National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 50110‑1:2023. It supersedes BS EN 50110‑1:2013, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee PEL/99, Erection and operation of power installations.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 July 2023.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 29 May 2023. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 50110‑1:2023) has been prepared by CLC/BTTF 62‑3 “Operation of electrical installations”.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes EN 50110‑1:2013 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).

EN 50110‑1:2023 includes the following significant technical and editorial changes with respect to EN 50110‑1:2013:

simplification of the terms concerning the definitions of persons responsible and level of responsibility;
improvement of terms and definitions of Clause 3;
introduction and clarification of supervision;
improvement of structure of Clause 5 “Operational procedures” ;
improvement of 6.1.1 – general requirement for working procedures;
improvement of 6.2 – dead working;
improvement of 6.3 – live working;
improvement of 6.4 – Working within the vicinity zone;
improvement of 6.5 – Working outside the vicinity zone;
Transfer of Table A.1 from informative Annex A into normative subclause 4.11.2 as Table 1;
adjunction of Clause A.4 Ergonomic considerations;
introduction of alphabetic list of defined terms;
update of the normative references and of the Bibliography.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Introduction

There are many national laws, standards and internal rules dealing with the matters coming within the scope of EN 50110 and these practices have been taken as a basis for this work.

EN 50110 consists of two parts:

Part 1 of EN 50110 contains minimum requirements valid for all CENELEC countries and some additional informative annexes dealing with safe working on, with, or near electrical installations;
Part 2 of EN 50110 consists of a set of normative annexes (one per country) which either specify the present safety requirements or give the national supplements to these minimum requirements.

This concept, following Directive 89/391/EEC, promotes the alignment of the safety levels associated with the operation of, work activity on, with, or near electrical installations in Europe. This document acknowledges the present different national requirements for safety. The intention is, over the course of time, to promote a gradual alignment in Europe of the safety levels against the electrical risk.

Even the best rules and procedures are of no value unless all persons working on, with, or near electrical installations are thoroughly conversant with them and with all legal requirements and comply strictly with them.

1 Scope

This document is applicable to all operation of and work activity on, with, or near electrical installations. These are electrical installations operating at voltage levels from and including extra-low voltage up to and including high voltage.

This latter term includes those levels commonly referred to as medium and extra-high voltage.

These electrical installations are designed for the generation, transmission, conversion, distribution and use of electrical power. Some of these electrical installations are permanent and fixed, such as a distribution installation in a factory or office complex, others are temporary, such as on construction sites and others are mobile or capable of being moved either whilst energised or whilst not energised nor charged. Examples are electrically driven excavating machines in quarries or open-cast coal sites.

This document sets out the requirements for the safe operation of and work activity on, with, or near these electrical installations. The requirements apply to all operational, working and maintenance procedures. They apply to all non-electrical work such as building work near to overhead lines or underground cables as well as electrical work, when there is a risk of electrical danger.

This document does not apply to ordinary persons when using installations and equipment, provided that the installations and equipment comply with relevant standards and are designed and installed for use by ordinary persons.

This document has not been developed specifically to apply to the electrical installations listed below. However, if there are no other rules or procedures, the principles of this document could be applied to them:

on any aircraft and hovercraft moving under its own power, (these are subject to International Aviation laws which take precedence over national laws in these situations);
on any sea going ship moving under its own power, or under the direction of the master, (these are subject to International Marine laws which take precedence over national laws in these situations);
electronic telecommunications and information systems;
electronic instrumentation, control and automation systems;
at coal or other mines;
on off-shore installations subject to International Marine laws;
on vehicles;
on electric traction systems;
on experimental electrical research work.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 General

3.2 Personnel, organization and communication

3.3 Working zone

3.4 Working

3.5 Protective devices

3.6 Voltages

3.7 Distances

3.8 Symbols

4 Basic principles

4.1 Safe operation

4.2 Personnel

4.3 Organization

4.4 Communication (transmission of information)

4.5 Work location

4.6 Tools, equipment and devices

4.7 Drawings and records

4.8 Signs

4.9 Emergency arrangements

4.10 Types of supervision

4.11 Determination of distances

5 Operational procedures

5.1 General

5.2 Operating activities

5.3 Measurement

5.4 Testing

5.5 Inspection

6 Working procedures

6.1 General

6.2 Dead working

6.3 Live working

6.4 Working within the vicinity zone

6.5 Working outside the vicinity zone

7 Maintenance procedures

7.1 General

7.1.1

7.1.2

7.2 Personnel

7.3 Repair work

7.4 Replacement work

7.5 Temporary interruption of maintenance work

7.6 End of maintenance work

Bibliography

BS EN 50110-1:2023 + Expert Commentary