Seismic Qualification Categories (EQC) of electrical equipment

The electrical equipment especially in critical facilities needs a seismic qualification and so the relative standard to define essential requirements to harmonize prescriptive protocols which ensure: - a minimum accepted level of integrity for the service continuity, - equipment tested in conventional configurations with benefits for all the stakeholders. Indeed, if design, installation and operation follow harmonized standards, they benefit from a presumption of conformity that avoid liability for improperly designed and installed systems. A main objective pursued by this paper consists in fostering the definition of a seismic qualification of electrical equipment. The suggested approach can address the concept of a need for varying degrees of safety on equipment and define Equipment Seismic Levels (ESL) and Equipment Qualification Categories (EQC) of their earthquake inherent resistance. It can be recognized that it should be beneficial to identify and mark all equipments according their inherent seismic risk. © 2013 IEEE