Lower or positively block gravity hazards.
Level 2 · Free · Self-paced
Hazardous Energy Isolation and LOTOTO Practitioner
Plan multi-energy isolations, control stored energy, verify zero energy and manage group, shift and contractor interfaces.
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Training boundary
Online completion does not appoint or authorize you as an isolator. Your employer must provide site-specific procedures, equipment instruction, supervised practice, practical competence assessment and formal authorization before you perform an isolation.
Define the scope and plan the isolation
1 Scope, drawings and the field walkdown
Start with the exact equipment, work scope, boundaries and people who may be affected. Review current drawings, operating information and the equipment-specific procedure, then verify the actual field installation. A drawing is useful evidence, but an old or incomplete drawing cannot prove the plant configuration.
2 Who does what
Assign the roles required by the employer's system. Identify who prepares the isolation, who performs it, who independently checks it where required, who controls the work and who restores the equipment.
Try itThe isolation drawing shows a single electrical supply to a mixer. On the walkdown you find a second cable entering the motor terminal box that isn't on the drawing. What do you do?
The drawing is evidence, not proof. The field installation is what can hurt someone, and an unrecorded supply is exactly the energy the plan would miss.
Right. The walkdown exists to catch this. Treat the extra cable as live until it's traced, added to the plan and isolated, and make sure the drawing is updated for the next team.
Testing is essential but it doesn't replace a plan. Without knowing where the second cable comes from you can't lock it, and it may be energised later by someone who never knew it was involved.
Find every energy source
Trace primary, secondary, stored, induced and reaccumulating energy. Include electrical supplies and capacitors, rotating or spring-loaded parts, raised components, hydraulic accumulators, pneumatic lines, pressure, vacuum, thermal energy and chemical or process inventory.
Discharge capacitors using the approved method.
Vent, drain or restrain pressure and verify the safe condition.
Secure parts that may rotate, spring or move.
Control backfeed, connected systems and automatic start signals.
If pressure, temperature or another source can return, the plan needs continued control and repeated verification.
Energy source
Control
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Execute and verify
Notify affected people and prepare the equipment.
Shut down normally.
Operate each approved energy-isolating device.
Apply personal locks and tags according to the procedure.
Release or restrain stored energy.
Verify each isolation point and the safe condition at the work location.
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Verification must suit the hazard. It may include a try-start, checking position, pressure or movement, and testing for absence of voltage. Electrical absence-of-voltage testing belongs to a qualified person using a suitable instrument and an approved test method.
Group, shift, contractor and test controls
Group lockboxes, shift changes and contractors
A group lockbox system must give each worker protection equivalent to personal control under the approved procedure. Shift changes need an orderly transfer that maintains continuous protection. Host employers and contractors must exchange information about their energy-control procedures and coordinate the work.
Temporary energisation for testing
Temporary energisation for positioning or testing needs a controlled sequence: clear tools and people, remove locks or tags under the procedure, energise only for the test, de-energise again, reapply energy controls and verify before work resumes.
Try itShift change in the middle of a job. The outgoing crew's personal locks are on the group lockbox; the incoming crew has arrived. What's the right order?
For those few minutes nobody's lock is protecting the equipment. A transfer must never leave a gap in protection.
Right. Protection stays continuous: there is always at least one personal lock on the lockbox. This is the orderly transfer the procedure is asking for.
The incoming crew would be relying on locks owned by people who have gone home. Each worker needs protection under their own control.
Never use a group arrangement, forced lock removal or test energisation as an informal shortcut.
Restore safely and apply the method
Before restoration, inspect the equipment and work area, confirm guards and components are ready, remove tools and temporary items, and make sure people are clear. Each person normally removes their own personal lock. Any exception needs the employer's specific controlled procedure. Notify affected employees and restore energy in a planned order.
Practice case
A team will replace a pneumatically operated valve actuator on a pressurised process line. Build an isolation plan that addresses the electrical control signal, instrument air, process pressure on both sides, trapped pressure, spring force, actuator movement and any raised or moving connected component. State how each source will be isolated, dissipated or restrained, how the team will verify it, and how the system will be restored.
Does your plan cover every source? Tick each one as you address it.
The electrical control signal to the actuator
Instrument air to the actuator
Process pressure upstream of the valve
Process pressure downstream of the valve
Pressure trapped between isolation points
Spring force inside the actuator
Movement of the actuator and valve stem
Any raised or moving connected component
How each isolation will be verified
How the system will be restored
Official sources
Final assessment
The assessment draws ten shuffled questions. Complete all lessons and score at least 80%. The English certificate records course completion and knowledge score. Employer authorization and practical competence assessment are still required.
Question 1 of 10