Form revised February 6, 2008

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	DOF Analyst/Phone:
Planning and Development	Vicki Baucom / 206-233-2757	Karen Grove / 206-684-5805

Legislation Title:

An ordinance relating to building and construction codes amending Section 22.300.016 of the Seattle Municipal Code to adopt the 2008 National Electrical Code with Seattle amendments and to adopt by reference specific portions of the Washington Administrative Code Chapter 296-46B (Washington State Electrical Rule).

· Summary of the Legislation: This bill adopts the 2008 National Electrical Code, as amended, and is a regularly scheduled triennial adoption. The proposals in this bill comply with the Revised Code of Washington (19.28.010) which requires that Seattle must have “an equal, higher, or better standard of construction and an equal, higher, or better standard of materials, devices, appliances, and equipment” than those required by the State.

· Background: Many of the Seattle amendments to the 2008 NEC are amendments that exist in the 2005 code, worked well in the past and are proposed for re-adoption into this bill. A detailed list of proposed amendments is included with this fiscal note as Attachment A.

The most significant proposals include the following:

1.  Seattle proposes to amend the NEC to define the duration of a fault requiring selective coordination.

     This amendment involves the sequencing (selective coordination) of breaker- or fuse-trips triggered by an electrical short-circuit or ground-fault. Currently, the NEC does not define the duration of a fault requiring selective coordination. The purpose of selective coordination is to minimize system shut-down, damage to equipment and arc-flash energy exposure to maintenance personnel working on electrical systems.

     The proposed amendment adds an exception to the selective coordination requirements that allows coordinated tripping of overcurrent protective devices for faults with a duration of 0.1 seconds or longer when an electrical engineer affixes a professional stamp to the documentation.

     There is significant support for the proposal; however, a segment of the industry is opposed to any change to the selective coordination requirements contained in NEC. Other states have adopted or are adopting similar code amendments defining the fault duration as 0.1 seconds or longer include the states of Oregon, Florida, and California (health care facilities).

2. Looking to the future, several new code sections are added to accommodate electric vehicle charging systems.

    A key component of this proposal requires that residential occupancies have adequate electrical capacity and room on the electrical service panel to add a feeder to serve the electric vehicle charging load. A new table is also added to assist designers in calculating the additional load for the structure. The proposal allows multifamily dwellings to include the vehicle charging demand load to be considered into the dwelling unit calculations and it requires the designer to designate a location for the charging system feeder and to ensure such location has adequate space to accommodate the required working clearances. The proposal, however, does not require the installation of equipment to charge electric vehicles.

3. Rather than adopting a less protective State amendment (WAC 296-46B-210.12) limiting arc-fault circuit-interrupter protection (AFCI) devices in dwelling unit bedroom spaces only, the Seattle proposal retains the more protective provisions of the NEC (Section 210.12(B)) which requires AFCI devices in most rooms of a dwelling unit. While this provision modestly increases the cost of construction, it provides additional protection, including fire protection, by detecting electrical malfunctions and interrupting the flow of electric current. A coalition of jurisdictions in the region including Bellevue, Kirkland, Renton, Redmond, Des Moines, Vancouver, SeaTac, Marysville and Longview, have indicated their intention to follow the more protective NEC provisions.

· Please check one of the following:

_X_     This legislation does not have any financial implications.  

Please list attachments to the fiscal note below:

Attachment A:  Detailed List of Proposed New Changes to the Seattle Electrical Code

Attachment B:  A copy of a proposal for NEC 517.30(F), Selective Coordination, submitted by Mr. Walter Vernon, President of engineering firm Mazzetti & Associates, with Jim Duncan’s (Principal and Chief Electrical Engineer of Sparling) hand-written note that the proposal was unanimously accepted on 1/15/09 by NEC Code Panel 15 which is responsible for Article 517 relating to health care facilities.  Thus, it appears likely that the NEC will include a similar selective coordination standard in its 2011 Code.

Attachment A

Detailed List of Proposed New Changes to the Seattle Electrical Code

Section	Subject	Description of amendment
Article 80 Generally	Administration	This article is amended to align with other construction codes. The result is consistency in the administration and enforcement of the codes.
80.51	Application and plans	New to this section are requirements that plans be submitted with permit applications for solar and renewable energy installations. Large systems, those greater than 26 kW require plan sets while smaller systems require line drawings for inspectors to use.
Article 90	Introduction	The text of this section was deleted and reserved for future use.
110.21	Definition of Marking and labeling	This new amendment clarifies the difference between Manufacturer’s Marking and other marking and labeling, as well as detailing the minimum size of lettering and types of labeling or marking allowed.
215.14	Power supply for dwelling units	This new amendment requires that wiring not pass through one dwelling unit to supply power to a different dwelling unit. As a result, the amendment provides a greater level of shock-hazard protection for anyone working on a dwelling unit electrical system.
Tables 220.3 & 220.57 and §§ 220.57, 220.84, 625.27	Electric vehicle outlet power needs	New amendments require that power needs for electric vehicle charging be included as a part of a residential structure’s demand loads using a new table. Also, the service panel is required to plan for future installation of a feeder panel to serve parking area charging stations in residential occupancies.
230.54	Service wire length at weatherhead	Each service-entrance conductor wire is required to be an additional 12 inches in length when several service-entrance raceways are grouped together to connect to a single utility drop. The existing requirement of eighteen inches of wire is not long enough to safely connect multiple conductors to the single utility drop.
230.95	Ground fault protection testing	Electrical installations must have the ground-fault protection equipment tested before it is energized, including new installations.
404.13	Knife Switches	This amendment clarifies the term “interlocking” for this subsection of Code.
450.19	Transformer location	This amendment adds new illustrations that clarify where transformers can be located.
450.27	Oil-insulated transformers outdoors	New code language and two new illustrations clarify the area in which an outdoor transformer may be installed to maintain a safe distance from structures and openings in structures.
600.9	Sign distance from high voltage lines	This amendment codifies a Seattle City Light requirement to maintain a safe distance between overhead power lines and electric signs and lighting.

620.62, 700.27, 701.18, 708.54	Selective coordination	An exception was added to each of these sections to that does not require instantaneous selective coordination but, rather, allows selective coordination for overcurrent protective devices for faults that last 0.1 seconds or longer. In order to qualify for the exception, an electrical engineer must document that a certain level of safety exists by coordination of tripping overcurrent protective devices and the engineer must affix their professional stamp to the documentation.
Various		The Seattle amendments propose in various places in the ordinance to (1) adopt by reference certain WAC provisions, as necessary, (2) delete existing requirements but reserve the specific subsection number to ensure Seattle’s amendments more easily track the NEC numbering system, or (3) strike an article, section, subsection or some portion of NEC requirements.