# Switchgear Testing Requirement



## jothomson50 (May 20, 2012)

New to "Eletrician Talk" so here goes; Do any smart sparkies out there have any information regarding the frequency of the testing of protection relays for High and Mediun voltage switchgear. I am under the impression that five years was the requirement but, as usual, I can't find and written regulation or guidance to back this up.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

jothomson50 said:


> New to "Eletrician Talk" so here goes; Do any smart sparkies out there have any information regarding the frequency of the testing of protection relays for High and Mediun voltage switchgear. I am under the impression that five years was the requirement but, as usual, I can't find and written regulation or guidance to back this up.


Maybe one of the Moderators can move this question the the UK electrical forum section.


Since your in Scotland, I would first check with the manufactures and see what they require.
If you post in the UK section, you might get a better answer then mine. 

Good luck and welcome to ET


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

jothomson50 said:


> New to "Eletrician Talk" so here goes; Do any smart sparkies out there have any information regarding the frequency of the testing of protection relays for High and Mediun voltage switchgear. I am under the impression that five years was the requirement but, as usual, I can't find and written regulation or guidance to back this up.


Depends on the standards you fall under. Here if you are governed by NERC they are tested annually with very specific testing and reporting requirements. If yoiu do not fall under NERC you test per ANSI standards which has no requirement for intervals just recomendations but 3 years is typical for most facilities.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

I'll second the "depends." Depending on what this equipment does you may have an interconnect or licensing agreement that spells out the frequency of tests. Most of our plants are every two years, a couple of sites are annual.

As far as "good idea" I'd say 5 years is the maximum envelope I'd push. Compare the relatively cheap cost of a relay test to the costs of an outage due to a relay failure. It's easy math.

-John


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