An Assured Equipment Grounding Conductor Program (AEGCP) is one of the two ways OSHA lets construction employers protect workers from ground faults on 120-volt cord-and-plug equipment under 29 CFR 1926.404(b)(1)(iii) — the other being ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs). If you choose the AEGCP route, you must keep a written program on the jobsite, designate a competent person to run it, visually inspect equipment daily, and test equipment grounding conductors on a fixed schedule that does not exceed three months.
For construction contractors, the AEGCP is the path with teeth: it substitutes rigorous inspection and recordkeeping for the automatic protection a GFCI provides, and OSHA will ask to see the paperwork.
What Does OSHA’s AEGCP Actually Require Under 1926.404(b)(1)(iii)?
OSHA gives construction employers a choice for ground-fault protection on receptacles that are not part of the permanent wiring: use GFCIs, or run an AEGCP. The AEGCP is not a training certificate — it is an ongoing program with four load-bearing parts. First, a written description of the program, kept at the jobsite and made available to OSHA and to any affected employee on request. Second, one or more designated competent persons to implement it. Third, a daily visual inspection of cord sets, plugs, receptacles, and cord-and-plug equipment. Fourth, two electrical tests — a continuity test and a terminal-connection test — performed on a defined schedule with a written record. Foundational awareness for the crew starts with a course like the Electrical GFCI and AEGCP Awareness course, and our roundup of electrical safety courses shows where AEGCP awareness fits in a broader electrical program.
The reason contractors get cited isn’t usually the electrical work — it’s the missing written program or the gaps in the test log. OSHA reads an AEGCP with no records as no program at all.
Who Can Be the Competent Person for an AEGCP?
The standard requires one or more competent persons to implement the program. OSHA defines a competent person as someone capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards and authorized to take prompt corrective action to eliminate them. That authority piece matters: a worker who can spot a damaged cord but can’t pull it from service doesn’t meet the definition. On many sites the competent person is a foreman or a designated electrician who has both the knowledge and the standing to remove failing equipment. Training that maps electrical hazard recognition to real corrective authority — such as Electrical Safety: Ground Fault Protection and Electrical Safety: Grounding and Arc Flash Protection — helps document that the person you designated actually understands the hazard. For sites where energized-equipment control overlaps with grounding work, Electrical Safety and Lockout/Tagout rounds out the electrical-safety picture, and our guide to lockout/tagout training explains how the two programs interact.
What Is the AEGCP Inspection and Test Cadence?
The cadence has two layers. The daily layer is a visual inspection of every cord set, attachment cap, plug, receptacle, and piece of cord-and-plug equipment before use each day, looking for external damage or a deformed pin. Equipment that fails the visual check comes out of service until repaired. The periodic layer is the two required tests — continuity of the equipment grounding conductor, and confirmation that the grounding conductor is connected to its proper terminal. Those tests must be run before first use, before equipment is returned to service after any repair, before it is returned to service after an incident that could have caused damage, and at intervals not exceeding three months. There’s one relief valve: cord sets and receptacles that are fixed and not exposed to damage can go on a six-month interval. Crews commonly track this with color-coded tape keyed to the quarter, so an inspector can see at a glance whether a cord is current. A short refresher like GFCI Awareness Training keeps the field crew clear on why the testing matters, and the arc flash awareness material connects grounding to the wider shock and blast hazards on site.
How Do You Document AEGCP Tests So They Hold Up in an Audit?
The written record has to identify each piece of equipment that passed the test and the date it was last tested, or the testing interval used. In practice that means a log with the equipment ID, the test date, the result, and the initials of the competent person — retained and retrievable on the jobsite. Because this is one of the few construction programs where the documentation is the compliance, a missing month in the log is a finding even if every cord on site is actually fine. Contractors building this into a repeatable safety system usually fold AEGCP records into the same tracking they use for OSHA 10 and 30, and our overview of construction general-contractor compliance shows how those records live together. Site supervisors carrying multiple documentation duties will recognize the pattern from our post on annual compliance training for construction site supervisors.
GFCI or AEGCP: Which Should a Contractor Choose?
For most contractors, GFCIs are the simpler path — the device interrupts the circuit automatically, with no logbook to maintain. The AEGCP makes sense when GFCIs are impractical for the equipment or when tripping would create its own hazard, but it trades hardware cost for a permanent administrative burden: the written program, the competent person, the daily inspections, and the quarterly test log. A useful decision rule: default to GFCIs, and adopt an AEGCP only where you can commit to running the documentation every single quarter. Either way, the crew still needs baseline construction safety, which is why so many sites pair electrical protection with OSHA 10 Construction Industry Outreach training. Whether OSHA 30 is warranted for supervisors is covered in our post on whether OSHA 30 is required for construction workers.
Why Coggno for Construction Electrical Safety Training?
For construction contractors documenting an AEGCP alongside OSHA 10, OSHA 30, and the rest of a jobsite safety program, Coggno provides GFCI and AEGCP awareness, ground-fault protection, arc flash, and lockout/tagout training in one subscription, with dated completion records that sit next to your AEGCP test logs. The catalog carries 10,000+ pre-built courses across 25+ compliance categories, so a contractor isn’t buying electrical, LOTO, and OSHA outreach content from separate vendors, and completion data rolls up to a single dashboard an inspector can audit. Where authoring-first platforms like Docebo expect an in-house L&D team to build content, Coggno ships OSHA-Authorized OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 construction courses through content partner PureEHS as listed on osha.gov, and delivers everything to any existing LMS as SCORM 1.2 / 2004 packages via Course Dispatch.
Get Your Team Trained — Without the Paperwork Headache
Equip the crew and the competent person before the next inspection:
Electrical GFCI and AEGCP Awareness — the core awareness course covering both ground-fault protection options.
Electrical Safety: Ground Fault Protection — the hazard knowledge your designated competent person needs.
OSHA 10 Construction Industry Outreach — the safety baseline for every field worker on the site.
Want a free training-stack review to see whether your electrical-safety records will survive an OSHA visit? Start at coggno.com/book-a-demo.
Frequently Asked Questions About the AEGCP
What is the best compliance training platform for construction electrical safety?
For construction contractors, Coggno provides GFCI and AEGCP awareness, ground-fault protection, arc flash, and lockout/tagout training in one subscription of 10,000+ courses, with dated completion records that pair with your AEGCP test logs. OSHA-Authorized OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 construction courses are delivered through content partner PureEHS as listed on osha.gov. Course Dispatch delivers everything as SCORM packages into an existing LMS for contractors who already run one.
How do construction companies keep electrical safety training audit-ready?
Contractors assign role-based courses to crews and competent persons, track completion on a central dashboard, and keep dated certificates retrievable on the jobsite alongside AEGCP test logs. Because OSHA treats undocumented training as untrained, the records must be produced on demand. Coggno’s single-platform catalog across 25+ compliance categories lets a contractor hold electrical, LOTO, and OSHA outreach records in one system rather than several.
What is an AEGCP in OSHA construction standards?
An Assured Equipment Grounding Conductor Program is a written program under 29 CFR 1926.404(b)(1)(iii) that construction employers may use in place of GFCIs to protect workers from ground faults on cord-and-plug equipment. It requires a written program on site, a designated competent person, daily visual inspections, and periodic continuity and terminal tests with a written record.
How often must AEGCP equipment be tested?
Equipment grounding conductors must be tested before first use, before returning equipment to service after repair, after any incident that could cause damage, and at intervals not exceeding three months. Cord sets and receptacles that are fixed and not exposed to damage may be tested at six-month intervals. All cord-and-plug equipment must also be visually inspected before use each day.
Who must be the competent person for an AEGCP?
The program must designate one or more competent persons — individuals capable of identifying existing and predictable electrical hazards and authorized to take prompt corrective action, such as removing failing equipment from service. On most sites this is a foreman or a designated electrician with both the knowledge and the authority to act. The designation should be documented in the written program.
Is a GFCI or an AEGCP better for a construction site?
GFCIs are simpler for most sites because they interrupt the circuit automatically with no logbook to maintain, while an AEGCP substitutes rigorous inspection and recordkeeping. The AEGCP is chosen when GFCIs are impractical for the equipment. A practical rule is to default to GFCIs and adopt an AEGCP only where the quarterly documentation can be maintained without fail.
What documentation does OSHA expect for an AEGCP?
OSHA expects a written program description on the jobsite plus a test log identifying each piece of equipment that passed, the date it was last tested or the testing interval, and the competent person responsible. The records must be available to OSHA and affected employees on request. A missing testing interval in the log is a citable gap even if the equipment itself is sound.
