A renewal questionnaire lands on your desk, and somewhere between the sprinkler inspection dates and the roof age, there’s a new line item: Do you have a current arc flash study? For a lot of facility managers, that question comes out of nowhere. The equipment hasn’t changed, the policy has renewed fines for years, and suddenly the carrier wants documentation of an electrical safety program nobody asked about before.
You’re not imagining the shift. Arc flash insurance requirements are becoming standard practice across commercial property and casualty underwriting, and the facilities that get ahead of the question tend to renew more smoothly than the ones scrambling to answer it.
Why Insurers Started Asking
Arc flash incidents are expensive in every way that matters to an underwriter. A single event can cause severe burns, trigger workers’ compensation claims, destroy switchgear, and shut down operations for weeks. The losses stack up fast, and they’re exactly the kind of low-frequency, high-severity risk that insurance is built to price.
For years, carriers had no clean way to gauge that risk at a specific facility. That’s changed. An arc flash study gives them a documented, standards-based measure of how dangerous a facility’s electrical system is and whether the owner is managing it. A completed study signals that you know your incident energy levels, you’ve labeled equipment correctly, and your team has the right PPE. The absence of one signals the opposite.
So when a carrier asks about your arc flash study, they’re really asking a broader question about your electrical safety compliance. The study is just the most measurable piece of evidence that the rest of the program exists.
What “Documented” Actually Means to a Carrier
Telling your carrier you “do electrical safety” won’t satisfy the requirement. Underwriters want artifacts they can put in a file. In practice, a defensible arc flash program includes a few specific things.
You need a current arc flash study, typically an engineered analysis based on IEEE 1584 and NFPA 70E that calculates incident energy at each piece of equipment. You need arc flash labels on that equipment reflecting the study’s findings. You need evidence of NFPA 70E training for qualified workers, and you need a record of PPE appropriate to the hazard levels the study identified.
Tie those together, and you have something a carrier recognizes as a real program rather than a verbal assurance. That distinction is usually what determines whether arc flash insurance requirements become a renewal speed bump or a genuine problem.
What Happens If You Don’t Have One
Carriers handle the gap in a few different ways, and none of them work in your favor.
Some will make the study a condition of renewal, giving you a window to produce documentation before coverage continues. Some will raise your premium to price in the unmeasured risk. Others, especially in a tightening market, may decline to renew a facility that can’t demonstrate basic electrical safety compliance. Even when coverage holds, an undocumented program can create problems at claim time, where a carrier may question whether reasonable safety measures were in place when an incident occurred.
The pattern across all of these is the same. The cost of not having a study rarely stays zero. It shows up as higher premiums, tighter conditions, or a worse position the day you actually need to file a claim.
What to Do About It
The good news is that this is a solvable problem with a clear path, and handling it well does more than satisfy your insurer.
Start by finding out whether you have an existing study and how old it is. NFPA 70E calls for review at least every five years, and your carrier will treat anything older than that as out of date. If your facility has added loads, upgraded service, or replaced protective devices since the last study, it needs updating regardless of the calendar.
If you’ve never had one, commission an arc flash assessment from a qualified electrical engineering firm. The study will analyze your power system, calculate incident energy, and produce the labels and documentation your carrier is looking for. From there, layer in NFPA 70E training and a PPE program matched to the hazard levels the study found. That combination answers the renewal question and, more importantly, protects the people working on your equipment.
Treat the study as the foundation of an ongoing program rather than a one-time box to check. Tie its review to your change-management process so any major electrical modification triggers a fresh look, and keep your training and labeling current alongside it. A program you maintain is far easier to document at renewal than one you rebuild every five years under deadline pressure.
How Shaw Consulting Services Can Help
Shaw Consulting Services works with Atlanta-area facility managers who are facing exactly this question from their carriers. The team performs engineered arc flash studies built on IEEE 1584 and NFPA 70E, produces the labels and documentation insurers expect, and delivers the NFPA 70E training that rounds out a compliant program. If you’re staring at a renewal questionnaire and aren’t sure where your facility stands, Shaw can assess what you have, identify the gaps, and get you to the documentation your carrier will accept.
Facing an arc flash question from your insurer? Reach out to Shaw Consulting Services and get ahead of it before renewal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my insurance company suddenly asking about arc flash studies?
Carriers are increasingly using arc flash studies to measure electrical risk at a facility. A documented study shows you understand and manage your incident energy levels, which is exactly the kind of evidence underwriters want when pricing coverage.
Is an arc flash study legally required?
NFPA 70E and OSHA effectively require employers to assess and document arc flash hazards to protect workers. Even where it isn’t framed as a standalone law, failing to do so puts you out of compliance and out of step with insurer expectations.
How often does an arc flash study need to be updated for insurance purposes?
At least every five years per NFPA 70E, and sooner if you change your electrical service, add major loads, or replace protective devices. Carriers generally treat studies older than five years as out of date.
What documentation does my insurer actually want?
Typically, a current engineered arc flash study, arc flash labels on equipment, records of NFPA 70E training, and evidence of appropriate PPE. Together, these demonstrate a real electrical safety program rather than a verbal assurance.
What happens if I can’t provide an arc flash study at renewal?
Depending on the carrier and market, you may face a renewal condition with a deadline, a higher premium, or, in some cases, non-renewal. An undocumented program can also weaken your position if you ever need to file a claim.