Home / Standards guides / Power Line Work: Job Briefings and De-energizing Lines
Black Belt Safety · Free guide
Power Line Work: Job Briefings and De-energizing Lines
Learn what a qualified employee and an employee in charge need to recognize on power line work: what a job briefing must cover, why lines are treated as energized, and how a clearance is requested, tested, grounded, transferred and released.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.952 (job briefing), 1926.960(b) (working on or near exposed energized parts) and 1926.961 (deenergizing lines and equipment) · about 5 min read
Need proof of training? The full course (25 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.
The employer gives the employee in charge all available information about the existing characteristics and conditions of the job. The employee in charge then conducts the job briefing with the employees involved before they start each job.
Number. If the work during the day or shift is repetitive and similar, at least one job briefing shall be conducted before the first job of each day or shift. Additional briefings shall be held if significant changes that might affect safety occur during the work.
Short discussion. Satisfactory if the work is routine and the employees, by virtue of training and experience, can reasonably be expected to recognize and avoid the hazards.
Detailed discussion. A more extensive discussion shall be conducted if the work is complicated or particularly hazardous, or if the employee cannot be expected to recognize and avoid the hazards.
Either way, the briefing must address all the subjects listed for the briefing.
Working alone. No briefing is needed, but the employer shall ensure the tasks are planned as if a briefing were required.
Only qualified employees may work on or with exposed energized lines or parts of equipment.
Electric lines and equipment shall be considered and treated as energized unless they have been deenergized under the deenergizing rule you will study next.
Lines or equipment deenergized under some other procedure shall be treated as energized.
At least two employees shall be present for listed types of work, for example installation, removal or repair of lines energized at more than 600 volts. The rule lists a few narrow exceptions.
The employer designates one employee in the crew to be in charge of the clearance. That employee becomes the employee in charge and is responsible for the clearance.
Where there is no system operator, the designated employee also performs the functions the system operator would otherwise perform. Either way, the clearance steps are followed in the order specified (a single crew with the means of disconnection under the sole control of the employee in charge skips some steps; see the next page).
Two or more crews on the same lines or equipment can coordinate with a single employee in charge for all of them, or each crew can independently comply (with separate tags and coordination if there is no system operator).
Disconnecting means that the general public could reach shall be rendered inoperable while open to protect employees.
Request. The employee in charge asks the system operator to deenergize the particular section of line or equipment.
Open and tag. All switches, disconnectors, jumpers, taps and other means through which known sources of electric energy may be supplied shall be open. They shall be rendered inoperable, unless the design does not permit it, and tagged to indicate employees are at work.
Automatic and remote switches. Those that could close the opened means are also tagged at the points of control, and the automatic or remote feature is made inoperable unless the design does not permit it.
Tags shall prohibit operation of the disconnecting means and indicate that employees are at work.
Test. After the system operator gives a clearance, lines and equipment are tested with a device designed to detect voltage.
Ground. Protective grounds are installed as required by the grounding rule.
Last: then may the lines and equipment be considered deenergized.
Narrow exceptions exist (for example, a single crew with the means of disconnection under the sole control of the employee in charge, and network protectors that meet listed conditions). Follow your employer's procedures for those cases.
To transfer the clearance, the employee in charge (or the employee's supervisor, if the employee in charge must leave the worksite due to illness or other emergency) shall inform the system operator and the employees in the crew. The new employee in charge becomes responsible for the clearance.
Releasing: the employee in charge shall
Notify each employee under that clearance of the pending release
Ensure all employees under that clearance are clear of the lines and equipment
Ensure all protective grounds protecting employees under that clearance have been removed
Report this to the system operator and then release the clearance
Only the employee in charge who requested the clearance may release it, unless the employer transfers responsibility.
No one may remove tags without the release of the associated clearance.
No one initiates action to reenergize until all protective grounds are removed, all crews release their clearances, all employees are clear, and all protective tags are removed from that point of disconnection.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.952, 1926.960(b) and 1926.961. It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1926.950(b). Your employer must still train you in the safety-related work practices and procedures of Subpart V that pertain to your job, and only qualified employees may work on or with exposed energized lines or parts of equipment (1926.960(b)(1)(i)).
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.