By Scott Howard, PE, Principal of Waypoint Engineering and Peter Grushevskiy, EIT, Civil Engineering, Environmental & Planning Specialist at BKI Reliable and Resilient Systems are a Must Power providers are trusted by our communities to maintain both the reliability and resiliency of the electrical grid. As an infrastructure lifeline, the electrical grid stands at the
By Scott M. Lindsay Wildfires are dominating discussions among our partner utilities these days. For all the reasons you already know, wildfire preparedness and mitigation has become a top priority for electric utilities in the West. California on the Burning Edge of Wildfire Policy As history has shown, California is typically the first state to
Jim Guess, P.E. Drone LiDAR for Distribution Design: Thanks to the continued advancements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, our industry is seeing more and more applications where utilizing a drone is a cost-effective solution for current utility needs. Drones have been utilized in our industry for everything from line patrol to line inspection with
By Guy Colpron, P.E., Director of Design The 2018 revised IEEE 1584 standard has introduced a new, empirically derived, arc flash model to calculate the incident energy of arc flash events. Researchers also developed two additional electrode configurations to accurately calculate the arc flash energy in previously unmodelled configurations. While the original standard was established
By Guy Colpron, P.E., Director of Design The introduction of microprocessor-based protective relaying in the 1990s has changed the power industry. Electrical networks are now more secure and reliable than ever before. Over the years, manufactures have continued to improve functionality while making the equipment more cost effective. Microprocessors Enable Increased Relay Functionality Microprocessor based
By Byron Woltersdorf, P.E., Director of Civil Engineering Services What Does SPCC plan stand for? Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure plan, which is a federal regulation that is used to prevent oil from entering navigable waters through the prevention, control and mitigation of oil spills. What federal agencies regulate oil spills? The Environmental Protection Agency
By Erik Kysar, P.E., and Guy Colpron, P.E. For decades, low-cost hydropower caused utilities (large and small) to largely ignore the cost of losses. Today, rising wholesale costs, especially with the onset of tier 2 rates, place a large emphasis in loss reduction and loss evaluation. Unlike consumer energy efficiency, reduced system losses contribute directly
By Scott Howard, PE, Waypoint Engineering, Inc. Over the past decade, there has been much discussion about seismic resiliency of the infrastructure in the pacific northwest. Everyone has heard the phrase “it’s not a matter of if, but when”. Both Oregon and Washington have performed studies on the Energy infrastructure and have determined we could
By Erik Kysar, PE, Principal Advisor Brown & Kysar, Inc. (BKI) All my guys wear 8-cal clothing – that’s plenty! I don’t need to worry about doing the calculations and keeping track of the arc flash amounts, right? Unfortunately, wrong! Some utilities have completed the calculations and use them, some have the calculations collecting dust
By Erik Kysar, PE, President Brown & Kysar, Inc. (BKI) The difference between a neutral and a ground is extremely obvious; right? Just look in the vault or up the pole. However, if your utility is anywhere close to normal, the answer is sometimes not so obvious. The safety repercussions to the public and to