Working with electrical installations
Electricity is dangerous. That is why Sweden has strict regulations about who is allowed to carry out electrical installation work and how. The electrical installation companies are responsible for ensuring that electrical installation work is carried out in accordance with the relevant rules. The companies' self-audit schemes are intended to guarantee compliance. You are not allowed to work with electrical installations unless you are included in a self-audit scheme.
Regulations
Electricity is dangerous, and to avoid the risk of personal injury or damage to property resulting from poor-quality or incorrect execution of electrical heavy current installations, there are strict regulations governing who can carry out electrical installation work and how.
The new Electrical Safety Act came into force on 1 July 2017. It introduced a completely new system of requirements that must be met by people working with electrical installations in Sweden. The National Electrical Safety Board is the supervisory authority with regard to the obligations imposed on the various parties under the Electrical Safety Act and associated regulations.
The company's responsibility
Under the new rules, companies and organisations carrying out electrical installation work for business purposes are called electrical installation companies. The electrical installation companies are responsible for ensuring that electrical installation work is carried out in accordance with the relevant rules, and for establishing what expertise the company must have and how to ensure that the people doing work on behalf of the company have the necessary skills. Importantly, companies must also meet the requirement to establish a self-audit scheme covering their activity.
In the old system, authorised electricians had personal responsibility for ensuring that the electrical installation work was carried out correctly. They did this by supervising colleagues who were not themselves authorised electricians. This supervisory role and the personal responsibility that came with it have now been discontinued and replaced with the self-audit scheme and corporate responsibility.
Follow the links below to read more about the new responsibilities of electrical installation companies.
Who can carry out electrical installation work?
It is a common misconception that everyone carrying out electrical installation work for business purposes must be an authorised electrician, but this is not the case. It is a requirement, however, that anyone carrying out electrical installation work for business purposes must be covered by a company's self-audit scheme.
The self-audit scheme determines what kinds of work an individual is allowed to do on behalf of the company. It does not make any difference whether or not the individual has an official authorisation or not. It is always up to the company to decide what qualifications an individual needs.
Authorised electricians can be appointed as a company's compliance officer, a role which must be filled in every electrical installation company.
Authorised electricians are also allowed to carry out the electrical installation work covered by their authorisation privately (i.e. on a non-commercial basis) – individuals without an official authorisation are not allowed to work privately in this way.
You are therefore prohibited from carrying out electrical installation work of any kind unless you either have the right authorisation or are covered by an electrical installation company's self-audit scheme. If you break this rule you are committing a criminal offence.
