The University of Wyoming Extension service provides research and education to farmers and ranchers; funded by federal, state, and local sources:
Agricultural production and management: The Extension service provides information and resources on topics such as crop production, livestock management, and farm business management.
Soil and water management: The Extension service offers expertise on soil fertility, irrigation, water quality, and conservation practices.
Pest management: The Extension service provides resources and support for integrated pest management, including information on insect and disease control, weed management, and pesticide safety.
Youth education: The Extension service offers educational programs and activities for youth interested in agriculture, including 4-H clubs and competitions.
Community development: The Extension service works with local communities to support economic development, tourism, and natural resource conservation.
The Extension service also offers consultations, workshops, field days, and other events to help farmers and ranchers stay up-to-date on the latest research and technologies in agriculture.
Today at the usual hour we examine the status of titles in relevant, accredited standards developers catalogs that assert best practice for keeping power systems at all voltage levels safe and sustainable.
Almost all power outages are the result of shortcoming in commissioning, inspection, testing and maintenance practice.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
IEC 60364 Series: Low-voltage electrical installations (relevant for HV interfaces).
IEEE 510-1983: Recommended Practices for Safety in High Voltage and High Power Testing.
IEEE 1547-2018: Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources.
IEEE 3007.2-2010: Recommended Practice for the Maintenance of Industrial and Commercial Power Systems:
NFPA 70B: Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance
NFPA 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace
NFPA 70 (National Electrical Code – NEC):
ANSI/NETA ECS: Standard for Electrical Commissioning Specifications.
ANSI/NETA MTS-2023: Standard for Maintenance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment and Systems:
30 CFR Part 77 Subpart I: Surface High-Voltage Distribution (U.S. Code of Federal Regulations).
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147: Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout):
UL Standards (e.g., UL 2703, UL 1741) which cover maintenance of HV components in photovoltaic systems, such as inverters and mounting systems.
ASHRAE TC 9.9: Data Center Power Equipment Thermal Guidelines and Best Practices:
TIA-942-B: Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers:
Copper can’t be mined fast enough to electrify the US
Copper cannot be mined quickly enough to keep up with current U.S. policy guidelines to transition the country’s electricity and vehicle infrastructure to renewable energy, according to a University of Michigan study.
“…O chestnut tree;, great rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bold? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
We sweep through the world’s three major time zones; updating our understanding of the literature at the technical foundation of education community safety and sustainability in those time zones 24 times per day. We generally eschew “over-coding” web pages to sustain speed, revision cadence and richness of content as peak priority. We do not provide a search facility because of copyrights of publishers and time sensitivity of almost everything we do.
Our daily colloquia are typically doing sessions; with non-USA titles receiving priority until 16:00 UTC and all other titles thereafter. We assume policy objectives are established (Safer-Simpler-Lower-Cost, Longer-Lasting). Because we necessarily get into the weeds, and because much of the content is time-sensitive and copyright protected, we usually schedule a separate time slot to hammer on technical specifics so that our response to consultations are meaningful and contribute to the goals of the standards developing organization and to the goals of stewards of education community real assets — typically the largest real asset owned by any US state and about 50 percent of its annual budget.
1. Leviathan. We track noteworthy legislative proposals in the United States 118th Congress. Not many deal specifically with education community real assets since the relevant legislation is already under administrative control of various Executive Branch Departments such as the Department of Education.
We do not advocate in legislative activity at any level. We respond to public consultations but there it ends.
We track federal legislative action because it provides a stroboscopic view of the moment — the “national conversation”– in communities that are simultaneously a business and a culture. Even though more than 90 percent of such proposals are at the mercy of the party leadership the process does enlighten the strengths and weakness of a governance system run entirely through the counties on the periphery of Washington D.C. It is impossible to solve technical problems in facilities without sensitivity to the zietgeist that has accelerated in education communities everywhere.
Michigan can 100% water and feed itself. Agriculture is its second-largest industry.
Leyden Jar electric energy storage; and early form of a microgrid. CLICK ON IMAGE for more information
The National Electrical Contractors Association develops a suite of consensus standards titled National Electrical Installation Standards (NEIS) that meet the intent of the National Electrical Code (NEC); particularly where the NEC asserts that an installation be constructed in a “neat and workmanlike manner”. The scope of the original undertaking, begun in the early 1990’s with University of Michigan as an early adopter, has since expanded into operation and maintenance standards; and more recently into design, installation, operating and maintaining integrated systems such as microgrids*.
Some electrotechnology professionals struggle with the notion of a “microgrid” — a trendy term of art for an integrated system of interactive and distributed power sources that many large research universities have had for decades in their district energy plant. There are some noteworthy operational differences, however; as a trend toward local power storage accelerates and education facility leaders are under pressure to prove the they have a Smart Grid (even if they already have one). None of the #SmartCampus conceptions for expansion of microgrids into individual buildings, or regions on campuses, will ever pay for themselves we cannot operate and maintain many of them economically (when set against the operational economics of the electrical supply delivered by the university district energy plant). The university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery campus may be a proof-point, however.
The NECA documents are used by construction owners, specifiers, contractors and electricians to clearly illustrate the performance and workmanship standards essential for different types of electrical construction. Because the NEC is intended to be primarily a wiring safety standard, the NEIS suite is referenced throughout the National Electrical Code. Electrical shop foremen and front line electricians take note.
You may obtain an electronic copy from [email protected]. Send comments to Aga Golriz, (301) 215-4549, [email protected] with a copy of your comments [email protected]. Because the proposed change is relatively minor editorial/grammatical change, we will not comment on it but encourage other user-interests in the education facilities industry (electric shops, engineering managers, etc.) to at least become familiar with the NECA suite of standards and to incorporate them by reference into their standard practice guides for electrical trades.
Our door is open every day at 11 AM for consultation on this and other standards. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page. Additionally, we will refer this to the IEEE Education & Healthcare Committee, which is a subcommittee in the IEEE Industrial Applications Society which follows — and leads — the development of the emergent #SmartCampus. That committee meets online 4 times monthly in European and American time zones. See the IEEE E&H Calendar for date, time and login credentials.
*Most seasoned electrical power professionals recognize that many large research universities with district energy systems that generate in parallel with a public utility have, for decades, operated with all the essential characteristics of a microgrid (save for the political “buzz”). On-site power storage for telecommunication and mission critical facilities have been in place for decades; so has back up on-site generation. Scaling these known sources to provide normal power to a single building, or groups of buildings, is an essential difference, however. Electrical engineering expertise and judgement is needed to determine the optimal balance between a smart distributed resource (such as a microgrid) and a central resource from an existing district energy system. An array of microgrids on a large research university campus will have a cost associated with of installing, operating and maintaining them.
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan
First Draft Proposals contain most of our proposals — and most new (original) content. We will keep the transcripts linked below but will migrate them to a new page starting 2025:
N.B. We are in the process of migrating electric power system research to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers bibliographic format.
Recap of the May meetings of the Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Conference in Las Vegas. The conference ended the day before the beginning of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend in the United States so we’re pressed for time; given all that happened.
We can use our last meeting’s agenda to refresh the status of the issues.
We typically break down our discussion into the topics listed below:
Codes & Standards:
While IAS/I&CPS has directed votes on the NEC; Mike is the only I&CPS member who is actually submitting proposals and responses to codes and standards developers to the more dominant SDO’s — International Code Council, ASHRAE International, UL, ASTM International, IEC & ISO. Mike maintains his offer to train the next generation of “code writers and vote getters”
Performance-based building premises feeder design has been proposed for the better part of ten NEC revision cycles. The objective of these proposals is to reduce material, labor and energy waste owed to the branch and feeder sizing rules that are prescriptive in Articles 210-235. Our work in service and lighting branch circuit design has been largely successful. A great deal of building interior power chain involves feeders — the network upstream from branch circuit panels but down stream from building service panel.
Our history of advocating for developing this approach, inspired by the NFPA 101 Guide to Alternative Approaches to Life Safety, and recounted in recent proposals for installing performance-based electrical feeder design into the International Building Code, appears in the link below:
Access to this draft paper for presentation at any conference that will receive it — NFPA, ICC or IEEE (or even ASHRAE) will be available for review at the link below:
Renovation economics, Smart contracts in electrical construction. UMich leadership in aluminum wiring statements in the NEC should be used to reduce wiring costs.
This paper details primary considerations in estimating the life cycle of a campus medium voltage distribution grid. Some colleges and universities are selling their entire power grid to private companies. Mike has been following these transactions but cannot do it alone.
Variable Architecture Multi-Island Microgrids
District energy:
Generator stator winding failures and implications upon insurance premiums. David Shipp and Sergio Panetta. Mike suggests more coverage of retro-fit and lapsed life cycle technicals for insurance companies setting premiums.
Reliability:
Bob Arno’s leadership in updating the Gold Book.
Mike will expand the sample set in Table 10-35, page 293 from the <75 data points in the 1975 survey to >1000 data points. Bob will set up meeting with Peyton at US Army Corps of Engineers.
Reliability of merchant utility distribution systems remains pretty much a local matter. The 2023 Edition of the NESC shows modest improvement in the vocabulary of reliability concepts. For the 2028 Edition Mike submitted several proposals to at least reference IEEE titles in the distribution reliability domain. It seems odd (at least to Mike) that the NESC committees do not even reference IEEE technical literature such as Bob’s Gold Book which has been active for decades. Mike will continue to propose changes in other standards catalogs — such as ASTM, ASHRAE and ICC — which may be more responsive to best practice assertions. Ultimately, improvements will require state public utility commission regulations — and we support increases in tariffs so that utilities can afford these improvements.
Mike needs help from IEEE Piscataway on standard WordPress theme limitations for the data collection platform.
Mike will update the campus power outage database.
Healthcare:
Giuseppe Parise’s recent work in Italian power grid to its hospitals, given its elevated earthquake risk. Mike’s review of Giuseppe’s paper:
Mike and David Shipp will prepare a position paper for the Harvard Healthcare Management Journal on reliability advantages of impedance grounding for the larger systems.
The Internet of Bodies
Forensics:
Giuseppe’s session was noteworthy for illuminating the similarity and differences between the Italian and US legal system in handling electrotechnology issues.
Mike will restock the committee’s library of lawsuits transactions.
Ports:
Giuseppe updates on the energy and security issues of international ports. Mike limits his time in this committee even though the State of Michigan has the most fresh water international ports in the world.
A PROPOSED GUIDE FOR THE ENERGY PLAN AND ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF A PORT
Other:
Proposals to the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code: Accepted Best Practice, exterior switchgear guarding, scope expansion into ICC and ASHRAE catalog,
Apparently both the Dot Standards and the Color Books will continue parallel development. Only the Gold Book is being updated; led by Bob Arno. Mike admitted confusion but reminded everyone that any references to IEEE best practice literature in the NFPA catalog, was installed Mike himself (who would like some backup help)
Mike assured Christel Hunter (General Cable) that his proposals for reducing the 180 VA per-outlet requirements, and the performance-base design allowance for building interior feeders do not violate the results of the Neher-McGrath calculation used for conductor sizing. All insulation and conducting material thermal limits are unaffected.
Other informal discussions centered on the rising cost of copper wiring and the implications for the global electrotechnical transformation involving the build out of quantum computing and autonomous vehicles. Few expressed optimism that government ambitions for the same could be met in any practical way.
Are students avoiding use of Chat GPT for energy conservation reasons? Mike will be breaking out this topic for a dedicated standards inquiry session:
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
