Note:
Online registration is currently closed, but spaces are still available. If you would like to register for this series and receive past webinar recordings, please contact Gail Patterson at (360) 816-1450 or gail@nwppa.org.
Who Should Attend:
Engineering personnel and others who would benefit from an understanding of current electric utility engineering principles and practices.
Webinar Overviews:
The engineering webinar series is comprised of 12 webinars from January through December 2020. Descriptions for each webinar can be found below. Webinars can be taken individually or as an entire series. By registering for the full series, you will receive all 12 webinars at a discounted price.
January 7, 2020 Utility Easements – Rights and Obligations
Easements are necessary to have legal permission to build and operate a power line on someone’s land. What are the property owner’s rights within the easements? What are the utility’s rights? This webinar will provide a review of the property owner’s rights and the utility’s obligations to the property owner.
February 4, 2020 Understanding Wire Slap
Modern overcurrent protection schemes have two or more three-phase reclosers in a series. Often, what is seen as miscoordination by upstream devices is actually wire slap. The fault current in the overhead lines creates a magnetic field that draws conductors together resulting in wire slap. Wire slap faults can lead to the lockout of an upstream device. This webinar will explore wire slap and mitigation techniques to avoid this type of miscoordination.
March 10, 2020 Separable Connectors in Underground Systems
This webinar is a tutorial on the installation and operation of separable connectors. These connectors are at the heart of all underground distribution systems. The webinar will provide operational knowledge to designers for the use and application of separable connectors. Items to be addressed include bleed wires, operating tools, termination techniques, and operating limits.
April 14, 2020 Designing Roadway Illumination
More than 50% of all fatal highway crashes occur at night, even though nighttime traffic volumes are only 25% of all traffic. Roadway lighting helps to reduce this hazard. This webinar will discuss AASHTO and IES standards for luminance and illumination. The effects of glare as well as methods for glare reduction will be presented. In addition, the standards for lens and lateral distribution patterns, standard pole spacing, and lighting layouts will be discussed.
May 12, 2020 Designing Poles Near Airports
Regardless of whether the airport is a licensed regional airport or a turf runway airport, it will need electric power. Tall poles near runways and taxiways can present a hazard. The glide paths and obstruction-free zones adjacent to the runway have specific maximum height requirements given the type of plane using the runway. This webinar will discuss the FFA requirements for guide paths and the maximum height of poles. The webinar will also address hazard marking of poles near landing zones.
June 9, 2020 Designing Secondary and Services
This webinar will address voltage drop and flicker requirements for electric services. The voltage drop through the transformer, secondary, and service conductor can create a power quality problem if not designed properly. A new software tool for estimating the drop voltage and flicker will be demonstrated and provided to attendees.
July 7, 2020 Load Balancing on Wye Systems
Every winter and summer, utilities dispatch crews to change phases on taps in an effort to balance the load on the system. This webinar will explain the importance of load balance to reduce losses and to improve the overcurrent protection systems. Techniques and methods will be presented as well as best practices for system load balancing.
August 11, 2020 Pole Foundations
The strength of a distribution pole relies on the stability of the pole foundation. This webinar will discuss various methods to improve foundation stability including pole foam, deeper setting depths, gravel backfill, and pole keys. Additionally, the discussion will include methods for estimating the stability of the soil.
September 15, 2020 Comparison of Wood and Non-Wood Crossarms
Utility designers have more options available for support arms than ever before. This webinar will focus on the different types of support arms and materials used. The mounting techniques and braces will also be addressed. Application-based pros and cons of different crossarms will be discussed to aid in selecting arms. Strength of the arm and NESC requirements will also be discussed.
October 13, 2020 Conservation Potential Assessments
On national, regional, and local levels, energy conservation (energy efficiency) is viewed as a reliable, low-risk, and high-return energy resource. A conservation potential assessment (CPA) helps utilities determine where the most cost-effective energy efficiency lies and where to target program efforts. The results of a CPA are often used in conjunction with integrated resource plans (IRPs) to help optimize a utility’s electric supply resources. This webinar will discuss the elements of a CPA, a comparison of the CPA with supply-side resources, and the utilization with the IRP.
November 10, 2020 Reducing Animal-Caused Outages
Since animals cause many outages, it is often easy to blame an unknown outage on a squirrel. Many different products are on the market to help reduce animal-caused outages and each product focuses on a certain animal and situation. This webinar will explore the logistics of animal-caused outages and the theories behind the deterrent systems. Squirrels, snakes, birds, gophers, and large animals will be discussed along with the environmental factors that need to be considered in the selection of deterrents. For instance, snakes often come into a substation because of nesting birds; therefore, preventing nesting birds will reduce snake-caused outages.
December 8, 2020 Storm Hardening – Best Practices
The industry is moving from reliability to resiliency where resiliency defines how quickly a system recovers from a major event. Although storm hardening of the entire system may not be practical, focused storm hardening for key structures is both effective and economical. This webinar will present best practices used throughout the industry to harden key structures or segments of line which will aid in faster restoration of the system. The webinar will discuss best practices for different types of events (flood, wind, ice, etc.) and how these practices create cost-effective means for resiliency.
Webinar Instructor:
Hi-Line Engineering
Webinar Schedule:
All webinars in this series will begin at 8 a.m. Pacific Time and will last approximately 90 minutes. Instructions will be emailed to each registered individual on the day before the webinar.
Note: Recordings of each webinar are available to registrants after the live webinar.
Webinar Fees:
Please visit the event pages for individual webinar pricing.
Individual Attendee Registration:
All 12 webinars - Utility and Associate Member Rate: $1,100
Unlimited Attendee Registration*:
All 12 webinars - Utility and Associate Member Rate: $2,700
*If your organization would like to send multiple attendees to this webinar or the full series, please contact Dale Mayuiers at (360) 816-1448 or dale@nwppa.org for further details.