What safety procedure should be followed before maintaining electrical equipment?

Lockout/tagout procedures are critical safety measures that ensure electrical equipment is properly shut off and not able to be started up again before maintenance or repair work is performed. This procedure involves placing a lock or a tag on the energy isolation device, which prevents accidental energization of the equipment while someone is working on it. This is fundamental because it protects workers from the hazards of electrical shock or unexpected machine start-up, which can lead to serious injuries.

While personal protective equipment checks, circuit testing, and grounding verification are all important safety practices in their own right, they do not provide the same level of safety specifically related to the isolation of energy sources that lockout/tagout procedures do. Personal protective equipment is meant to protect against potential hazards, but the fundamental step of ensuring that equipment is not energized is crucial to prevent accidents during maintenance tasks. Circuit testing and grounding verification are performed to confirm that equipment is safe to work on, but those steps come after establishing safety through proper lockout/tagout techniques. Thus, implementing lockout/tagout procedures as a first step in the maintenance process is deemed the most critical safety procedure.