Arc Flash Study Companies: How to Scope, Compare, and Hire a Firm

An arc flash study is an engineering service, not a product you pull off a shelf. A firm collects your system data, models the electrical distribution, calculates incident energy under IEEE 1584-2018, and hands back a report and equipment labels — usually with a Professional Engineer's stamp on the result. Published pricing puts the engagement at $3,500 to $18,000+ per facility, with large campus sites starting at $18,000 and no published ceiling (Zech Engineering's pricing tiers, retrieved July 2026), so it deserves the same buying discipline as any five-figure contract.

We do not perform studies. We build a per-panel free arc flash calculator, which makes us a useful referee: this page explains what study firms actually deliver, how to scope your request so quotes are comparable, and which questions separate a thorough firm from a label mill. At the bottom there is a request form — describe your facility and we forward the request to study firms that serve your state. It is free to use, and the disclosure section explains exactly how it works.

Last reviewed: July 21, 2026.

What a study firm actually does

The study is mostly labor, and the labor splits into distinct phases. Knowing them is how you read a quote.

Phase	What happens	What to check in the quote
Field data collection	Nameplates, breaker types and settings, conductor sizes and lengths, transformer data, one-line verification	Included in the price, or assumed done by your staff?
Utility data	The firm requests available fault current from your utility	Who chases it, and what happens to the schedule while everyone waits
System model	Your distribution is built in analysis software (SKM, ETAP, EasyPower class tools)	Do you receive the model files at the end?
Calculations	Incident energy and arc-flash boundary per IEEE 1584-2018, evaluating both the full and reduced arcing-current cases	Which standard edition — 2018, not 2002
Coordination	Protective-device coordination and TCC review, if scoped	Separate line item or bundled
Deliverables	Report, updated one-lines, labels, PE stamp	Labels printed and installed, or PDF only

Jim Phillips, writing in EC Magazine on how to perform a study under IEEE 1584-2018, calls data collection potentially a significant portion of the overall study effort. That is the phase your own preparation can shrink: legible nameplates and current one-line diagrams make the same study cheaper.

The shape of a typical engagement

Expect a walk-through or document review before a firm quotes, then data collection, then a wait. The wait is usually the utility: in a Mike Holt's Forum thread on study workflow, engineers report months-long delays getting fault-current data, and one engineer in the thread estimates that for services at 480 V and below, he received meaningful utility data less than 10% of the time. If you can request available fault current from your utility before engaging a firm, you remove the schedule's least predictable segment — what is available fault current explains what to ask for.

Modeling and calculation are fast by comparison. The draft report is worth a real review meeting: check that equipment names match what is on your floor, and that assumptions (clearing times, motor contribution) are stated rather than buried.

Scope your request before asking for quotes

Quotes are only comparable when every firm prices the same facts. Six of them decide most of the price:

1. Equipment count. Every panel, MCC, switchboard, and disconnect that needs a label is billable work. Count them — even roughly.
2. Bus voltage levels. A 480 V-only facility is a simpler model than one with a 4.16 kV loop and unit substations. List every level you have.
3. Documentation state. Current one-lines and legible nameplates mean less detective work. Say honestly which you have.
4. Data collection responsibility. Firm collects everything, your electrician assists, or you supply the data — three different prices.
5. Deliverables. Stamped report only, or report plus printed labels plus coordination review — name what you need, and see arc flash label requirements for what the labels themselves must carry.
6. Timeline. A hard insurance or audit deadline changes which firms can bid at all.

Give every firm the same six answers in writing and the spread between quotes becomes information instead of noise. For what drives the totals — and honest per-panel math on the published $3,500–$18,000+ tiers — see arc flash study cost.

Questions to ask each firm

• Which edition of IEEE 1584 do your calculations use? (The 2018 revision replaced the 2002 model; a firm still quoting 2002-based work is behind the standard.)
• Will the report be stamped by a PE licensed in my state?
• Who performs field data collection, and is it inside the quoted price?
• How do you handle the utility fault-current request, and what happens to the schedule if the utility is slow?
• Do we receive the model files and updated one-line diagrams, or only the PDF report? (If the firm keeps the model, your five-year review is captive business.)
• What does the NFPA 70E review look like in five years — a full re-study, or an update priced against the model you already paid for?
• Are labels included, on what stock, and who applies them?

The five-year question matters more than it looks: NFPA 70E requires the risk assessment behind every label to be reviewed at intervals not exceeding five years, and sooner when the system changes. A firm that hands over its model files is pricing your review honestly. Our guide on how often an arc flash study is needed covers what triggers the early re-check.

When you do not need a firm

No OSHA rule uses the words "arc flash study." OSHA 29 CFR 1910.333 requires safe work practices around energized equipment, and NFPA 70E requires a risk assessment — which can be an engineering study, a per-panel IEEE 1584-2018 incident-energy calculation, or the 70E tables within their limits. If your equipment sits inside the IEEE 1584-2018 range (208 V to 15 kV) and you can supply fault current and clearing time per panel, a calculation gives you defensible label values without a facility-wide engagement. Run one panel through the free arc flash calculator and read every intermediate value before you decide; the honest cases for paying a firm anyway — stamped-report requirements, coordination work, missing documentation, results at 40 cal/cm² and up — are laid out on the cost page.

Get matched with study firms

If you do need a firm, the form below sends your requirements to study firms instead of you repeating them into six contact forms. Describe your facility — state, equipment count, voltage levels, timeline — and we forward the request to firms that serve your area. The firms quote you directly; compare their answers against the questions above.

How this works, stated plainly:

• Free for requesters. You pay nothing to use this form, and requesting quotes creates no obligation.
• We may receive a fee from firms. When an introduction leads to paid work, the firm may pay us a referral fee. That fee never changes your price and never changes what we forward.
• Forwarding is manual. A person reads every request and emails it to appropriate firms — no automated blast, no list sale. Your details go only to the firms contacted on your behalf.
• No directory, no rankings. We do not publish firm listings, and no firm has paid to appear on this page. An introduction is not an endorsement — vet every firm with the questions above.
• US-focused. The firms we forward to serve US states. If you select "Other / outside the US," a person still reads the request and replies by email: either with a firm we know that fits your location, or a plain answer that we cannot help.