What an arc flash study and an infrared scan cost in Calgary

CCT 01Two services, two prices

Search results for arc flash study cost and infrared thermography cost often blur the two. A buyer who asks for one combined number cannot tell what the proposal includes. Start by separating them.

Neither replaces the other. A study does not find a loose lug, and a scan does not tell a worker what protective equipment to wear. The scopes are described on the arc flash studies and infrared thermography service pages.

CCT 02What an arc flash study is priced on

No official source publishes arc flash study prices. The fee follows the engineering and field effort, which you can estimate before asking for proposals:

• Equipment inventory. The count of switchboards, panelboards, transformers, motor control centres and disconnects in scope. Decide the boundary: the whole building, or only equipment above a chosen size.
• Existing records. Current single-line diagrams, cable schedules and recorded breaker and relay settings cut field time. Where records are missing, someone has to open equipment and read nameplates, which is slower and may need shutdowns.
• Utility data. The model needs the available fault current at the service from ENMAX. At 600 A and above, Calgary already expects the single-line diagram to show fault current at every overcurrent device¹, so recent permit drawings can supply much of it.
• Operating modes. Generator operation, tie breakers and alternate feeds each add scenarios to model and label.
• Coordination. Whether the study only reports results or also recommends new protective settings, and who implements them.
• Deliverables. Labels printed and installed, the editable model file, and a report written for the building’s electrical safety program.

The current edition of the workplace electrical safety standard is CSA Z462:24². Alberta’s OHS Code does not adopt it by reference; the provincial link is a 2009 technical bulletin that recommended property managers keep a copy of the 2008 edition and that workers follow it³. That makes a study an owner’s risk decision, often prompted by an insurer or a contractor’s safety program, rather than a line set by regulation. The arc flash requirements guide covers the background.

CCT 03What an infrared scan is priced on

No official source publishes thermography prices either. A scan is priced on the equipment covered and the conditions needed to see it:

• Coverage. The number of switchboards, panels, disconnects, transformers and motor control centres, and whether bus duct and rooftop units are included.
• Load. A scan is useful only when equipment is carrying meaningful load. Scheduling around production or occupancy peaks can push the work to particular days or hours.
• Access. Many covers must be removed with the equipment energized so the camera can see the connections. That is work for a qualified electrician under a safe work plan, and the electrician’s time is part of the price.
• Reporting. A useful report ties each finding to a named piece of equipment, records the load at the time and ranks severity. A folder of images without that context is cheaper and hard to act on.
• Follow-up. Whether repairs are quoted separately, and whether a rescan to confirm them is included.

Thermography is usually one task inside a maintenance program. CSA describes Z463, the electrical maintenance guideline, as voluntary and designed for commercial and industrial buildings⁴. Programs that follow it schedule scanning with cleaning, torque checks and breaker testing. That work is covered under preventive electrical maintenance.

CCT 04Shutdowns and utility charges

Data collection for a study and repairs found by a scan often need equipment de-energized. Where the outage involves the service, ENMAX’s 2026 fee schedule applies:

ENMAX needs at least 3 business days’ notice to schedule disconnect and reconnect work⁶. The larger cost is usually on the customer side: after-hours labour, temporary power and the value of lost operating time. Plan one well-used shutdown for data collection, cleaning, torque checks and label installation rather than several short ones.

Isolation itself carries fixed requirements. Under OHS Code Part 15, hazardous energy must be isolated with a secured isolating device before equipment is serviced, tested or inspected⁷. Each worker involved needs a personal lock with a unique mark or tag⁷, and complex group lockout procedures must be certified by a professional engineer⁷. On a large site, writing that procedure can be a budget line of its own.

CCT 05Permits for the repairs, not the study

A study or a scan alters no wiring, so it is not permitted work. The corrections they lead to often are. Calgary requires an electrical permit for new wiring and for extending or altering existing circuits⁸. The contractor permit is $112 plus $9.79 per $1,000 of construction value⁹. The Safety Codes Council adds 4% of the permit fee, with a $4.50 minimum and $560 maximum⁹. The schedule does not say whether the 4% applies to the base fee only or also to the $112 processing fee, so both readings are shown, the second in brackets.

Facilities that do a steady stream of maintenance can use the annual electrical permit instead: $156 plus a $6.24 council fee, $162.24 in all⁹. Calgary requires it where a facility employs a full-time journeyman electrician, and a contractor doing maintenance at a facility may also apply¹. A weekend or holiday inspection for a shutdown repair is $189 per hour with a $756 minimum⁹, and a re-inspection is $327⁹.

CCT 06Wages, the index and what they cannot tell you

Job Bank reports a median wage of $44 an hour for industrial electricians (NOC 72201) in the Calgary region, with a low of $34 and a high of $62¹⁰. For power system electricians (NOC 72202) the Calgary-region median is $57.59, a modelled estimate rather than a survey tabulation¹¹. These are employee wages. A study also carries engineering time, and a contractor’s rate covers supervision, vehicles, test equipment, insurance, overhead and margin. Neither series can be multiplied by hours to price a study or a scan. Commercial electrician rates explains the gap.

To date an older proposal, use Statistics Canada’s Calgary non-residential electrical index, which stood at 111.3 in Q2 2026 (2023=100)¹², up 1.0% in a year¹². It tracks the electrical trade’s cost of building model buildings, not engineering fees, so treat it as a rough guide for time only.

CCT 07Comparing proposals

For a study, ask each proposal to state:

1. the boundary and equipment count, and how missing data will be collected;
2. the source of utility fault data and the operating modes modelled;
3. whether coordination recommendations are included, and who implements setting changes;
4. the label format, who installs labels, and whether you receive the editable model;
5. the shutdowns required and the assumptions behind them.

For a scan, compare coverage by named equipment, the electrician support included, the minimum load expected, how inaccessible equipment is reported, and whether a rescan after repairs is priced.

Whole-building numbers mean little. A small office and a plant with several motor control centres may have similar floor areas and very different equipment counts. The bid comparison guide covers the line-by-line method. Sites where studies and scans matter most are data centres, industrial plants and the portfolios run by property and facility managers. The three-phase kVA calculator helps sort equipment by size before the boundary is set.

These fees apply in the City of Calgary. Neighbouring municipalities have their own permit authorities and often a different wire utility.