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Bowtie Engineering’s electrical maintenance keeps your facility’s power systems reliable, safe, and compliant with NFPA 70B — the maintenance standard that became mandatory in 2023. Using a systems-based approach led by licensed Professional Engineers, we combine infrared thermography, power quality analysis, and NETA-standard testing to find problems before they cause outages, equipment damage, or safety incidents. Whether you need a one-time assessment or a recurring program, we document everything for your audits and records.
As of 2023, NFPA 70B is a mandatory standard, not a recommendation. It requires facilities to have a documented electrical maintenance program — with defined inspection intervals, condition assessments, and records — for the electrical equipment their workers depend on. Skipping maintenance is no longer just a reliability risk; it’s a compliance gap. Bowtie builds and runs NFPA 70B-aligned programs so your equipment is maintained on schedule and your documentation is ready when an auditor or insurer asks
The average facility experiences 100 electrical disturbances/transients per month. The result? A System downtime, shortened equipment life, and added expenses.
Businesses need to know the true cost of electrical outages and how they can better maintain their electrical systems.
Our engineers conduct a complete power quality audit and give you a documented snapshot of your electrical system’s health. Each report includes: infrared (IR) thermography with photographs and corresponding thermal images; real-time monitoring of electrical conditions across your distribution system; a breakdown of KW, kVAR, power factor, voltage, amperage, harmonics, and transients; field data documentation; and specific recommendations for upgrades, retrofits, or corrections. You get a clear picture of what’s failing, what’s inefficient, and what to fix first.
Beyond the standard audit, Bowtie performs an Energized System Engineering Analysis on selected distribution components — the difference between a technician taking readings and an engineer interpreting them. This includes ground resistance testing, transformer oil testing, phase-balance measurement, power factor testing, voltage and current harmonics testing, voltage drop testing, and true-RMS measurement. You receive detailed reports with an equipment inventory, written certification of all testing performed, and corrections marked on your one-line drawings. Where it makes sense, we also flag simple-payback opportunities and analyze your utility tariff.
Much of the testing above follows NETA (InterNational Electrical Testing Association) standards — the industry-standard methodology for commissioning and maintaining electrical equipment. Bowtie performs NETA-standard testing and can deploy NETA-network certified technicians anywhere in the United States, giving you consistent, standardized testing across every site. Because NETA is a service buyers search for specifically, we’ve given it its own page with the full detail — acceptance vs. maintenance testing, primary injection, and the standards involved.
More About Neta Testing →
Infrared (IR) thermography is the first step in most maintenance programs. A thermal camera finds electrical hot spots — loose connections, overloaded circuits, failing breakers — while your building stays in service, so there’s no shutdown. Bowtie includes IR in our maintenance scope, and every IR job also comes with a report of any code violations we find while the covers are open, at no extra charge. Because IR is a service buyers search for specifically, we’ve given it its own page with the full detail.
A documented maintenance program from Bowtie helps you safeguard personnel, improve system efficiency, reduce utility costs, and minimize unplanned downtime, while keeping you compliant with NFPA 70B. The value isn’t the visit; it’s catching the loose connection, the overloaded circuit, or the failing breaker before it becomes an outage or an injury.
NFPA 70B used to be a recommended practice. It is now a standard, and that change matters more than it sounds.
A recommended practice describes good behaviour. A standard describes what is expected, which means it can be referenced by an inspector, an insurer or an attorney after an incident. It sets out that facilities must have a documented electrical maintenance program, that equipment must be maintained on intervals based on condition and criticality, and that the work must be recorded.
The practical consequence is that condition of maintenance is no longer a facilities matter alone. It is a compliance matter, and it sits directly upstream of your arc flash study, because a study assumes protective devices will operate as designed.
Infrared thermography. Thermal survey with the building in service, finding hot spots before they become outages.
Switchgear maintenance. Inspection, cleaning, mechanical checks and testing of the equipment carrying the most risk and the greatest consequence when it fails.
Electrical panel inspection. Systematic inspection of distribution panels covering condition, loading, terminations and code compliance.
Circuit breaker and primary injection testing. Verifying that breakers will clear a fault in the time your arc flash study assumed.
Protective relay testing and calibration. Confirming relay settings match the coordination study and that the relays perform to them.
Transformer testing and oil analysis. Early visibility of internal condition that no external inspection provides.
Beyond the equipment itself, Bowtie looks at system loads, phase balancing and harmonics. These stress a system continuously and are routinely missed by providers who test components in isolation rather than looking at the system as a whole.
There is no single interval that applies to a whole facility, and any provider offering one is not looking closely enough. Intervals are set by equipment type, how critical the equipment is to operations, the environment it sits in and how heavily it is loaded.
In practice that means medium voltage switchgear serving a critical load is on a different schedule to a distribution panel in a low duty area, and equipment in a dusty or humid environment is on a different schedule to the same equipment in a clean one.
What NFPA 70B expects is that intervals are documented, based on condition and criticality, and actually followed. Bowtie builds the interval schedule as part of the program, starting from what has and has not been done to date, then works it against your operating calendar so the outage windows are realistic.
Bowtie delivers PE-led, NFPA 70B-compliant electrical maintenance, IR thermography, power quality analysis, and NETA-standard testing that catches failures before they cause outages and documents everything for your audits.
NFPA 70B became a mandatory standard in 2023, requiring facilities to maintain a documented electrical maintenance program. OSHA references maintenance condition when assessing electrical safety, so a documented program is both a compliance and a due-diligence measure.
Much of it, yes. Infrared thermography and power quality monitoring are performed with your system energized and in service, so there’s no disruption. De-energized testing (like NETA acceptance or primary injection) is scheduled around your operations.
Both. We provide one-time assessments and recurring NFPA 70B-aligned maintenancecontracts, including IR thermography, NETA-standard testing, and breaker diagnostics, tailored to your facility.
You receive test results, an equipment inventory, written certification of testing performed, corrected one-line drawings, and prioritized recommendations — everything you need for audits, insurers, and internal records.
