The National Electrical Code (NEC), or NFPA 70, is a regionally adoptable standard for the safe installation of electrical wiring and equipment in the United States. It is part of the National Fire Code series published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a private trade association. Despite the use of the term "national," it is not a federal law. It is typically adopted by states and municipalities in an effort to standardize their enforcement of safe electrical practices. In some cases, the NEC is amended, altered and may even be rejected in lieu of regional regulations as voted on by local governing bodies. The "authority having jurisdiction" inspects for compliance with the standards. The NEC should not be confused with the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The NESC is used for electric power and communication utility systems including overhead lines, underground lines, and power substations.
Background The NEC is developed by NFPA's Committee on the National Electrical Code, which consists of twenty code-making panels and a technical correlating committee. Work on the NEC is sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association. The NEC is approved as an American national standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It is formally identified as ANSI/NFPA 70. First published in 1897, the NEC is updated and published every three years, with the 2026 edition being the most current. Most states adopt the most recent edition within a few of years of its publication. As with any "uniform" code, jurisdictions may regularly omit or modify some sections, or add their own requirements (sometimes based upon earlier versions of the NEC, or locally accepted practices). However, no court has faulted anyone for using the latest version of the NEC, even when the local code was not updated. In the United States, anyone, including the city issuing building permits, may face a civil liability lawsuit for negligently creating a situation that results in loss of life or property. Those who fail to adhere to well known best practices for safety have been held negligent. This liability and the desire to protect residents has motivated cities to adopt and enforce building codes that specify standards and practices for electrical systems (as well as other departments such as water and fuel-gas systems). That creates a system whereby a city can best avoid lawsuits by adopting a single standard set of building code laws. This has led to the NEC becoming the de facto standard set of electrical requirements. A licensed electrician will have spent years of apprenticeship studying and practicing the NEC requirements prior to obtaining their license. The Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) customized extension of the electrical code standard defined by National Electrical Code was developed since current engineering standards and code requirements do not adequately address the unique situations arising during D&D activities at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. The additional guidance is needed to clarify the current electrical code for these situations. The guidance document provides guidance on how to interpret selected articles of NFPA 70, “National Electrical Code” (NEC), in particular certain articles within Article 590, “Temporary Power,” for D&D electrical activities at DOE sites. The NEC also contains information about the official definition of HAZLOC and the related standards given by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and dealing with hazardous locations such as explosive atmospheres.
Public access The NEC is available as a bound book containing approximately 1000 pages. It has been available in electronic form since the 1993 edition. Although the code is updated every three years, some jurisdictions do not immediately adopt the new edition. The NEC is also available as a restricted, digitized coding model that can be read online free of charge on certain computing platforms that support the restricted viewer software; however this digital version cannot be saved, copied, or printed. In the United States, statutory law cannot be copyrighted and is freely accessible and copyable by anyone. When a standards organization develops a new coding model and it is not yet accepted by any jurisdiction as law, it is still the private property of the standards organization and the reader may be restricted from downloading or printing the text for offline viewing. For that privilege, the coding model must still be purchased as either printed media or electronic format (e.g. PDF.) Once the coding model has been accepted as law, it loses copyright protection and may be freely obtained at no cost.
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