by William A. Brown, P.E. & Ron Shapiro

Increasing industry awareness of arc-flash hazards has led to the development of a number of techniques for the reduction of arc-flash incident energy levels with low-voltage power circuit breakers. This paper describes the system parameters that control arc-flash incident energy levels and how these parameters can be controlled in different ways to achieve reductions in these energy levels when low-voltage power circuit breakers are used. Practical applications of these techniques to power systems utilizing low-voltage power circuit breakers are presented and analyzed. The effects of implementing these techniques vs. system reliability are also discussed. Index terms — Arc Burn, Arc Burn prevention, Arc-flash, Circuit Breakers, Industrial Power System Protection, Industrial Power System Reliability, Occupational Health and Safety, Power System Faults, Power System Maintenance, Power System Protection.