April 24, 2014 – Congratulations to our friends south of the border, whose National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. For its part, IEEE announced that a preprint of the 2017 NESC will be open for comment “100 years after the NESC was first introduced in August 1914”.

IEEE will publish and open commentary on a preprint of proposed changes to the 2017 edition beginning September 1, 2014. Produced exclusively by IEEE (as NESC Secretariat), NESC specifies best practices for the safety of electric supply and communication utility systems at both public and private utilities.

“2014 is a major milestone for the NESC, which has continually evolved in the last century and quite literally helped save lives,” said Mike Hyland, NESC chair. “To remain realistic, practical and useful in the face of new developments, technologies and challenges in the industry, NESC is constantly being refined.”

According to IEEE, early electric supply and communications systems were isolated in nature, without standardized specs addressing clearances, materials strength, construction methods or operations. The resulting safety hazards for both workers and the public led to a congressional mandate for the National Bureau of Standards to promulgate national standard practices in the NESC.

In continuous use since its inception in August 1914, the NESC is adopted or otherwise used in every state of the U.S., as well as 100 countries worldwide, adds IEEE.

READ MORE about NESC’s history by downloading “History of the National Electrical Safety Code ANSI C2” below.