Electrical installation work on mine sites
This information has been developed to assist electrical workers and contractors in understanding the requirements applicable to electrical installation work carried out on mine sites.
Legislative requirement
Section 29 (Safety duty of installers) of the Electrical Safety Act 2022 (the Act) requires a person who installs electrical equipment, or an electrical installation must ensure that:
- it is installed in a manner that is safe from electrical risk and in accordance with the regulations; and
- the processes followed to install it make it safe from electrical risk when installed; and
- it is examined and tested in accordance with the regulations to be safe from electrical risk; and
- the notifications required under the regulations are complied with.
No exclusions or exemptions for mine sites, quarries and the like are provided in the Act and consequently all the above requirements are applicable in the same manner as in any other circumstances of electrical installation work.
Notification
With regard to point 4 above, responsibility for notification shall be met in the following ways:
- Electrical contractors who have been contracted to carry out electrical installation work on the mine site under their own contractor’s license (either on a single job basis or on an on-going provision of labour and services basis), shall complete and issue a Certificate of Compliance (COC) in accordance with the Section 41 of the Act.
- A mine operator holding an in-house license pursuant to Section 52 of the Act, who employs electrical workers to carry out electrical installation work on the mine site, shall complete a Certificate of Compliance (COC) prior to the work being made available for energisation.
- Certificates of Compliance can be completed and issued via the portal available on the NT WorkSafe website.