Electricity 101

June 14, 2023 | Online :: Central Time

0623-electricity-101

“Brent is an amazing instructor. The material that he covers is on point and his fun deliverance in the virtual environment is fun and engaging.” – CPUC

“One of the best speakers I’ve seen in a long time.” – Avangrid

“Brent is an excellent instructor. He helped me to understand concepts that I never fully understood before.” – CPUC

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“Brent was an excellent instructor! He kept everyone engaged and was very knowledgeable!” –Utilities Examiner, Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority

“Highly energetic and knowledgeable. Always providing real world experiences and examples is a plus!” – Principal Engineer, Salt River Project

“Brent’s instruction style made it very easy to grasp all the comments. It was very conversational, and he shared lots of great analogies and stories to make all the content relatable.” –Supervising Engineer, ATCO Electricity

“Brent was great. He was informative and funny. I thought I would have a difficult time with the virtual format, but Brent made the class fun and engaging.” – Regional Business Manager, Schweitzer Engineering Labs

This interactive course teaches fundamental concepts about electricity that everyone working for or with today’s electric utilities should know. 

The problem with most courses offered is that they often discuss terms and concepts as if they are already known, which can cause people to struggle with topics before these theories are well-understood on a foundational level. This course is a low stress, safe, and entertaining opportunity to learn at your pace, ask questions, and really understand the terms and concepts of electricity and how it works. While this course does have a scheduled outline of what you “need to know”, it is less about “the presentation” and more about the questions and information you would like to know in order to be successful and be comfortable initiating and participating in in-depth conversations and projects revolving around how electricity works, how it’s made, and how it’s distributed. 

Learning Outcomes  

• Discuss the smart, transformative technologies that are changing the game like renewable energy, storage, demand response, EMS, ADMS, distributed grids, etc.
• Review advanced terms and concepts such as power factor, VARs, harmonics, ABC phases, induction, EMFs, capacitance, frequency, and circuits
• Explore the technology behind current commonly used acronyms (ADMS, SCADA, EMS, DR, DER, VAR, PV, HVDC, QF, DG, RPS, AMS)
• Analyze how electricity developed and expanded into our modern electrical grid and where it is going next
• Appreciate how voltage, current, and resistance interact and how they affect the grid
• Identify key electrical components (i.e., breakers, fuses, switches, reclosures, cutouts, insulators, cables, etc.)
• Compare and contrast the differences between alternating current and direct current, energy and power, megawatt and kilowatt, 50hz and 60hz, radial and looped feeders, and single-phase and 3-phase
• Explore the concept of balancing the grid for the only product that needs to be produced at the exact moment its consumed
• Recognize the main grid transitioning advancement being focused on right now, how they work, and their effect on infrastructure and current policy

Wednesday, June 14, 2023 : Central Time

 

What is Electricity?

• Discovery and evolution
• How a kWh and a food Calorie are related
• What does electricity look like?
• How electricity travels
• War of the Currents (Edison, Tesla)
• Direct and alternating current
• Why electricity was adopted so quickly as an energy source
• How energy is converted to make electricity
• What is energy vs. power and the difference between kWh and kW
• How to calculate your electricity cost
• How a plug logger works
• Metric system (kW, MW, GW)

How Electricity is Made

• How a generator makes electricity
• What is frequency and why we standardized on 50/60 hz
• What are phases, why do we need them, and how do they work?
• Why 3-phase has more power than 1—and why not 4?
• Overview of the complexities of balancing the grid
• The need for and the current energy storage technologies
• How solar works and how it is related to LEDs and diodes
• Wind power, how it works, and where it’s going
• What are distributed energy resources?
• ADMS and EMS
• Demand response

The Components of Electricity

• How voltage, current, and resistance interact together and effect the grid
• How does Ohm’s Law apply to an electrical grid?
• Power equation wheel
• Voltage and its discovery
• Why more voltage needs more insulation
• Why the US uses a different voltage than most countries
• Outlets in the US and other countries
  • Pros and cons
  • Converting V and Hz
• Current and its discovery
• Why more current needs more conductor
• Which is more dangerous: voltage or current?
• What is resistance
• How to use a multimeter

What is the Grid?

• What is “the grid” and what is “the smart grid”
• How the grid evolved to what it is now
• What are the main grid advancements being focused on now?
• Acronyms of transformative and new tech and concept behind them (ADMS, SCADA, EMS, DR, DER, VAR, PV, HVDC, QF, DG, RPS, AMS)
• What is generation, transmission, and distribution?
• What is a substation, circuit, and feeder?
• What is a series, parallel, loop, and radial circuit?
• Underground vs. overhead; right of way vs. easements
• Bluestaking and how to read it
• What are the types of conductors (OH & UG) and insulators?
• What are EMFs and are they harmful?
• What causes an outage and how are they restored?
• How outages are prevented using breakers, fuses, switches, reclosures, etc.

Advanced Concepts

• What are transformers and induction?
• What is meant by primary and secondary wires?
• How 120 and 240 gets to a home wiring
• What are power factor and VARs, and why do we install capacitors?
• What are harmonics and why are they so bad?

Course Recap and Other Topics of Interest from the Participants

Brent Olsen, President, 3 Phase Consulting

Brent has 25+ years of experience working for large electric utility industries including Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, and Portland General Electric. He has worked in distribution, transmission and generation engineering and is currently a Project Manager for Specialized Energy Operations where he manages the installation of generation facilities, microgrids, distributed energy resources, and various grid edge research and development projects. He leads a user group of utility professionals who follow and discuss business and technological changes in the electric utilities industry.

Brent is an electrical engineer specializing in utility power systems with a masters in Energy Policy and Management and an MBA. He is also a PMP, has a degree in Spanish and is the two-time winner of PGE’s Project Manager and Project of the Year awards.

We will be using Microsoft Teams to facilitate your participation in the upcoming event. You do not need to have an existing Teams account in order to participate in the broadcast – the course will play in your browser and you will have the option of using a microphone to speak with the room and ask questions, or type any questions in via the chat window and our on-site representative will relay your question to the instructor.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: After November 30 you will not be able to join a Teams meeting using Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft recommends downloading and installing the Teams app if possible. You may also use the Edge browser or Chrome.
• You will receive a meeting invitation will include a link to join the meeting.
• Separate meeting invitations will be sent for the morning and afternoon sessions of the course.
  • You will need to join the appropriate meeting at the appropriate time.
• If you are using a microphone, please ensure that it is muted until such time as you need to ask a question.
• The remote meeting connection will be open approximately 30 minutes before the start of the course. We encourage you to connect as early as possible in case you experience any unforeseen problems.

Please Note: This event is being conducted entirely online. All attendees will connect and attend from their computer, one connection per purchase. For details please see our FAQ

If you are unable to attend at the scheduled date and time, we make recordings available to all registrants for three business days after the event

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Electricity 101

June 14, 2023 | Online

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before May 12, 2023 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 0.7 CEUs for this event

Requirements for Successful Completion of Program 

Participants must log in and be in attendance for the entirety of the course to be eligible for continuing education credit. 

Instructional Methods

PowerPoint presentations, group discussions, and active participation.

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Upon successful completion of this event, program participants interested in receiving CPE credits will receive a certificate of completion.

Course CPE Credits: 8.0
There is no prerequisite for this Course.
Program field of study: Specialized Knowledge
Program Level: Basic
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based
Advanced Preparation: None

EUCI is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its web site: www.nasbaregistry.org

 

Who Should Attend 

• New or seasoned professionals who need a better overall understanding of the intricacies of how electricity works, is made, and distributed
• Vendors, contractors, regulators, or anyone who works with a technical organization who would like to better understand electrical concepts
• Utility professionals interested in communicating at a higher level across a broader range of disciplines and management levels
• Non-technical staff that collaborate with or work around engineers or people that use these terms
• Individual contributors with plans to someday transition to a leadership role
• Customer service or sale representatives without an electrical background