Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311076269 - Pacific Gas & Electric Company

Inspection Information - Office: American Canyon District Office

Investigation Summary

A power line worker was working in a 0.9- by 1.5- by 1.1-meter underground splicing enclosure. He was running cables through a conduit to a transformer pad located approximately 3 meters from the underground enclosure. The power line worker was part of a crew that was working on a project to install a 25-kilovolt-ampere, pad-mounted, dead-front transformer. The crew, which had not conducted a job briefing, was installing two new primary conductors from the underground enclosure to the transformer pad, where the transformer was to be installed later. The crew was not using insulating tools or barriers in the enclosure. The power line worker pushed the two new cables, which were not grounded, through the conduit from the underground enclosure to the transformer pad. Next the crew began lining up the new load-break elbows spliced to the underground-enclosure end of the cables with the bushings in the enclosure. The 7,200-volt (12,000-volt, phase-to-phase) bushings in the enclosure were energized. The power line worker remained in the underground enclosure, and the other two crewmembers were at the transformer pad, pulling and pushing at the unterminated and uninsulated ends of the cables as needed. After they were finished, the coworkers went behind their respective trucks to gather tools and supplies, which took 2 to 5 minutes. During that time, the power line worker, who was not using rubber insulating gloves, reportedly removed an insulated cap from an energized bushing, cut the associated ground wire, and placed the insulated cap on a ledge on the inside of the open vault lid. With his hand, he began to connect one of the two new load-break elbows onto the exposed bushing, energizing the new cable. A fault occurred at the transformer end of the cable between the phase conductor and the concentric neutral conductor. The employee, who was touching the concentric neutral and the disconnected ground wire, was electrocuted. Investigators found burn marks on the sidewalk at the transformer end of the cable, indicating that electric arcing occurred at the open end of the cable.

Keywords: ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, ELECTROCUTED, LOCKOUT, E PTD, UNDRGRD INSTALLATION, ELEC UTILITY WORK, UNDRGRD POWER LINE