Is Your Facility Hiding Non-Compliant Control Panels? Here's How to Find Out
- Ryan Patrick Murray
- Dec 30, 2025
- 5 min read
Here's a question that makes most facility managers uncomfortable:
When was the last time someone actually looked at the labels on your industrial control panels?
Not a casual glance. A real inspection. Checking for UL certification marks, verifying SCCR ratings, confirming arc-flash labels have all the required information.
If you're like most of the facility managers we talk to, the honest answer is: "I'm not sure" or "It's been a while."
That's not a criticism, it's just reality. Control panels sit in electrical rooms doing their jobs. Nobody thinks about them until something goes wrong. But with NEC 2026 introducing new labeling requirements and insurance companies getting smarter about electrical risk, "out of sight, out of mind" is becoming a liability.
We've created a free UL 508A Compliance Checklist to help you assess where your facility stands before an inspector, insurance auditor, or OSHA investigator does it for you.
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The Compliance Problem Hiding in Plain Sight
Under NEC Article 409, an "industrial control panel" is defined as an assembly of two or more components. Things like motor controllers, overload relays, disconnect switches, push buttons, or control relays.
That definition is broader than most people realize. That enclosure in the corner with a couple of contactors and a timer? Industrial control panel. The VFD cabinet your maintenance team added three years ago? Industrial control panel. The "junction box" with the HOA switch and some relays? You guessed it.
Every one of these assemblies is supposed to have:
A nameplate with manufacturer, voltage, phases, frequency, and full-load current
A Short-Circuit Current Rating (SCCR) label
Arc-flash hazard labeling (with new requirements under NEC 2026)
Supporting documentation available for inspection
In our experience doing compliance assessments across industrial facilities in Washington, we find that the majority of field-assembled control panels are missing at least one of these requirements and many are missing all of them.
Why This Matters More in 2026
Three trends are converging to make control panel compliance a bigger deal than it's ever been:
1. NEC 2026 Arc-Flash Labeling Changes
The 2026 National Electrical Code expands arc-flash labeling requirements under Section 110.16. Industrial control panels that may be examined, adjusted, or serviced while energized must now carry permanent labels with:
Nominal system voltage
Arc flash boundary
Available incident energy OR minimum required PPE
The date the assessment was completed (this is new)
That last item is significant. Generic "DANGER: ARC FLASH HAZARD" stickers no longer satisfy the requirement. You need a proper engineering study with a date stamp—and per NFPA 70E, those studies should be reviewed every five years.
2. Insurance Carriers Are Paying Attention
We're seeing more insurance auditors ask pointed questions about electrical documentation: When was your last arc-flash study? Can you produce SCCR documentation for your panels? Are your control panels UL listed?
If you can't answer these questions, or worse if an incident occurs and you can't prove compliance, you're looking at potential claim denials, premium increases, or coverage gaps.
3. OSHA Enforcement
OSHA citations for electrical hazards aren't cheap. Serious violations can run $15,000 or more per instance, and willful violations can exceed $150,000. When an investigator shows up after an incident, the first thing they'll look at is documentation. Missing labels and incomplete records don't help your case.
What You Should Be Checking
Our free compliance checklist walks you through a complete self-assessment, but here are the big-ticket items:
Panel Inventory
Do you have a complete list of every industrial control panel in your facility? This includes MCCs, VFD enclosures, PLC cabinets, and any field-assembled control boxes. You can't verify compliance on equipment you don't know you have.
Nameplate Information
NEC 409.110 requires specific information on every panel: manufacturer identification, supply voltage, number of phases, frequency, full-load current, and SCCR. Walk through your facility with a clipboard and check each panel against this list.
SCCR Documentation
This is the most commonly missing item we find. The Short-Circuit Current Rating tells you the maximum fault current a panel can safely handle. If your panel is rated for 10kA but your available fault current is 22kA, that panel is both non-compliant and dangerous. Do you know the SCCR of each panel? Do you know the available fault current at each location?
Arc-Flash Labels
Check each panel for arc-flash labels. Are they present? Do they include all required information? Most importantly for NEC 2026: do they include the date of the assessment? If that date is more than five years old, it's time for a new study.
GET THE COMPLETE CHECKLIST: Our free UL 508A Compliance Checklist includes 30+ items across five categories, plus a panel inventory worksheet and scoring guide.
What We Typically Find During Assessments
When we do compliance walkthroughs at industrial facilities, here's what we commonly discover:
Panels installed before 2006 without SCCR labels. The SCCR requirement was added to the NEC in 2005, but adoption took time. If your panels are 15-20 years old, there's a good chance they're unlabeled.
Field-assembled panels with no documentation. Someone needed a control enclosure, so maintenance built one. It works fine, but it has no nameplate, no SCCR calculation, and no UL listing.
Arc-flash studies from 8-10 years ago. The labels are there, but the date shows they haven't been reviewed since the Obama administration. That's a compliance gap under NFPA 70E's five-year review requirement.
Modifications that were never documented. The original panel was compliant. Then someone added a VFD, swapped out a breaker, or relocated some components. Those changes may have invalidated the original SCCR rating.
The good news? Most of these issues are fixable—especially if you find them before an inspector does.
Your Next Steps
1. Download the checklist. It takes about 30 minutes to walk through your facility and complete the self-assessment. You'll have a clear picture of where you stand.
2. Score your results. The checklist includes a scoring guide that categorizes your risk level as low, medium, or high based on how many items you can check off.
3. Address the gaps. If you're in the medium or high-risk category, it's time to take action, either internally or with professional help.
If you'd prefer to have an expert walk through your facility, we offer free 30-minute compliance assessments for industrial facilities in Washington and Alaska. No sales pitch, just an honest evaluation of your panel documentation with a written summary of findings.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE UL 508A COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST
30+ items across 5 categories | Panel inventory worksheet | Scoring guide
About Fail-Safe Electric
Fail-Safe Electric is a UL 508A certified industrial control panel shop serving Washington and Alaska. As a division of MD Electric Group, we bring 25 years of DoD contractor experience to every project. We specialize in custom control panels, motor control centers, VFD enclosures, and marine-grade electrical systems. Questions about compliance? Contact us for a free assessment.
