In 2012, there were 180 deaths from electrocution, most of them owing to poor safety and quality of wiring, revealed the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) last week as it held its public consultation on establishing a licensing framework for electricians in the country at BMICH.

The licensing system is expected to come into effect on 1 October.

There are close to 21,000 electricians in the country with a majority not being qualified to operate as electricians. The new licensing system developed by the PUCSL together with the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL), the Tertiary Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka (VTA), the Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA), the Ceylon Electricity Bard (CEB) and the Lanka Electricity Company (PVT) Ltd, will certify electricians based on an assessment of their skills and whether they have the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certificate for the job.

Electricians qualified with NVQ 3 and above can obtain a permanent license from CIDA, after proving their knowledge at an evaluation facilitated by the evaluation panel, stated PUCSL whilst others will be given a temporary license for three years to allow them to get the certificate.

“Those who are not professionally qualified but have hands on experience, will be given the opportunity to prove their competency and to qualify for NVQ levels through a process facilitated by CIDA”, said the PUCSL.

Advantages of licensing for the electricians

Permanent licenses will also allow electricians to design, wire and test the installation of domestic wiring (30amps Signal phase) and issue a certificate to get the electrical connection needed by CEB and LECO. These electricians will also be allowed to wire, test and install three phase 30amps and 60 amps installations, subject to the design by a chartered engineer.

The new system proposed by PUCSL will also be mandatory in future to produce the certification of an electrician with the permanent license, stating that the installation was designed, wired and tested in order to receive a domestic electrical connection (up to 30A, single phase).

University of Moratuwa, Program Coordinator-Post Graduate Unit, Senior Lecturer, Dr Asanka Rodrigo voicing his opinion at the public consultations also noted that the licensing system would also have to look at skills of electricians for buildings in the future which would need to look into Mechanical and Electrical and Extra Low Voltage (ELV) systems. And thus the licensing system would also need to specify the skill levels of the electrician and their limits from the apprentice level to the utility electrical worker stage.

The present licensing only speaks of Low Voltage from 0-1000V, said Dr Rodrigo.

More importantly, he asked that professionals with appropriate qualifications and experience be included in the licensing evaluation board, so that they know what to look for.

Additional General Manager, Distribution Division 1- CEB, Chulanie Perera adding to the consultations said the CEB would look into having a standard testing system for electrical installation soon to ensure uniformity in installations.

“Everyone is an electrician these days and they try to do their own wiring but more often than not, they do not know what they are doing and that is dangerous”, said Kosala Kamburadeniya from IESL as he explained that the Institute would in the next six months release an electrician’s manual.

Kamburadeniya also asked that regulation also be introduced to test buildings twice a year and have proper standards implemented for Moulded Case Circuit Breakers (MCCB) and Residual Current Circuit Breakers (RCCB).

In addition he also proposed that a minimum age be prescribed for electricians, the licensing process should be simple with limited red tape, testing and certification to be set up in the provinces not just in Colombo, information on it to be made easily available, only a moderate fee be charged for licensing and to include a specialization for electricians in the licensing system for industrial work. This licensing programme could also be a means to introducing professionalism and sense of dignity to the electrician. Dr Chandana Jayalath from the Institute of Quantity Surveyors welcomed the decision to certify electricians as he explained that it would fill current vacuum of not having skilled workers in the market,

“There has been a deficit in trained electricians in the country and instead of training our people, there have been political moves to bring down Indians to fill that gap”, said Dr Jayalath.

He further explained that the licensing system would introduce a system of accountability and occupational recognition.

Dr Jayalath also asked that the PUCSL in future work with other partners to introduce an insurance scheme, prepare statistics (there is no clear database of these professionals), provide training and every year ask that they get a medical test.

Most specifications and manuals today only come in English and this is problematic because our electricians do not understand this. Such material needs to be translated into Tamil and Sinhala, he added.

Dr Jayalath further took the opportunity to highlight one of the main problems and risks for both electricians and customers in the industry - the lack of contractualization of work.

Without the presence of signed contracts, both the customer as well as the electrician is at risk - be it the case of the customer not paying him/her the agreed amount for the work or that the electrician does not perform the job as expected, there is no way of getting what is due, if there is no signed agreement between the two parties.

“We as an institution can make a simple agreement detailing charges, times, quality of goods used, etc. At present we don’t have such an arrangement so we don’t have trust in the workplace and more often than not people are disappointed. Trust can be won back through contractualization. Have a standard format”, said Dr Jayalath.

Finally, he asked that the PUCSL also hand out Identification Cards to all electricians with their class clearly mentioned.

Sri Lanka Police Organized Crime Division DIG Kamal Silva who also addressed the forum in the meantime observed that most electrical accidents tend to be reported in rural rather than urban areas.

This is where you get many of the unauthorized users, for example an electrical fence they have put up without proper expertise or an electrical extension they try to set up on their own, he said.

“The other area of risk is their own homes when they try to install their own wring without proper knowledge. We have certifications for wiring of commercial buildings but this system is not present for peoples’ homes. So most accidents occur here. They also use electrical appliances which do not match with their given voltage and if someone else has done the wiring, they would not give the owner the plan to keep him aware of the things he can and cannot use”.

The policeman volunteered to work with the PUCSL and the CEB to increase awareness, especially in the rural areas regarding the risks of faulty wiring. The DIG further stated that they were working on releasing a Police Circular which would instruct all officers to take strict action against officials and electricians (or the person who installed the wiring) for negligence, if he/she is not the victim, under Section 298 of the Penal Code, which carried a jail sentence of five years.

“The law will be enforced more rigidly, CEB engineers who pass such unsafe wiring are also liable for negligence under the law”, he added.

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