Context of Application

Arc flash incidents can occur as a result of maintenance activities, human error, or equipment failure. Often, this results in costly downtime, interruption of processes and equipment, and injury to persons. Most standard protective devices do not have the ability to respond quickly to arc flash incidents and to limit their effects on equipment and people.

NOTE: Arc flash is not to be confused with arc fault, which is another common cause of failure often related to human error or equipment/installations which are too old or damaged. This can also include loose terminals and crushed or damaged cables. Read the following article to learn more about the difference between arc flash and arc fault:
https://blog.se.com/electrical-safety/2018/08/25/stopping-electrical-fires-using-arc-flash-and-arc-fault-protection/

When not stopped or detected in time, these small arcs, at the final distribution level, can result in fires, putting lives and installations at risk. To learn more about Active Arc Fault Detection Devices, check out these links:
https://www.se.com/ww/en/download/document/CA9SS100E/
https://www.se.com/ww/en/download/document/CA9SS099E/

Problem to Solve

The facility manager needs to:

Avoid personal injury due to arc flash events.
Eliminate or minimize costs resulting from arc flash damage: downtime, repair time, and interruption of processes and equipment.
Improve arc flash awareness, enabling fast response of maintenance teams.
Provide post arc flash event analysis.

Purpose of the Application

Enhance passive arc flash mitigation solutions

By minimizing equipment damage, downtime, and likelihood of personal injury or death through the detection of light and/or current resulting from arc flash events and ultra-fast operation (less than 40 ms) of associated protective devices.

By reducing some of the risk during maintenance operation. Energy Reduction Maintenance Settings (ERMS) can be used to help protect staff, occupants, and equipment by temporarily changing circuit breakers to instantaneous trip mode.

ERMS Status Displayed on Power Device

Improve maintenance team awareness

By providing the appropriate information to help troubleshoot and identify the root cause of arc flash events. Arc flash incidents are displayed within easy-to-interpret single-line diagrams and graphical incident timelines.

Enable arc flash post incident analysis

By leveraging relevant data. Reported events and alarms are collected from arc flash protective relays.