Only two reasons are acceptable for energized work, says NECA safety director

[testguy]

"It is the contractor's responsibility for enforcement of safety policies. How many contractors tell you, "Well, we've got a 70E policy: We don't work energized." Well, they're lying, because you can't do troubleshooting or commissioning without what? Energized work."

"Only two reasons are accepted for doing energized work: Not doing it energized will create a greater hazard, or not doing it energized is infeasible. Otherwise, it's not worth it to work energized."

- Quotes by Wesley Wheeler, safety director for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) at the National Safety Congress and Expo on 10/17/16.

Source: https://ohsonline.com/articles/2016/10/18/dont-work-energized-neca-speaker-urges.aspx?m=1

[chils15]

Wouldn't either one of those fall into the criteria of not feasible to do your task? You're also supposed to be a qualified person to do such task so you should be able to recognize a safe work area?

[roberts311]

If we have to work on a live system we try to isolate the system in such a way that the live voltage stays on the terminal board and the wire that we lifted is now de-energized.