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 CAP Spotlight series, we look at what makes CAPs special and highlight some of their individual successes. In this issue, NETA World interviews Francis Fisher, head of …
The clamp-on current meter that appeared in the late 20th century was a blessing to everyone working in electrical testing. It improved the vital measurement of one of the three components of Ohm’s Law by a quantum leap. No more difficult, costly, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous direct connections to live circuitry. Just clamp a pair of jaws around a conductor …
Everyone says they want to be safe, but when you get right down to it, some are more serious — or possibly they understand the consequences of incorrect decisions more accurately — than others. Whoever performed the repair in this photo did not have a clue what they were doing or the possible consequences of such shoddy work. Thankfully, we …
As the electrical industry addresses arc flash electrical safety concerns, it now acknowledges the high risks associated with what used to be normal maintenance tasks. In many cases, excessively high arc flash incident energy levels require all maintenance to be done with equipment de-energized, despite the fact that it may not always be considered feasible. In addition to the usual …
I was awakened by a phone call at 3:30AM on a recent Saturday morning and somehow cleared my voice well enough for the customer to understand we would mobilize a technician ASAP to troubleshoot flooding at one of his campus buildings. By 4:15AM, our technician was on site with campus electricians discussing a situation involving the physical education building at …
Electric utilities have vast numbers of protective relays in their fleets, including generation, transmission, and distribution systems. It is very important to maintain an accurate database that stores the actual in-service settings for each and every relay. Off-the-shelf software already exists for storing and keeping track of all relay settings (Figure 1). It is vital to download the relay settings …
If it’s possible to sum up Ron Widup with a single word, it might be: Driven. Widup, who is Senior Advisor, Technical Services, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Shermco Industries, is the 2020 recipient of NETA’s Outstanding Achievement Award. The 2020 NETA Outstanding Achievement Award recipient holds a passion for the industry, and his participation in …
When the presentation for this year’s Alliance Recognition Award began, Dr. Nick Perjanik thought the award was going to anyone but him. “At first, I thought it was someone else since there were many people in the room with similar backgrounds and contributions to NETA. Once the reference was made to my dissertation, I was surprised I was the one …
The best and brightest in electrical testing and maintenance lit up PowerTest 2020, the premier electrical power systems event. The annual five-day conference hosted over 500 attendees from February 24–28, 2020, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. PowerTest is the largest gathering of NETA Accredited Company representatives and industry professionals each year and is supported by companies committed to safety, reliability, …
Capitol Area Testing, Inc. was born in 2006 from the perception that the data center Industry in Northern Virginia needed a more dedicated, service-oriented testing organization than what was being provided at the time. Since that time, Capitol Area Testing Inc. has been 70% dedicated to new data center acceptance testing, including medium-voltage distribution equipment, medium-voltage redundant power systems, low-voltage …