Live Working

LW is becoming an increasingly often sought method of reparation and maintenance of devices in the electrical network. LW decreases the number of planned and unplanned disconnections due to regular or corrective maintenance.

This service is complementary as it is tightly linked to the field of health and safety at work. Slovenian electricity industry has been pondering the idea of implementing LW as a procedure for regular maintenance for quite some time.

Live working is allowed under Slovenian legislation. Experts in the electro technical field must be specially trained for a specific LW system and the working procedure has to be defined and verified in advance. Workers must use appropriate tools and other means and personal protective equipment according to the chosen method of LW.

Slovenian standard (SIST EN 50110-1:2004 Operation of electrical installations, CENELEC, November 2004) defines the method and principles of safety at work and LW methods in detail.

A Live working consortium was established in 2007 with an aim of creating manuals for establishing a LW system. Manuals have been created which manage LW conditions and define the tools needed for LW.

Training for live working under low voltages is carried out in three programmes, which cover LW for above-ground networks, cable networks and internal low voltage installations. This training differs from the classical training methods in classrooms in the sense of extent and contents of the material and methods covered.