National Electrical Safety Code

The NESC is written as a voluntary standard. It is typically adopted as law by individual states or other governmental authorities. To determine the legal status of the NESC, the state public service commission, public utility commission, or other governmental authority should be contacted. The majority of the states in the United States adopt the NESC in some form or fashion. The state of California is an exception. The state of California writes their own utility codes titled General Order 95 (GO95) for overhead lines and General Order 128 (GO128) for underground lines.

The NESC is written by various sub committees. The organizations represented, subcommittees, and committee members are listed in the front of the code book. The NESC contains the procedure and time schedule for revising the NESC, which are described in the back of the code book. The NESC has an interpretation committee that issues formal interpretations. The process for obtaining a formal interpretation is outlined in the front of the code book. The NESC is currently published on a 5-year cycle. Urgent safety matters that require a change in between code editions are handled through a Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) process. Original work on the NESC began in 1913.

The NESC is structured into parts, sections, and rules. There are general sections at the beginning of the book covering the introduction, definitions, references, and grounding. Following the general section are four main parts including: substations rules (Part 1), overhead line rules (Part 2), underground line rules (Part 3), and work rules (Part 4).

• Clapp, Allen J. (16 August 2011). NESC Handbook: A Discussion of the National Electrical Safety Code. Standards Information Network, IEEE Press. ISBN 978-1-118-14539-5.
• Marne, David J. (18 October 2016). National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) 2017 Handbook (McGraw-Hill's National Electrical Safety Code Handbook). McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-1259584152.
• The 2023 NESC Handbook represents a next-generation tool for the professional who needs to understand the NESC. The handbook was developed for use at many levels in the electric and communication industries, including those involved in system design, construction, maintenance, inspection, standards development and worker training. This step-by-step guide explains how to apply and meet the NESC rules for electrical supply stations and equipment, as well as overhead and underground electric supply and communications lines.
• The 2023 NESC Course Program is a series of online courses that take an in-depth look at the rules, regulations, and changes made in the 2023 NESC Edition. Taught by industry leaders who helped write the standard, these courses provide essential training for safeguarding power utility facilities and the people around them. Available through the IEEE Xplore [1] digital library and the IEEE Learning Network.