical character.

Although a light fitting, including its bulb or tube, is an appliance, the bulb or tube, taken alone, is not an appliance.

Associated equipment, for an electric line, means something ordinarily found in association with the electric line, especially for the purpose of protecting, insulating or supporting, or supporting the operation of, the electric line.

Examples of associated equipment -

Authorised person, for an electrical part means a person who:

Chief executive means the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.

A dangerous electrical event is any of the following -

Disconnected means that the parts are not connected to an electrical source. Disconnection may be achieved by de-energising, isolating, separating or breaking connections, or through all of these methods. A part that is disconnected may still require discharging to remove all electric and other energy.

De-energise means the process of disconnecting lines or apparatus from all sources of electrical energy usually by the process of switching. De-energised does not mean isolated or discharged, or both.

Discharged means connected to the general mass of the earth in such a manner as to remove any residual electrical energy e.g. applying earths and short circuits to high voltage parts before gaining access.

Discharged also means stored energy has been released e.g. a closing spring in a circuit breaker, hydraulic pressure in a system, or energy stored in a battery

Earthed means electrically connected to the general mass of earth.

Earths, portable earthing devices (PED), refer to earths and short circuits.

Earths and short circuits means portable earthing devices, earths, earth switches etc. The use of earths and short circuits should be part of a safe system of work on high voltage parts. Who, when and why the earths and short circuits are applied determines whether they are designated as operator or working – earths and short circuits.

Earthing and short-circuiting form one part of a system to create an electrically safe environment. The purpose of earthing and short-circuiting is:

Electrical equipment is any apparatus, appliance, cable, conductor, fitting, insulator, material, meter or wire:

Refer also to section 69 of the Regulation (as detailed in section 3 of this Code) for further information on electric motors forming part of vehicles.

An electrical installation is a group of items of electrical equipment. However, a group of items of electrical equipment is an electrical installation only if:

An item of electrical equipment can be part of more than 1 electrical installation.

For the permanently electrically connected items above:

An electric line is a wire or conductor or associated equipment used for transmitting, transforming, or supplying electricity at a voltage greater than extra low voltage.

However, an "electric line" does not include -

Electrical place means a location where an electrical installation, electrical equipment, works of an electricity entity or a cathodic protection system is located, including a premises, place, land or water.

Electrical risk means -

Electrically safe means -

Electrical safety, for a person or property, means the person or property is electrically safe.

Electrical work is the manufacturing, constructing, installing, testing, maintaining, repairing, altering, removing, or replacing of electrical equipment.

However, the following are not "electrical work" -

Elevating work platform means a telescoping device, scissor device, or articulating device or any combination of those devices used to move and position personnel, equipment and materials to and from, or at work locations above or below the support surface.

Energise means energise by electricity.

Extra low voltage means voltage of 50V or less AC RMS, or 120V or less ripple-free DC.

Fault duration means the time which fault current may flow before being cleared by the primary protection of the power system operating correctly.

Ferro-resonance – Ferro-resonance can be described as a voltage multiplication circuit on a power system.

The phenomenon causes higher than normal system voltages on the high and low voltage systems, e.g. 700 volts phase to phase on the low voltage system. Ferro-resonance occurs when a modest sized capacitance is either in series or in parallel, with non-linear inductance, such as an iron cored transformer.

In power systems, ferro-resonance is most commonly found in the following conditions:

Free from electrical risk, for a person or property, means that the electrical risk to the person or property is as low as reasonably achievable, having regard to:

Hand excavation means using tools such as shovels, picks, mattocks, crowbars. Hand excavation does not include the use of equipment such as jackhammers. Even when hand excavating caution must be exercised when working close to live cables.

High voltage means voltage greater than low voltage.

Include Where the word, "include", is used in this Code, it should be interpreted as meaning "includes, but is not limited to".

Installation Category (instruments) means the fault level and voltage impulse level that instrument is designed to withstand. (Refer to international standards IEC 61010-1 and IEC 61010-2-031 for further information.) The applicable Installation Categories are outlined below:

Instructed person, for an electrical part means a person who is acting under the supervision of an authorised person for the electrical part.

Isolated means disconnected from all possible sources of supply and rendered incapable of being made live without premeditated and deliberate operation. A suitable warning safety sign must be attached.

Examples of how isolation can be achieved is by opening isolators, racking out circuit breakers, removing fuses or links, inhibiting the operation of a mechanism by locking, or a combination of these measures. Isolation involves the use of suitable warning or safety signs and involve locks, rendering mechanisms inoperative or a combination of these.

Isolation and access means the process of fully or partly, switching, de-energising, isolating, proving de-energised, applying earths and short circuits, discharging, installing other precautions, the issuing of permits or authorities and the reversal of this process. Isolation and access should be part of safe system of work.

The term applies to:

Isolation point means the point, or one of many points, used to isolate electrical parts.

Live (Alive, Energised) means connected to a source of electricity supply or subject to hazardous induced or capacitive voltages. Generally, "live" refers to a conductor or conductive part intended to be energised in normal use, including a neutral conductor and conductive parts connected to a neutral conductor.

Under the MEN system live does not apply to the following:

Low voltage means voltage greater than extra low voltage, but not more than 1 000V AC RMS or 1 500V ripple-free DC.

Must Where the word "must" is used in this Code, it reflects the fact that a mandatory requirement exists in the Act or Regulation.

Neutral means the conductor of a three-wire or multi-wire system, which is maintained at an intermediate and approximately uniform potential in respect of the active or outer conductors, or the conductor of a two-wire system that is earthed at its origin. A neutral should be considered (and treated) as a live conductor.

Permit or authority means an access or a test permit or authority.

Plant includes any machinery, equipment and appliance, and any article designed for use as a component in, or as an accessory to, any machinery, equipment or appliance and includes earth moving machines and hoists.

Potentially fatal test current means current used as part of a test where the current is greater than or equal to 10 mA AC or 300 mA DC, or both. These values are based on the maximum value of current at which a person can let go or "threshold of let go," described in AS 3859 The Effects of Current Passing Through The Human Body (non-Queensland Government link).

The threshold of let go should be considered the maximum value of current to flow through the human body before a significant risk of ventricular fibrillation exists. Therefore, if tests use currents above the potentially lethal test current, consideration should be given to the implementation of effective control measures.

Rope test (rope pull test) means a test performed on wood and steel poles. By placing a mechanical load as close to the head of the pole as practical, via a rope, the test should indicate whether the pole is inherently sound.

A serious electrical incident is an incident involving electrical equipment if, in the incident -

Should Where the word "should" is used in this Code, it should be interpreted as meaning a requirement which needs to be equalled or exceeded so that an obligation to be discharged. If this Code states that something should be done, the requirement is to do what the Code says or do it in a manner which is equal or better (electrically safer) than the Code.

Step and touch potential means step voltage or touch voltage, or both. Refer to Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Examples of step potential and touch potential
Figure 2 – Examples of step potential and touch potential

Step voltage means the prospective or open circuit voltage that may appear between any two points (1 metre apart) on the surface of the ground.

Supervision means the overseeing of workers, including trainees and apprentices, to ensure risks to people and property are eliminated or at least minimised. While a supervisor may perform audits, auditing should not be seen as interchangeable with supervision.

Supervision of electrical work includes:

Switching sheet means a document that is part of a safe system of work. Each switching sheet should have a unique reference and should list a process of isolation and access step by step.

The Act means the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (PDF, 788 KB).

The Regulation means the Electrical Safety Regulation 2002 (PDF, 1 MB).

Touch voltage means the prospective or open circuit voltage that may appear between any point of contact with conductive parts (that are located within 2.4 metres of the ground) and any point on the surface of the ground with a horizontal distance of one metre from the vertical projection of the point of contact with the conductive part.

Transferred earth potential Although a line may be ‘"earthed’" there may be a dangerous voltage or potential between the line and the earth point, including a concrete pole or a steel tower, at the work site.

For example, where a line is under access at a remote substation, a fault not directly associated with the line under access can cause a dangerous voltage rise on the substation earth grid. That voltage rise is transferred through the line to the work site, where it can create a hazard to workers on the site.

Type A probe means probes suitable for application to low voltage and high voltage non attenuating non voltage dividing probe assemblies that are rated for direct connection to voltages exceeding 33V RMS (root mean square) but not exceeding 63 kV. These probe assemblies may contain passive components such as fuses. (Refer to international standards IEC 61010-1 and IEC 61010-2-031 for further information.)

Wilfully means:

Works, of an electricity entity, means the electrical equipment, and electric line associated equipment, controlled or operated by the entity to generate, transform, transmit or supply electricity.

Example of works of an electricity entity -

Example of what is not works of an electricity entity -

Last updated July 16, 2009