Safety
Lockout/tagout
On the card
Lockout/Tagout Training Certification, control of hazardous energy. Trained September 9, 2026, through M&A Electric Company. Trainer: Mark Leonard. The card notes that he is designated competent person on site. Valid one year, through September 2027.
Lockout/tagout is how a machine stays off while someone is in it. OSHA’s general-industry standard is 29 CFR 1910.147, Control of Hazardous Energy. Construction electrical work also lives under 1926 Subpart K, including 1926.417. The employer’s written program is the procedure a worker is allowed to follow. A memory of the standard is not a substitute for the sheet posted on that machine.
Who is who
- Authorized employees lock out and do the service. They are trained on the energy sources, the magnitude, and the methods for that equipment.
- Affected employees use the machine or work in the area. They are trained not to restart equipment that is locked or tagged.
- Everyone else in the area still has to know what a lock and a tag mean.
The sequence
- Prepare. Read the procedure. Identify every source: electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermal, chemical, gravity.
- Notify affected employees.
- Shut the machine down in the normal way.
- Isolate each energy source. Open the disconnect, close the valve, block the blade.
- Apply the lock and the tag. One person, one lock, one key is the usual rule. A tag by itself is allowed only when the program says a lock cannot be applied, and the tag has to be as protective as a lock.
- Release stored energy. Bleed pressure, discharge capacitors, block moving parts, bring springs to a safe state.
- Verify. Try the controls to prove they do nothing, then return the controls to off. On electrical circuits, test for absence of voltage, live-dead-live, with a meter rated for the circuit.
Group lockout uses a group lockbox or a hasp so every person on the job holds their own key. Shift change means the oncoming person applies their lock before the outgoing person removes theirs. Removing someone else’s lock is a procedure with a supervisor, not a favor.
Electrical work
A breaker turned off, with no lock, is not an electrically safe work condition. UPS systems, backfeeds, and control transformers are sources people miss. The electrical safety page puts this sequence next to arc-flash boundaries. Motor starters are a common place the sequence gets skipped. The motor controls page says troubleshooting starts dead.
What's happening now
- Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA’s overview: what hazardous energy is, who must be trained, and how 1910.147 sits next to the construction and marine standards.
- Protecting Employees from Electric-Arc Flash Hazards OSHA Publication 4472
Pairs with lockout. If the electrically safe work condition is not finished, arc-flash rules still apply.
- NFPA 70E (2024) NFPA
The workplace standard that describes establishing an electrically safe work condition, including lockout.
Code section numbers, energy-code rules, and utility practices change by edition and by city. The authority having jurisdiction, and the employer’s written program, decide what applies on a given job.