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In-person · Yuma, AZElectrical safety training in Yuma, AZ
Yuma grows most of the country's winter leafy greens, hosts an F-35B Marine air station and a 1,300-square-mile Army test range, and was the starting point of the 2011 Southwest blackout. We train the electrical crews who keep Yuma's bases, cooling sheds and processing plants running, at your facility or in an in-person class we set up in Yuma when you ask.
Arizona runs its own OSHA-approved state plan. Private employers here are inspected by Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH), Industrial Commission of Arizona, not federal OSHA. Every class is live, on the 2027 edition of NFPA 70E, and taught by a Certified Safety Professional. Arizona electrical safety training requirements →
Among the teams we have trained in the last year
Four ways to train your Yuma crew
Crews we train in and around Yuma: produce processing and cooling, defense contractors, solar and storage, utilities and irrigation districts, healthcare, public employers.
What the class covers for Yuma crews
Processing lines that come apart in March and go back together in November are a reconnection job under deadline. We cover verifying absence of voltage and labeling on equipment whose feeders and disconnects changed since last season.
Work at MCAS Yuma and Yuma Proving Ground runs under base rules and security controls. We help contract crews plan energized work and lockout so it fits inside those requirements.
The 2011 blackout began when a capacitor bank was switched out of sequence at APS's North Gila substation and the arc cascaded. We use it to show why written switching steps and job briefings matter.
Yuma crews move between triple-digit yards and refrigerated produce rooms. We plan arc-rated PPE and task timing for heat stress and for the condensation that forms on gear in cold rooms.
Yuma at a glance
ADOSH (state plan); federal OSHA for contractors on exclusive federal enclaves
APS
ROC, contractor level only
NYL (Yuma International)
Mountain (MST, no daylight saving)
Arizona: what applies to your crews
Enforcement: ADOSH and federal enclaves
ADOSH enforces workplace safety for Yuma's private employers and for state and local government workers. Contractors working on exclusive federal enclaves fall under federal OSHA instead, so a crew can change regulators when it passes through a base gate.
Licensing: ROC contractor licenses
Arizona's Registrar of Contractors licenses electrical contracting companies through a qualifying party. Individual electricians in Yuma carry no state journeyman or master license, so each employer documents its own qualified persons.
Where NFPA 70E fits
Yuma employers should know OSHA does not enforce NFPA 70E. Yuma employers use it to show how they meet OSHA 1910 Subpart S and 1926 Subpart K as Arizona applies them, and a recognized electrical hazard can still be cited under the General Duty Clause.
Yuma's electrical work environment
Yuma County supplies about 90 percent of the leafy vegetables grown in the United States from November to March. Each fall, processors move whole plants here from Salinas. Taylor Farms has described moving more than 200 people and 1,400 tons of equipment on 72 trucks in under 56 hours, then reversing the trip in March. Every one of those relocations means disconnecting, transporting and re-landing production equipment against a harvest deadline.
The military is the other anchor. Marine Corps Air Station Yuma employs about 5,568 people, hosts four F-35B squadrons and MAWTS-1, and shares its runways with Yuma International Airport. Yuma Proving Ground, headquartered about 30 miles north, covers roughly 1,308 square miles and tests everything from artillery to tracked vehicles. Yuma Regional Medical Center is another of the city's largest employers.
Yuma also holds one of the largest desalination plants ever built in the U.S. The Yuma Desalting Plant was finished in 1992 to treat salty drainage from the Wellton-Mohawk district, with a design capacity of 73 million gallons a day, but it has run only twice and mostly sits idle. Elsewhere in Yuma County, the 290 MW Agua Caliente Solar plant has sent its output to California since reaching full power in 2013.
Bases, produce plants and power along the lower Colorado
These are the Yuma area sites where electrical crews spend the most time. Several are federal property, which changes who sets the safety rules.
| Site | What is there | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Marine Corps Air Station Yuma U.S. Marine Corps | About 3,000 acres with four runways, F-35B squadrons and joint use with Yuma International Airport. | Operating |
| MCAS Yuma microgrid APS | 25 MW plant online since December 2016 that can meet the base's full load if the grid fails. | Operating |
| Yuma Proving Ground U.S. Army | About 1,308 square miles of desert test ranges for weapons, vehicles and air delivery systems. | Operating |
| Winter processing plant Taylor Farms | Moves its processing operation from Salinas to Yuma each November and back in March. | Operating |
| Agua Caliente Solar NRG Energy and BHE Renewables | 290 MW AC plant in Yuma County selling power to PG&E. | Operating |
| Yuma Desalting Plant U.S. Bureau of Reclamation | Completed in 1992 with 73 million gallons a day of design capacity, run only twice since. | Operating |
| North Gila substation APS | 500 kV substation where the September 2011 Southwest blackout began. | Operating |
APS, the Southwest Power Link and a base that can island
APS serves Yuma, and the region sits on a major 500 kV path toward San Diego. On September 8, 2011, a technician at APS's North Gila substation opened a capacitor bank without first bypassing the circuit. The resulting arc started a chain of failures that left nearly seven million people in Arizona, Southern California and Mexico without power for up to about 13 hours.
APS also built and runs a 25 MW microgrid on Navy land at MCAS Yuma. During a grid outage it can supply the whole base, and the rest of the time APS uses it for summer peaks and frequency response. For base contractors this means generation and transfer equipment on site that a utility owns and operates, so coordination with APS is part of any outage plan.
Who we train in Yuma and the lower Colorado River region
Electricians and maintenance techs at the salad, cooling and packing plants that run during Yuma's winter season.
Contract electrical and facilities crews supporting MCAS Yuma and Yuma Proving Ground.
Operations and maintenance technicians at utility-scale PV plants in Yuma County.
Line, substation and pumping plant staff serving Yuma's farms and canals.
Facilities electricians at Yuma Regional Medical Center and its generator and transfer switch systems.
City, county and school district electricians, who are covered by ADOSH in Arizona.
Also serving
Questions from Yuma employers
Can you train our produce plant crew before the winter season starts?
We are a contractor at MCAS Yuma. Who regulates our electrical safety?
Does the 2011 blackout matter for a plant electrician?
Can you teach part of the class in Spanish?
Does finishing the class make someone a qualified electrical worker?
What the people in the room say
“Virtual can never replace hands-on, but the engagement from our instructor and the class made it feel more engaging than some in-person courses I've taken.”
“Probably one of the most useful safety courses I've ever attended. Rick genuinely cares about people and their well-being.”
“This is the 2nd arc flash training course I've taken and the class was amazing. I feel like I'm leaving the training safer than before I took this class.”
Train your Yuma crew on the 2027 edition.
Onsite within a few days, or private live virtual as soon as tomorrow. Need it fast? Call (813) 725-0999.