He has visited many growers in recent years, and that will certainly not become less in the coming years. On January 1, 2022, almost all (greenhouse horticulture) companies in the Netherlands will have to comply with the new fire safety standard NTA8220/SCIOS Scope 10. The inspection has been in force since 1 January 2018. Lerdy Duijvestijn from Prokeur carries out the required electrical inspections.
Prokeur was founded in 2015 by Lerdy, son of a pot plant grower, who also has six years of experience with an installer of electrical installations. "It was busy times immediately, because all growers without a fire-retardant screen cloth had to have an electrical inspection of the screen cloth performed to remain insured."
New inspection
The first electricity inspection for the screen cloth is valid for three years, which means that a number of growers will have to be inspected again in the near future. Growers will receive a letter about this from their insurer.
Several changes have been made in the field of safety inspections and certifications. The inspection in accordance with NTA8220/SCIOS Scope 10 will be the new fire safety assessment for growers without a fire-retardant screen cloth from 1 January 2020. The new inspection will be valid for 5 instead of 3 years and growers are checked solely for fire safety. From January 1, 2022, also growers with fire-retardant screen cloth will be subject to inspection.
Preventing system failures
That it's an obligation, is precisely why inspections and certifications do not always have an equally good reputation among growers, Lerdy notes. Nevertheless, inspections are necessary, as is shown in practice where Lerdy is regularly confronted with dangerous situations. “Just think about smoldering connections in a control cabinet. By being in time, failure of installations can be prevented and continuity in production guaranteed.”
Discovering errors
During an inspection - depending on the size of the company, it takes Lerdy about half a day to a maximum of one week - errors in installations are found regularly. “For example, an earth leakage circuit breaker is missing. Armed with my report, a grower can then pass on such an error to the installer, because he is the one who should have arranged it. You see that installers also perform inspections themselves, but in my opinion it is better to have an independent person inspect an installation.”
To be able to issue the new certification, Prokeur itself also has been certified since March 2019. An additional requirement with inspection method NTA8220, for which inspectors and the company must meet strict requirements in order to be able to guarantee high quality and to be able to prove that they have the relevant knowledge.
Overview
Another thing that strikes Lerdy, is that because of scaling up, the overview of a company about where which installation is located, sometimes got lost. "Then I get comments along the lines of ‘I didn't know that the installation was there’. Growers are more and more turning into managers, while managers can also lose track of expansions and extensions. Then an inspection often helps to remap the installations at the company. Call it a nice side effect.”
For more information:
Prokeur
www.prokeur.nl
info@prokeur.nl
Lerdy Duijvestijn
+31 (0)6 50602128