For secure and safe access control, a method authenticates a user of an equipment unit with a user credential. The method determines an equipment status for the equipment unit. The equipment status includes one of energized and un-energized and one of locked and unlocked. The method determines whether the user is authorized to access the equipment unit with an equipment authorization. The determination that the user is authorized is based on the equipment status. In response to the user being authenticated and authorized to access the equipment unit energized or the user being authorized to access the equipment unit un-energized and the equipment unit being un-energized, the method releases a unit lock for the equipment unit with a unit lock credential and the user credential.