EEEngineering, LLC

Electrical protection, coordination, arc flash, and short circuit studies: If done incorrectly, which one rarely leads to extensively damaged equipment? An electrical power engineer familiar with power studies and/or protection has often heard those studies: 1- Arc flash studies 2- Short circuit studies 3- Protection studies 4- Coordination studies Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electricalengineering #electrical

OSHA requires companies working in hazardous industries to have a Management of Change (MOC) process. Any change can introduce new hazards, so everyone involved with the proposed change must be aware; They must approve the MOC and document it. However, we have occasionally taken this process for granted and sometimes abused it. The MOC process is NOT a documented email on Microsoft word document. It is not a bunch of emails saved somewhere. It is an interface where everyone can input comments and upload and download drawings. Unless it is emergency work, you must follow the guidance below. 1-   You must include every discipline the changes will touch—Civil, electrical, instrumentation, environmental, whatever. 2-   Everyone involved must approve the MOC before the work starts 3-   You must not be pressured. If you disagree with what the MOC says, do NOT approve it. Contact the MOC owner and work with them. 4-   You must upload all the documentation involved with the change 5-   The scope of work must be cleared and detailed 6-   When you approve it, you can't say: "I did not know about this." It is your responsibility to read everything in the MOC. 7- The work can begin once the MOC is approved and authorized for use. 8-   Once the work is done, there is an additional task for someone to upload the new drawings/documents. The MOC must stay open until everyone closes their tasks. 9-   You must upload all pertinent drawings/documents to the MOC system and your external database It is dangerous when we do not adequately follow that process. I have seen $100 million projects being built, and the MOC was never approved. The MOC was written for 6 months and left hanging. I have seen countless and countless MOC being left open for up to 5 years after the change occurred. I have seen people approving MOC without even reading them. If you see all the CSB safety videos, you can understand how a MOC could have saved people's lives. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering #alternativeenergy

In March 2021, GOOGLE LLC made a significant stride by officially becoming a Power Producer Contributing to the USA Grid with a 1.7 MWac rated PV. This move not only contributed to a cleaner environment but also resulted in substantial cost savings. In 2021 alone, Google LLC saved a remarkable $400,000 in electricity bills. Let’s delve into the financial implications of this achievement. The average price of commercial electricity in California was 19.18 cents/Kwh. Google PV and/or Batteries generated 2,095 MWh. We will assume that all the MWh was consumed and nothing was sold to Pacificorp, which means 2095 * 0.1918/0.001 =  $401,821 How long will it take them to make up the expenses incurred to purchase and install PV? Welcome to the United States Independent Power Producer Club Google LLC; a lot of savings and, more importantly, a cleaner world for all of us. EEEngineering, LLC #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering #powergeneration

The USA recognizes 22 countries in the world as having equivalent engineering degrees. So when you apply for PE in the USA, you are equal to a USA engineering degree. Share with your country, men and women. Below is the list: 1- Australia 2- Canada 3- Costa Rica 4- China 5- Hong Kong 6- India 7- Indonesia 8- Ireland 9- japan 10- Malaysia 11- Mexico 12- New Zealand 13- Pakistan 14- Peru 15- Russia 16- Singapore 17- South Africa 18- South Korea 19- Sri Lanka 20- Taiwan 21- Turkey 22- United Kingdom Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electricalengineering #electrical #epassa

There are currently 1,280 wind farms in America. Unfortunately, at least 80% are running significantly below design. However, 1% are exceptional. Among the 1% is the RWE Grand View wind farm. Grand View Wind Farm is located in Texas and is tied to the grid at 345 kV. It is connected to the Oncor electric transmission line. The farm is rated at 211.2 MW and has 118 GE turbines 1.7. Grand View Wind Farm is one of the rare sites with a net capacity factor above 50%. In 2016, they reached 50.18%, and in 2018, 51.02%. In 2021, the capacity factor was 45.88%. Even the top offshore wind farms do not reach 50%; the USA's average capacity factor is 35%. What is a net capacity factor? It is also called utilization ratio. (Yearly MWh output) / (Yearly Nameplate rated MWh) There are many critical factors in analyzing a wind farm. The low-hanging fruits are: 1- Does the power system output match the intended design output within a reasonable confidence interval? 2- Are the correct power system data appropriately analyzed to provide the right directions for operations to run efficiently? I have analyzed all the wind farms regarding statements 1 and 2. Unfortunately, at least 80% are significantly flawed. It can be fixed with no significant costs. Respect for RWE and Grand View Wind Farm. 50% is a milestone only reached by fewer than 12 Wind Farms in America. A ranking of all wind farms is coming. Do you need to see a detailed analysis of your wind facility? Of your facility? Do you think you need a power study done? Do not hesitate to contact us. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States RWE #engineering #electricalengineering #electrical #powersystems

In most cases (NOT ALL), electrical engineers working for engineering firms do not have more expertise than electrical facility engineers. What they have is MORE Experience. Expertise is not Experience. The big guns in engineering firms with substantial expertise work on significant projects that are not yours. Even if those few experts' names appear on your project, they barely had enough time to review it thoroughly. The engineer working on your project is the one with limited to no expertise but with a ton of Experience. What does that mean? If you test it and it works, if you commission it and it works, it MUST be right! That is so not correct! Electrical power studies are one task that cannot be factory tested or commissioned. -         You cannot commission a short-circuit study -         You cannot test an arc flash study -         You cannot commission a power flow study -         You cannot commission relay settings accuracy. (I am not talking about checking if the settings match the study recommendation) What ends up happening? A superficial review is done; minor mistakes are found and corrected, and everyone says: COMPLETED. -         You can run a car that needs an oil change now for 10,000 miles more, and the car will appear fine -         You can run with a check engine light for years and no apparent issues That is what we are doing. We have learned to beat up our equipment because they can take with no evident defect sign. Until a significant incident occurs, we learn how to fix symptoms and push start! Now we have all the digital data to prove fake accurate design! Time has changed; do not be the one in trouble. Perform a proper review, and if you do not have the tools or expertise, Stop saying YES during the review if you do not get it. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering

To my fellow power engineer: Times have changed, and we now can see EVERYTHING in a power system. A 15-minute relay check can save millions of dollars for your company. This is a simple start-up in a data center - Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon Web Services- A simple data check: 1- Is the inrush current expected? We have a 25 MVA load. 2- Why is IC much lower? Is it expected? 3- Are our settings accurate? Do we want all those elements picked up during the start-up? 4- During the next start-up, will we trip accidentally? Is it going to extend the start-up due to troubleshooting? 5- Do we expect to have that much negative sequence current 6- Do we expect that waveform currents during start-up It is a simple, innocuous task, but it provides a wealth of knowledge about your equipment. What's the point of having a smartphone if you are unwilling to use apps? Utilize the data seen in your relays; it costs no extra money and no significant time to improve reliability and save lives. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #electricalengineering #electrical #engineering

American Grid! Welcome to Indiana 34.5 kV; you can learn a lot during energization. Ready to energize? At 12:43 PM, the Breaker closes in. The peak current is on the C phase, Ic = 1154 A. The middle graph shows voltage; notice the tiny voltage dip on the C phase. And a few cycles later, Vc increased. The bottom graph shows digital data. At least 4 data assert during energization. Is this intended? Are we just lucky that nothing tripped this time? If it is designed that way, then there is no issue. What do you think of all those elements that picked up? Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering

Iowa is a crucial state that no one seems to talk about until election time. Ohio is the mother of America, the motor of the Internet: Massive data centers are everywhere, including Facebook/Meta, Microsoft, and Google. Apple, a tech titan, is not immune to the allure of Iowa's data center potential. The company is currently in the exploration phase of building a data center in Waukee, Iowa, further solidifying the state's role in the digital world. Why they all chose Iowa: 1-     Open flat land 2-     Resistance to natural disaster 3-     Access to renewable energy 4-     Tax subsidies from Iowa deserves to be discussed more because it is vital to have fast internet access. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering

A pregnant woman almost lost her life and the life of her fetus.  It's staggering that 150 SEL relays in the American grid are currently programmed incorrectly. What is causing these elements to drop? There is a belief that if we program the relays to protect against those 4 short circuits, LG, LL, LLL, and LLG, then we are covered. In some cases, this is NOT TRUE, and those cases are not rare. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just the 4 types of short circuit faults that we need to be concerned about. The real danger lies in EVOLVING FAULTS, particularly in high-complexity power schemes. This picture shows you an example. Unfortunately, 150 relays are programmed with those flaws. Some have been fixed, but most are still there, waiting for the wrong fault to occur. Electrical power engineering is a tricky field. It lures you into thinking you understand things because incidents may take several years before they occur; in some cases, you do not even notice the flaw after the incident occurs. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering