A change in NETA leadership occurs every two years, with the transition to a new president recognized as an important part of the association’s history and a key to its longevity and progress. NETA World’s custom is to share the outgoing president’s perspective in a thoughtful and reflective interview. Outgoing President Scott Blizard has been Vice President and Chief Operating …
ANSI/NETA ETT–2018 REVISION SCHEDULED FOR 2021 ANSI/NETA ETT, Standard for Certification of Electrical Testing Technicians, 2018 Edition is in the process of revision. The initial ballot was completed July 2021. Suggested comments and revisions will be reviewed by the Standards Review Council in fall 2021. A second ballot is scheduled for late 2021. The revised edition of NETA ETT is scheduled to …
Changes in the CSA Z462, Workplace electrical safety Standard are slowing down. Good news! That said, the 2021 Edition includes significant reorganization of content in Clause 4.1 and Clause 4.3, changes to existing annexes and some new annexes, and a significant change to the Arc Flash PPE Category Method of determining “additional protective measures” for a work task’s arc flash …
The new NFPA 70B, Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance closed its First Draft balloting on June 11, 2021, at 11:59 PM EDT. Much work has been done — and will continue to be done — by the committee members. This has been a huge re-write with chapters added, moved, renamed, and completely revamped. Material that was anything but a …
NETA supports two main CSA standards in Canada: CSA Z462, Workplace Electrical Safety and CSA Z463, Maintenance of Electrical Systems. Both of these standards are entering a new revision phase. TWO NEW TECHNICAL COMMITTEE CHAIRS CSA Z462 is now chaired by Daniel Roberts. Daniel is well-known in electrical safety circles as an expert in electrical shock and arc flash exposure mitigation as …
Installed wind power capacity in the United States has been growing at an incredible pace during the last two decades. In the middle of 2020, the total American wind power capacity was nearly 110,000 MW with over 60,000 turbines installed (Figure 1). It is known that power equipment used to connect renewables faces very specific and increased stress when sources of …
The design life of a transformer is usually about 20 to 25 years. In the United States, estimates show the average age of a transformer is currently around 42 years, which means a number of even older units are still in service. As with all things, transformers age and degrade over time. Transformer failures can come from a variety of …
Conventional testing of medium- and high-voltage circuit breakers (MV/HV CBs) involves measuring the timing and travel of the main contacts and their corresponding resistors (pre- or post-insertion) if any, along with the current profile of the operating coils, and occasionally the timing of auxiliary contacts. This article explains several techniques available to improve or extend the scope of testing. Aspects …
Did you know that the most common characterization of a ground rod may not work for lightning? In 1997, an experiment at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) at Camp Blanding, Florida, challenged the predominant view that ground rods are essentially resistive. That experiment found that the waveshapes of lightning currents in a building grounding system and those entering the electrical …
Electrical safety is often described as a three-legged stool encompassing proper installation, routine maintenance, and applicable safe work practices. It is this relationship that sets the stage for what can best be described as the electrical safety ecosystem as it lives within the larger overall NFPA Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem™. This Ecosystem is made up of eight key elements …