High-Voltage Electrical Work SOP
A high-voltage electrical work SOP for Scanel's strictest, safety-gated jobs: a written isolation plan, a named Authorized Person authorization gate, and a verified de-energization check before anyone touches the system.
What the High-Voltage electrical work SOP process is
Scanel's Marine Electrical Installation SOP covers a defined scope of electrical work under ordinary safety practice. This chart exists because high-voltage work is not ordinary: a marine or offshore high-voltage system, switchboards, generators, distribution feeding thrusters or drilling packages, can kill outright, not merely damage equipment, if someone works on it while it is still live or while it can be re-energized underneath them. Every step downstream of "Conduct risk assessment for high-voltage work" exists because that fact changes what "ready to work" means: it is no longer a scheduling question, it is a chain of custody, from a written isolation plan through a named person's authorization to a check that proves the circuit is actually dead, and none of the three links in that chain is optional or interchangeable with documentation filed afterward.
The chart's center of gravity is the two decisions that make the chain real. "Authorization granted by Authorized Person?" is not a status update; it is drawn as a hard branch because a plan that has not been signed off by Patrick Sawyer, Scanel's named Authorized Person for the job, does not get isolated on anyone else's say-so, and a Withheld routes straight back to "Revise isolation plan" rather than a verbal fix and a second attempt. "De-energization verified (proved dead)?" sits on the other side of the isolation itself for the same reason: a circuit that reads anything less than confirmed dead on a calibrated tester, tested against a known live source immediately before and after, routes to "Re-isolate and investigate residual voltage" and back through the same check, because a mis-identified isolation point or a fed-back supply is exactly the failure this gate exists to catch before "Perform high-voltage repair, modification or installation work" ever starts.
Every row also carries a named owner and an hours figure through the built-in People and Workload columns. Patrick Sawyer's hours cluster across both hard gates and the isolation and re-energization steps themselves, since Scanel's process deliberately keeps one named Authorized Person accountable for the full custody chain on a given job rather than splitting it across whoever is available; Camille Ward's engineering hours cluster in the risk-assessment and isolation-plan stage, where the actual points of isolation and the safe working zone get decided before authorization is ever requested. Use this chart for genuinely high-voltage work; use the Marine Electrical Installation SOP for ordinary-voltage scope, and the ATEX / EEx Equipment Service SOP when the hazard is a classified explosive atmosphere rather than the voltage itself.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Intake and risk assessment, from "High-voltage work request received" through "Conduct risk assessment for high-voltage work", so the hazards specific to the job are identified before an isolation plan is even drafted
- The isolation-plan-and-authorization gate: "Develop isolation plan: points of isolation, LOTO and safe working zone" feeding the "Authorization granted by Authorized Person?" decision, which branches to "Revise isolation plan" and back through authorization on a Withheld, rather than an informal workaround
- The de-energization verification gate across the "Authorized Person" and "Field Electrical & Test" lanes: "Isolate and lock out high-voltage circuit" feeding "De-energization verified (proved dead)?", which routes anything less than a confirmed dead reading to "Re-isolate and investigate residual voltage" instead of into the work itself
- The work itself: "Perform high-voltage repair, modification or installation work" and "Test system before re-energization", both carried by Field Electrical & Test before a single breaker is closed back in
- Re-energization and close-out: "Remove isolation and re-energize high-voltage system", "Complete high-voltage work documentation and permit close-out", and "Hand over completed work to customer", the sequence that puts the system back in service with a signed record behind it
- Named owners and hours on every row via the People and Workload columns, so the workload BI panel can show Patrick Sawyer's hours clustering across both hard gates and the re-energization step while Camille Ward's engineering hours cluster in the isolation-plan stage
When to use this template
- Scanel is repairing, modifying, surveying or installing on a high-voltage marine or offshore electrical system and you need the isolation, authorization and de-energization checks fixed on one chart instead of relying on the crew's own judgment on the day
- A customer or their own safety authority is auditing high-voltage work and wants to see the authorization and de-energization-verification steps as documented, gated decisions, not an informal walk-through
- You're onboarding a new field electrician or a new Authorized Person and need a reference for exactly what has to be signed off before an isolation is made and before the circuit is touched
- An authorization was withheld or a de-energization check came back not-verified, and you want a record of why and what happened next, rather than an undocumented delay or, worse, an undocumented shortcut
- You're scoping a job against Scanel's other SOPs and need to confirm this is genuinely high-voltage work, not the ordinary Marine Electrical Installation SOP or a hazardous-area job that belongs on the ATEX / EEx Equipment Service SOP
How it works
Replace the lanes with your actual HV roles
This chart uses ServiceDesk, Engineering, Authorized Person, Field Electrical & Test, and Project Manager. If a separate person independently signs the authorization from the person who verifies de-energization, split Authorized Person into two lanes rather than letting one name cover both.
Name who actually holds Authorized Person status
"Authorization granted by Authorized Person?" is only a real gate if it is attached to a named, currently-certified individual, not a job title. Write the name and the certification/renewal date directly into the row's comment field so nobody assumes a colleague's authorization covers them.
Put your own prove-dead procedure on the verification gate
"De-energization verified (proved dead)?" needs your actual sequence: which calibrated tester, tested against a known live source immediately before and after, at which specific points. Write it into the row's comment field rather than trusting it to be remembered correctly under time pressure.
Decide what counts as a Withheld or a Not-verified result
Both decisions in this chart are only as strict as the criteria behind them. Agree in advance what sends "Authorization granted by Authorized Person?" to Withheld and what sends "De-energization verified (proved dead)?" to Not verified, and list examples directly in "Revise isolation plan" and "Re-isolate and investigate residual voltage" so the checklist isn't interpreted differently by whoever is on shift.
Set People and Workload on every row before you rely on the BI panel
The workload panel can only total hours for rows that carry them. Fill in People and Workload for each step as you adapt the chart, using realistic effort hours rather than elapsed time, so a week with two high-voltage jobs booked actually shows up as a busy week for the right Authorized Person.
Frequently asked questions
What triggers the start of the high-voltage electrical work process?
The process starts at "High-voltage work request received": a repair, modification, survey or installation request comes in for a system that operates at high voltage. That single fact is what pulls in every gate that follows, isolation planning, a named authorization, a verified de-energization check, that an ordinary electrical job under Scanel's Marine Electrical Installation SOP does not need.
What happens if authorization is withheld?
The "Authorization granted by Authorized Person?" decision routes a Withheld straight to "Revise isolation plan" and back through authorization once the plan is corrected. There is no version of this chart where work starts on a plan the Authorized Person has not signed off, regardless of the customer's schedule.
Who is the Authorized Person, and can anyone act in that role?
In this chart the role sits with a specific named individual, Patrick Sawyer, not with whoever happens to be on site. Both hard gates in this process, the authorization decision and the de-energization verification, sit with that same named person so there is no ambiguity about who can send a job back instead of letting it proceed.
Why does a not-verified de-energization check loop back instead of proceeding with extra caution?
"De-energization verified (proved dead)?" routes anything less than a confirmed dead reading to "Re-isolate and investigate residual voltage" and back through the check again. A high-voltage circuit that reads live for any reason, a mis-identified isolation point, a fed-back supply, a capacitor that hasn't discharged, gets re-isolated and re-tested, not worked on with extra care.
How is this different from Scanel's Marine Electrical Installation SOP or the ATEX / EEx Equipment Service SOP?
The Marine Electrical Installation SOP covers ordinary-voltage installation work under standard safety practice; this chart exists specifically because high voltage can kill outright, so it adds the isolation plan, the authorization gate and the de-energization verification gate that ordinary work doesn't need. The ATEX / EEx SOP is a different hazard again, a classified explosive atmosphere rather than lethal voltage, and its certification and compliance gates apply even when the equipment involved is low voltage.
Can this SOP be used for an emergency high-voltage fault, not just planned work?
Yes, the isolation, authorization and de-energization gates apply the same way whether the job was scheduled or came in through Scanel's 24/7 emergency service; only the triage and dispatch steps in the Emergency Marine Electrical Repair SOP happen first. Skipping this chart's gates because the fault is urgent is exactly the failure mode it exists to prevent.
Where this process fits
In most operations this process follows Electrical Inspection & Testing SOP.
Comes before
- Electrical Inspection & Testing SOP — An electrical inspection and testing SOP for Scanel: identifying the installation, defining which tests actually apply, safety preparation, performing the tests, assessing results, and issuing an archived report, with no other job attached.