Is Your Generator NFPA 110 Compliant?
Ready For an Outage?
Life safety systems all depend on functioning backup power.
Ready For an Inspection?
You need the proper documents on hand, including a valid Bay Area AQMD permit and maintenance records.
Missing a Load Test Report?
Load tests are required annually and prove your generator can run at 100% capacity.
As a facility maintenance manager or business owner, you have 100 things you’re responsible for and never enough hours in the day.
But if your business has a commercial generator system, proper maintenance is one of the things you simply can’t allow to fall through the cracks. Not only can it lead to failed inspections and fines, it’s dangerous.
The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA 110) outlines the standards that all commercial generator systems must meet. Fire marshals can request relevant documents at any time to prove your systems comply.
Are you prepared to produce these critical documents upon request or for an inspection?
Scheduled inspections happen at least once a year, and you never know when you might have to produce documents for officials.
If the fire marshall conducted a surprise site visit tomorrow and requested copies of all work orders on your generator system from the past 12 months ASAP, could you provide those?
This actually happened to one of our customers.
Our team gathered the requested documentation for the customer within an hour—but for a less prepared business, this could have meant a serious headache and fines if they weren’t able to comply.
Don’t risk putting yourself in that situation.
Here are the documents you need to have up-to-date at all times:
- A BAAQMD permit. A valid permit from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (AQMD)—showing data such as fuel usage and run hours—is required for all generators.
- Load test report. At least once a year, you need to conduct a load test where your generator units are brought up to 100% capacity and produce a corresponding report.
- Proper ATS documentation. The Automated Transfer Switch (ATS) is the critical part of your backup power system that switches your business to your secondary power source (the generators) when the primary power source becomes unavailable. You need documentation showing your ATS has been tested and is functioning properly.
We help our customers get NFPA110 compliant.
Here’s an example of the kinds of maintenance plans we put together—starting with the bare minimum needed to pass a commercial generator inspection all the way up to full NFPA110 compliance.
For every plan, we keep careful documentation so you’re ready for inspection at any time.
Good—Assess and Prioritize Needs
Maintenance inspection (3x per year)
Annual insulation resistance testing (1x per year)
Automatic transfer switch thermal scan (1x per year)
Functional load test (1x per year)
Better—Perform Critical Preventative Maintenance
Maintenance inspection (3x per year)
2 hour load bank test (1x per year)
Automatic transfer switch maintenance (1x per year)
Fuel testing and tank inspection (1x per year)
Annual maintenance (1x per year)
Best—Full NFPA 110 Compliance
Maintenance inspection (3x per year)
2-4 hour load bank test (1x per year)
Automatic transfer switch maintenance (1x per year)
Fuel testing and tank inspection (1x per year)
Insulation resistance testing (1x per year)
Annual maintenance (1x per year)
