DC Arc-Flash Testing and Analysis at 600 V

A transit company in British Columbia, Canada operates over 96% of the region's bus service including state-of-the-art clean diesel buses and zero-emission trolleys. The company wanted to ensure that its personnel is adequately protected in the event of arc-flash incidents when working live on the 600 VDC trolley overhead lines and in rectifier stations. At the time of the study, limited information was available on DC arc-flash. Therefore, laboratory testing was conducted and empirical equations were derived to predict incident energy released from DC arcs, as applicable to the company's system and operating scenarios. The lab performed a total of 68 tests for the company at 600 VDC. The authors would like to present the findings to the IEEE Electrical Safety Workshop, including how the test was set up, various electrode orientations considered and all assumptions made. In the paper, results from the equations will be compared against raw test data as well as other existing DC arc-flash hazard analysis methodologies.