EEEngineering, LLC

Every company likes to say Safety first; however, is it really true? OSHA investigation: Employee severely shocked and burned to the hands and feet. Dalton, Georgia, 14:30 on January 18, 2022- A 30-year-old male was finishing a 63-foot wide concrete parking lot pad with a long-handled bull float. As he changed position, the handle came in contact with the 12 kV overhead line. Outcome: Severely shocked; burn to the hands and feet OSHA investigation started 1 week later and was closed after 7 months. They cited the company with 2 violations and fined the company: Violation 1: Failure to protect the employee around energized conductors. Violation 2: Failure to follow insulation requirements of tools around energized conductors. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #electricity #epassa #powersystems #engineering

One of the most underrated skills in power is electrical engineering deductive logic. Why don't birds die or get hurt when they rest on those cables? Almost all electrical crew answers (paraphrase): "They are not touching ground or something like that.." Ok, if that's the reason, why don't I get hurt or killed when I hold the washer machine cable in my house while it is energized and running? Am I not connected to ground? The typical response: " The cable you hold is insulated." Ok, so I can see outside. The cable where the bird rests looks black, just like the washer machine cable. Is it not insulated? Are you then stating that if the bird is somehow grounded while touching the seemingly insulated line (not the power line but the distribution line), it will not get hurt or die because the cable is insulated? Now at this stage, there is a long pause. Welcome to the electrical engineering deductive logic. What do you think? Isn't it interesting? Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #electrical #engineering #electricalengineering #epassa

To my fellow power engineers: Times have changed, and we can now 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 straightforward data check: 1. Is the inrush current expected? We have a 25 MVA load. 2. Are our settings accurate? Do we want all those elements to activate during the start-up? 3. During the next start-up, could we trip accidentally? Will troubleshooting extend the start-up time? 4. Do we expect to have that much negative sequence current? 5. Do we anticipate 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 collected from your relays; it costs nothing extra and takes minimal time to improve reliability and save lives. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #epassa #electricalengineering #powergeneration

November 9, 1978- US President Jimmy Carter enacted the National Energy Act: Utility must buy power from Cogen facilities that meet certain conditions. That act empowered industrial sites to build more Cogen! Those Cogen would also receive special rates and regulatory treatment. Cogen is short for cogeneration. ? A cogen facility has a turbine that turns a generator to produce electricity. ? Moreover, when a turbine is used, it produces heat that is usually lost. In a Cogen facility, the heat is captured and reused for other purposes, such as producing steam, heating, etc. ? The Cogen facility significantly maximizes the site's efficiency by capturing otherwise lost energy. Cogen is often called CHP (combined heat power); However, there are close enough but not 100% synonyms. We will discuss their minor differences in a separate post. In the USA, as of 2021, there are: -?????????221 Commercial CHP -?????????470 Industrial CHP -?????????208 Independent Power Producers CHP We will explore every Cogen from USA refineries, chemicals, universities, and hospital sites. How efficient are they? How much money do they save by using Cogen? What are their hidden flaws? Power in the CHP (Cogen) ? Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electricalengineering #electrical #epassa

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin initially thought that current flows from a positive to a negative terminal? A century later, scientists discovered that it was actually the opposite; current flows from negative to positive. Since we had already accepted Franklin's convention, it was a heavy task to change it. So now we use the somewhat inaccurate convention that states: current flows from positive to negative. This does not diminish Ben Franklin's outstanding contributions or impact any electrical theory. Sometimes, it is okay to be imperfect. ?? Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #electricalengineering #electrical #engineering #powersystems

What is an Arc Flash Label? It is a document that must be glued to the enclosures of electrical equipment. The label provides extensive information, including the arc flash boundary. The boundary of this arc flash label is 6.6 feet. Anyone without proper arc flash PPE must be at least 6.6 feet away from the voltage source. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering #powersystems

Iowa is a crucial state that no one seems to talk about until election times; IOWA is the mother of America, the mother of the Internet: Massive data centers are everywhere there. Facebook/Meta, Microsoft and Google. Apple is exploring building a data center in Waukee, Iowa. Why they all chose Iowa: 1-?????Open flat land 2-?????Resistance to natural disaster 3-?????Access to renewable energy 4-?????Tax subsidies from the local government Iowa deserves to be more discussed because?there is no reliable internet without them! EEEngineering, LLC #engineering #electrical #electricalengineering

SKM vs. ETAP- Every SKM study I reviewed came back with this check: Comprehensive fault. It is NOT an approved short circuit method in the USA. SKM also has ANSI; why are you choosing the comprehensive method over ANSI? ETAP does not have that comprehensive method. You have got to be kidding (I did not voice this sentence loudly; I was saying it in my head). A simple question I ask to every engineer that uses SKM: Why are you choosing the comprehensive method over ANSI? below are the most popular answers: 1-?????Because the software said so 2-?????Because it would not make a significant difference 3-?????I can rerun the studies and compare 4-?????Because it is the preferred method of the software 5-?????Because it is better 6-?????Because X, Y, Z It is a simple test to realize: The consulting engineer does not fully understand what he/she is doing. I pay someone to perform electrical studies and to understand why they are doing something. I do not pay them to be robots! This is the truth: They leave everything to default, put all the electrical data, and hit RUN. This is the state of this discipline: “I know how to use the software; I can create a model, put all the nameplate data, and hit RUN! “ Yeah, we successfully perform electrical and arc flash studies!” The electrical facility engineer will NEVER realize how flawed the studies were until repeated and repeated incidents occur, and then a significant incident 1-2 years later. What a JOKE! Do NOT accept studies if you don’t have the proper expertise and method to review them, No matter who performs the studies. 92% of the electrical/arc flash studies I reviewed were significantly flawed: 20,000 arc flash labels, few deaths, 5 million dollars in wind turbine destroyed, 50MW generator winding failure due to improper protection, etc. You can STOP IT! Say NO!

A fault occurred in the USA grid in Indiana at 8:43 pm. As usual, engineers pull the event and can quickly tell what’s happening. But HOLD ON! Do we really understand this graph's incredible amount of practical data? 1-?????The event type states ABC T. Why does it say ABC T while the current data appears only to show 1 current IA going high 2-?????Report type CEV. I thought even data are Comtrade. What the heck is a CEV? 3-?????Fault location: -900. What does that mean? Do we have a negative distance? Is 900 miles, 900 km? Are we serious, do we have that long of a cable? 4-?????Frequency says 59.99 Hz. Does the frequency not change when there is a fault? Why is it still close to 60 Hz? Can you explain it 5-?????Look at all those currents. Everyone Knows IA, IB, and IC. But IN is 1, and IG= 2628A. Why is the neutral only see 1A while the ground sees 2628A? Does it make sense? If yes, can you explain it? 6-?????The voltage data appear not to change. I thought when there was a fault, voltages drop. Hmm.. 7-?????Look at all those digital data. Can you explain why they assert? 50P1, 67G1, 67Q3. Have you ever heard of SV6T? It does not appear to be an ANSI not IEC code. To conclude, look at how easy life is: you can tell the speed of your breaker without even testing. It shows there are 2.75 cycles. This is what I mean by becoming a practical engineer. Understanding power system data will unlock your full potential. How long does it take to become an expert if you follow this practical engineering approach: 9 MONTHS. That is correct 9 MONTHS from graduating as an undergraduate and you will become an expert in power engineering. It is not 9 calendar months; it is 9 months of work hours. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #powersystems #electrical #engineering #epassa

Shocking electrical fire captured by 1 relay. $10 million Wind Turbine Vestas V120 burned to the ground. The significant flaws of electrical studies have been there for several years. Notice something: the fault lasted 10 seconds (600 cycles), and the breaker never tripped. Look at the picture. Both pictures come from the same relay at different times. I remove the digital data part so that the image will not look too small Top picture: Time is 3:12:05 am The fault starts with the BC fault. The voltages drop Bottom picture: The time is 3:12:15 am The fault is still present; however, the current is gradually going down, and the voltage is gradually going back up. Yes, the equipment burned until it disconnected itself from the circuit. INCREDIBLE. This relay protects a dozen other turbines, so when one turbine burned and disconnected, the other equipment kept running as if nothing had ever occurred. Investigations started. Yes, they had an electrical incident that caused a fault. Why wasn’t the current removed? No, it is not Vestas' fault, not the breaker, not the relay, not the CT. This significant flaw was present for years. You cannot properly review an electrical study solely by checking the correctness of the data input. Those flaws will reveal themselves; it is a matter of time before the wrong/right scenario case occurs to reveal them. Thierry Julio Epassa- P.E. in Sixteen USA States #electricalengineering #electrical #engineering #epassa