What can happen if an electrical worker is working on energized equipment and the protective device fails?

When an electrical worker is engaged in tasks involving energized equipment, the failure of the protective device can have significant implications for safety. If a protective device, such as a circuit breaker or fuse, fails, it may not trip in response to a fault, leading to a situation where the equipment continues to operate under unsafe conditions. This can increase the risk of exposure to higher incident energy, resulting in a greater likelihood of injury from an electrical arc or blast.

Incident energy is essentially a measure of the thermal energy released during an electrical fault, and if the protective devices do not function correctly, the energy levels can substantially exceed the expected thresholds, thus raising the danger to the worker. This highlights the importance of maintaining and regularly testing protective devices to ensure that they perform correctly when needed.

The other choices do not accurately capture the risk associated with such a scenario. There would typically be a change in exposure if the protective equipment fails, and the worker's personal protective equipment (PPE) doesn't automatically upgrade in response to such failures. Additionally, the incident energy would typically be higher rather than lower when protective devices fail, contradicting one of the alternative responses.