The section has requirements for servicing and electrical preventive maintenance for equipment. It specifies that the work must be performed by qualified persons that are trained in the servicing and maintenance of electrical equipment.
In addition to requiring qualified persons to conduct the work, this section requires the original equipment manufacturer’s instructions and information to play a key role in the process. Products that are listed, where originally designed and manufactured per these listing requirements and servicing and maintenance of that equipment cannot ignore that fact. The AHJ is given the authority to approve equipment that is serviced or maintained in addition to the obvious third-party review from a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory or a field evaluation body.
When servicing and maintaining equipment during preventative maintenance activities, identified replacement parts must be used. This section points out some specific requirements that these replacements parts must meet.
Some important terms to understand include the following
Reconditioned: Servicing and maintenance differ from reconditioning.
Servicing: This term is in the title of this section. It is critical that the user of NFPA 70 understand what activities comprise servicing to understand when 110.17 applies.
NFPA 70-2023 Changes
This is a new section for NFPA 70-2023. The motivating factors for this new section are the recent requirements added during the NFPA 70-2020 cycle regarding reconditioned equipment. Questions arose regarding what is considered reconditioned and what is not. Servicing of equipment differs from reconditioning, but NFPA 70-2020 did not provide information on this activity.
The public input that drove this change was the result of a task group formed by the NFPA Standards Council in Decision D#19-11. The task group focused on requirements that cover the use of reconditioned electrical equipment throughout the NEC.
The question for this requirement is how it is enforced as the NEC is an installation requirements document and NFPA 70B addresses maintenance. When inspecting listed equipment that is serviced or maintained, the inspector is provided guidance for how to approve the modifications but when it is not listed the challenge becomes much more difficult.
This could provide the inspector guidance on when a field evaluation would be required and when it may not be required. This section gives at least some guidance when an inspector, following 90.7 of the NEC, notices that the equipment has been modified through being serviced maintained.This was driven by the changes last cycle around reconditioned equipment and questioning the difference between reconditioning and servicing and maintenance.