Every three years, members of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) meet to review, modify and add new National Electrical Code (NEC), or NFPA 70, requirements to enhance electrical safety in the workplace and the home. This year’s code review is well underway: the second draft of NEC 2020 is complete and the annual NFPA Conference and Expo is scheduled for late June.
What follows is a preview of what are, in my opinion, the most significant code changes on track to pass. In this blog, I’ll explore the reasoning for each change and the future steps the NEC may take beyond 2020 regarding:
- Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection
- Service entrance equipment
- Reconditioned equipment
- Performance testing
- Load calculations
- Available fault current and temporary power
This is a high-level overview. In the coming months, my Eaton colleagues and I will dig deeper into each topic as part of a continuing series on the 2020 code review cycle.