As I allegedly approach a half century on this earth, reflections on life lessons learned abound. Looking back, there is no question that the most impactful lessons I learned — those I still use every day — came on days that started in the blazing heat of summer and ended in the brisk chill of autumn spent between painted white …
Partial discharge (PD) is a poorly understood phenomenon that can cause catastrophic failure of electrical assets. It can exist at initial commissioning or occur only after decades of use. The dictionary defines partial discharge as: a flashover of part of the insulation system due to a localized electric field greater than the dielectric withstand capability of that part where the …
A power system uses various elements within protective relay schemes, and having a thorough understanding of the theory behind these protective elements is more than useful — if not required — for anyone who comes in contact with them. Design engineers who must execute calculations based on system characteristics and machine capabilities and field technicians who conduct testing, calibration, and …
NETA’s Corporate Alliance Partners (CAPs) are a group of industry-leading companies that have joined forces with NETA to work together toward a common aim: improving quality, safety, and electrical system reliability. In our continuing CAP Spotlight series, we highlight some of their individual successes. In this issue, NETA World interviews Ralph Parrett, Manager of Content & Delivery, at AVO Training …
Most electrical equipment manufacturers provide life and performance expectancies with their equipment in the form of operation and maintenance manuals. Life expectancy is based on the premise that equipment has been professionally installed, is maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines and recommendations, and is being used per the manufacturer’s designed intent. This premise is also noted in NFPA 70 …
Although it can readily be overlooked, an important and fundamental consideration in any electrical application is safety, and one of the most effective tools in the application of safety is redundancy. If one safeguard fails, there’s another right there to act as a safety net. There’s hardly a greater necessity for redundant safety than in a substation, where arcing could …
While the basic premise of transformer differential protection is straightforward, numerous features are employed in modern relay algorithms to compensate for challenges presented by the transformer differential application. As a result, developing appropriate test quantities and properly quantifying results can be challenging with traditional functional differential testing. Challenges in Traditional Functional Testing A traditional functional test assures that all measurements …
Power factor (PF) measurement has been performed on stator windings for many decades and is a widely accepted and recommended tool to assess the insulation system of individual bars/coils and for complete stator windings. The test is known to be sensitive to several global defects such as the degree of curing of the bonding materials, moisture ingress, contamination, and thermal …
NETA Corporate Alliance Partners (CAPs) are a group of industry-leading companies that have joined forces with NETA to work together toward a common aim: improving quality, safety, and electrical system reliability. In our continuing CAP Spotlight series, we highlight some of their individual successes. In this issue, NETA World interviews John Olobri, Director of Sales and Marketing for AEMC® Instruments …
ANSI/NETA ATS–2017 Revision Underway ANSI/NETA ATS–2017, Standard for Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Equipment & Systems continues an American National Standard revision process that is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020. The new edition will be released in March 2021. A project intent notification published in ANSI’s Standards Action on January 3, 2020, announced the opening …