Aviation Electrical Supplies
During 2006 it became apparent that there was uncertainty regarding the regulatory status and
oversight of aviation electrical work and systems supplying power to aircraft. There were strongly
held concerns about the levels of risk that existed and those earlier engineering decisions that
affected the risk were not supported by risk assessment. The Ministry of Economic Development
(MED) initiated the establishment of the Aviation Electrical Supplies Steering Committee (the
AESSC) to lead the identification and development of safe practices for the management of
hazards associated with electrical supplies to aircraft and aviation workshops. Additionally as part
of an ongoing review of the regulations relating to electricity safety, MED (Energy Safety) proposed
changes to the electricity regulations to clarify and broaden the existing exclusion of aircraft from
those regulations and to explicitly extend the exclusion to cover work on aircraft and fittings of
aircraft.
The broadening and clarification of this exclusion (which has now been implemented) pointed to
the desirability of producing a code of practice type document, to be based on technically sound
risk assessment that specifies the proper and safe management of electricity supplies to aircraft
and aircraft maintenance facilities.
Representation on the AESSC included personnel from MED, Civil Aviation Authority , Aviation
Industry Association, New Zealand Defence Force, Airports Association and the Board of Airline
Representatives.
The AESSC advised its intention to develop an industry code or standard from an initial working
document. Following a publicly advertised Request for Proposal process, Opus International was
chosen by AESSC to produce the working document. The draft of a working document, the
provisions of which were based on a supporting risk analysis, was produced and independently
peer reviewed in June 2009 prior to circulation for public comment. Five submissions were
received and the AESSC met with submitters in November 2009 and responded to the points that
they made. Following some limited changes, the draft code was again circulated for industry
comment in December 2010. Six submissions were received, considered and responded to. The
Airports Association surveyed its members, and obtained additional advice, to establish the
feasibility and cost of compliance for existing installations given that the code will apply to existing
as well as to new installations.
The process used to develop the Code along with its underlying risk assessment conforms with the
requirements of AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 and the risk criterion on which the Code is based is “as
low as reasonably practicable”.
The Custodian organisation for this Code in its current form is the Aviation Industry
Association (AIA). The Code is lodged on the AIA website here
