Service Areas

Based in Santa Clara, Apex Arc Flash Engineering provides arc flash hazard analysis and label installation, short-circuit studies and equipment-duty evaluations, protective device coordination studies, single-line diagram development and updates, and updates to existing arc flash studies for industrial, commercial, healthcare, technology, higher-education, and public-sector facilities throughout Northern California and surrounding regions. If your location is not listed below—or your project is located outside these areas—contact us to discuss your facility and project requirements.

Regional Support Across Northern California

Apex Arc Flash Engineering is a California PE-led practice based in Santa Clara. We provide arc flash hazard analysis with label installation, short circuit analysis and equipment-duty evaluation, protective device coordination studies with time-current curves and recommended settings, single line diagram development, and updates to existing studies. For California healthcare facilities, deliverables are prepared to support HCAI (formerly OSHPD) requirements, including PIN 70. Select a region below for the communities, serving utilities, and field conditions we work with there. If your location is not listed, contact us to discuss your facility.

Primary service area

Silicon Valley & South Santa Clara County

Our home territory, and the one where field work is simplest to schedule. Facilities here tend to carry dense, heavily loaded distribution: semiconductor and research campuses with extensive secondary-selective and double-ended substations, data centers with parallel UPS and generator sources, hospitals under HCAI review, and university buildings added over decades onto medium-voltage campus loops. Motor and generator contribution to fault duty is often the deciding factor in whether existing gear remains adequately rated.

Counties
Santa Clara
Serving utilities
PG&E across most of the valley. Santa Clara is served by Silicon Valley Power and Palo Alto by City of Palo Alto Utilities, both municipal.
Typical facilities
Hospitals and healthcare, semiconductor and R&D campuses, data centers, universities, manufacturing, municipal buildings

Communities served

  • Santa Clara
  • San Jose
  • Sunnyvale
  • Mountain View
  • Palo Alto
  • Cupertino
  • Milpitas
  • Campbell
  • Los Gatos
  • Saratoga
  • Morgan Hill
  • Gilroy
Because we are based in Santa Clara, most sites in this region are a short drive away. Field surveys, walkdowns, and label installation can usually be scheduled without travel charges or overnight stays, and we can return for a brief follow-up visit when nameplate data turns out to be missing.
Utility short-circuit information support. At no additional charge, Apex helps the facility request available service and fault-current information from PG&E or the serving utility for use in the short-circuit and arc flash study. If your facility buys its energy from a Community Choice Aggregator such as Ava Community Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, San José Clean Energy, MCE, Sonoma Clean Power, or Central Coast Community Energy, the distribution system is still owned and operated by the incumbent utility, and that utility is the one that provides available fault current and X/R data.

Common questions about our service areas

Do you work outside the regions listed above?

Yes. The regions above are where we work most often, not a boundary. Projects elsewhere in California are considered case by case, and travel and mobilization are stated in the proposal so there are no surprises. Contact us with the facility location and scope and we will tell you plainly whether we are a good fit.

Who provides the available fault current for my facility?

The utility that owns and operates the distribution system serving your site, which in most of Northern California is PG&E, and in other areas is a municipal utility or irrigation district such as SMUD, Silicon Valley Power, Roseville Electric, Modesto Irrigation District, or Turlock Irrigation District. If you buy energy through a Community Choice Aggregator, that organization procures generation but does not own the distribution system, so the fault-current data still comes from the incumbent utility. We assist with the request at no additional charge.

Do you install the arc flash labels, or do we?

We install them when label installation is included in the project scope. Labels are produced in a consistent layout tied to the study results and the equipment identifiers in the model, so the labels, the one-lines, and the report all agree with one another.

How do you handle field work at a facility that cannot shut down?

Most data collection is done from drawings, panel schedules, and equipment nameplates while the facility operates normally. Where covers must be removed, we coordinate an outage window and follow your lockout and tagout procedures. We do not perform energized work unless it is absolutely necessary and agreed in advance.

How often does an arc flash study need to be updated?

An arc flash study must be updated whenever changes occur in the electrical distribution system that could affect the results of the analysis, and it should be reviewed for accuracy at intervals not exceeding five years. Utility data changes, new or replaced equipment, revised protective settings, and reconfigured feeders are all triggers for an update.

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