ETAP recently donated an ETAP power-lab software package valued at nearly $125,000 to
West Virginia University Institute of Technology. This donation includes a lifetime license allowing up to 20 students to work concurrently on projects, studies, and research. ETAP’s giving program promotes the pursuit of academic excellence and the advancement of power systems studies.
“The ETAP software package is one of the leading packages used both nationally and internationally by the well-renowned electrical power systems industries,” explained Dr. Surinder Ram, professor of electrical and computer engineering, who facilitated the donation.
The academic edition of ETAP Enterprise Solution provides educational institutions with access to the latest technology for the design, modeling, simulation and operation of electrical power systems. Blending ETAP into standard power system curriculum gives students an excellent opportunity to learn and apply essential power system concepts utilizing the most sophisticated electrical engineering software package available for offline solutions.
Dr. Stephen Goodman, chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering, said, “We’re grateful for this gift since it allows us to bring more of the latest technology into our classrooms.”
The nuclear industry has a high level of regulatory standards that are met by ETAP’s strict quality measures, evident in the fact that, in the US, ETAP is the only High Impact power system analysis software approved for nuclear use.
ETAP is Verified and Validated (V&V) against field results, real system measurements, established programs, and hand calculations in order to ensure its technical accuracy. Each release of ETAP undergoes a complete V&V process using hundreds of test cases for each and every calculation module.
ETAP is driven to constantly be refined and enhanced for the nuclear community. ETAP annually hosts the ETAP Nuclear Utility User Conference in order for attendees to discuss project experiences and the capability for ETAP to optimize nuclear utility power systems. This year’s conference takes place June 21-23, followed by a symposium on June 24.
The United States is home to 64 nuclear power plants which are responsible for producing approximately 20% of the nation’s electricity. The important nature of nuclear power plants is unmistakable, which makes it all the more significant that 94% of U.S. nuclear plants use ETAP electrical engineering software to manage their power systems.
ETAP prides itself in providing superior engineering services and is proud to be the software of choice for nuclear power systems management across the United States.
ETAP is celebrating 25 years of expertise in power analysis and automation utilized for electrical engineering projects worldwide. Over 100,000 licenses have been issued in over 100 countries for power systems encompassing everything from generation to utilization.
Incorporated in 1986, OTI released the first version of ETAP power system analysis and design software. Since then, major milestones and achievements by the company include nuclear certification, the development and launch of ETAP Real-Time™ Power Management System, ISO 9001 certification, High Impact certification, and continuous improvements in software features and functionality up to and including the upcoming release – ETAP 11.
Market share growth of ETAP in all sectors of power systems has been consistently strong, including 94% of operating United States nuclear plants standardizing on ETAP. OTI has grown to be the world’s largest power system analysis software company, supported by an expert team of engineers and scientists, and experienced sales, marketing, and support staff.
Over the past decade, the rapid growth of ETAP has resulted in the establishment of ETAP Automation™ and subsidiary offices worldwide, including Europe, the Middle East, India, and China. These OTI groups of companies offer local and regional sales and support of ETAP using highly-qualified teams of authorized representatives and partners.
OTI is committed to not only producing the most comprehensive power system available, but to educate users about the myriad of functionalities available in ETAP. To this end, OTI offers training courses around the globe that cater to various levels of power engineering, ETAP skill and familiarity. Each course is taught by a certified ETAP engineer so that students can gain maximum benefit from ETAP software.
“Our mission has always been to provide state-of-the-art products and superior engineering services,” said Farrokh Shokooh, President and CEO of OTI. “We have achieved this by combining advanced technologies with the highest standard in quality while meeting our customers’ needs. We will continue to develop innovative and flexible software solutions for the power industry that enable our customers to obtain their technology objectives.”
The University of Tennessee Chattanooga, College of Engineering and Computer Science department is the latest recipient of ETAP software to be used in the new ETAP-TVA Power Simulation Lab. Operation Technology, Inc, (OTI) gifted 40 ETAP licenses to the university in order to provide the students an opportunity to gain valuable hands on experience with the most widely used electrical engineering software in the power industry.
OTI partnered up with the Tennessee Valley Authority who initially proposed the development of a power lab.
The University of Tennessee is the region’s primary resource for educational, applied research, and service programs. The university recently received a $2.4 million grant from the Department of Energy to prepare electric power sector employees for smart grid applications and increase the number of engineers from undergraduate and graduate programs to support smart power applications. These factors combined to make UTC a logical choice for the implementation of an ETAP Power Lab.
OTI’s commitment to the future of power systems energy is no more evident than in this quote by
It’s no secret. Jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, especially so for recent graduates. This is just as true for electrical engineering graduates looking to start their career.
According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment growth rate of electrical engineers is 6% over the decade of 2006-2016. The projected 6% growth in electrical engineering is lower than the average for other occupations, meaning that it’s not getting any easier to be an electrical engineer.
Recent graduates might feel as though they don’t have the requisite experience to directly compete with older and highly qualified individuals, but ETAP has a solution. Fortunately for aspiring engineers, ETAP is being placed in universities worldwide in the form of Power Labs. ETAP Power Labs assist power engineering students in developing best practices and familiarizing themselves with the latest advances in power system analysis technology.
Our industry leading electrical engineering software helps give students a jumpstart on their peers in order to make them more competitive workforce candidates. By gaining valuable hands on experience with our comprehensive power system software, recent graduates will be able to even the field and brighten the prospects of starting their electrical engineering journey.
If you are a user of ETAP then you may be familiar with STAR, the module for doing protection and coordination studies.
The STAR module is capable of drawing the Time Current Characteristics (TCC) of protective devices next to the operation, or damage curve of electrical equipment such as motors or power transformers. The display of device TCC side by side with protected equipment curves, for visual comparison and making proper adjustments, is the industry standard for protection and coordination studies.
Such practices may not lead to proper adjustment or verification of overcurrent protective device settings if you have parallel sources of supply or looped connections in the electrical network. That is where the ETAP STAR module goes beyond expectations and is equipped with a super star feature called Sequence of Operation.
You can place any fault type, balanced or unbalanced, at any desired location on the modeled electrical network and graphically observe the Sequence of Operation (SQOP) for available protective devices. The graphical display of SQOP on the one-line is a perfect solution for verification of existing or designed coordination, supplemented by reports to give the exact trip and operating time for each of the devices.
The beauty of SQOP is in the application to any network connection topology, looped and/or multiple sources of supply, and support for other protection functions such as ground, differential, negative sequence, etc.
The following link on the ETAP Web site can be visited for further review of the SQOP feature in STAR or you can refer to chapter 16 of ETAP help file.
http://etap.com/protective-device-coordination/protective-device-sequence-operation.htm
OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, recently cited a Beverley Hills hospital facility for exposing workers to potential electrical hazards such as electric shock, arc flash, and electrocution. The facility now faces $63,000 in proposed fines following an inspection conducted by OSHA.
According to industry statistics, over 2,000 people a year are treated for severe arc flash injuries. In addition to the serious threat of bodily injury, arc flashes can destroy equipment, causing costly downtime and replacement fees.
ETAP Arc Flash software allows companies to minimize electrical hazards by identifying and analyzing high risk arc flash areas in electrical power systems by simulating and evaluating various arc flash mitigation methods in an arc flash study to minimize the chances of serious accidents at a facility.
The arc flash software developed by ETAP is able to solve multiple scenarios to determine the worst-case arc flash energy levels. ETAP allows you to take these preventative measures a step further by creating arc flash hazard safety labels in multiple languages. Custom arc flash safety labels can be created according to various regulations and preferences to warn of any potential arc flash danger.
Arc flash safety is a serious matter and ETAP has the arc flash software tools you need to prevent employees and equipment from becoming an arc flash damage statistic.
The following is a guest blog from Jack Rubinger, Industrial Copywriter/Safety Specialist:
Pairing Arc Flash Warning Labels and arc flash boundary software provides a robust safeguard from dangerous arc flash explosions for facility mechanics, electricians and other staff who may work near or with breakers, MCCs, switchboards, transformers, drive cabinets and other electrical devices. And, in fact, electrical shock and arc flash warning labels are required by NEC Section 110.16 and NFPA 70E-2009 130.3(C).
DuraLabel printers work with ETAP® software to quickly and conveniently print labels two ways — die-cut labels or two-color vinyl tapes. Each is designed to provide the necessary flexibility to meet your facility’s safety standards.
Die-cut labels come with two OSHA/ANSI complaint signal words — the popular red “DANGER“ label or the orange “WARNING” label. Both are available with or without a template box. Large format size labels – up to 9” tall and 13” wide – are helpful when workers need to read labels from a distance or under low visibility conditions.
Labels eliminate guesswork about personal protection equipment (PPE), work well in bi-lingual workplaces and can be successfully applied both indoors and outdoors.
Some say that a DANGER label should be used when the incident energy exposure is greater than 40 cal/cm sq. Others say that DANGER labels never should be used for arc flash because an arc flash is rare, and ANSI code only calls for a DANGER label when the hazard will result in death or serious injury.
There is nothing in the NFPA or ANSI code that answers this question.
Here are some questions to ask yourself: If you are using both warning and danger arc flash labels, what is the difference? When is a danger label used instead of a warning label? If you are using just warning labels for arc flash, is this consistent with how labels are used throughout your facility and how should workers respond? Whatever approach you take, establishing a standard, sticking to it, and training people to understand that standard are essential for ensuring a safe workplace.
What do you think? Should WARNING labels be used in all cases? Are there instances in which as DANGER label should be used?
A Sample ASD System
Adjustable speed drives (ASD) control the speed of electrically powered equipment such as motors. Many industrial processes operate at different speeds during the course of a day or a production run. Assembly lines that change product manufacturing speeds are prime candidates, as are upstream oil & gas (exploration & production) drilling operations. ASDs can save energy by varying the speed where adjustment of flow, from say a pump or a fan, is appropriate.
In ventilation systems for large buildings, variable-frequency motors on fans save energy by allowing the volume of air moved to match the system demand. A Sybase data center installed ASDs and reduced fan power by over 80%.
One of the drawbacks of using large ASDs, cited several years ago in the oil & gas field, was the effect of harmonics on the electrical system. Several members of Operation Technology, Inc. authored a paper presented at the recent IEEE PCIC conference in San Antonio. The paper discussed the selection and installation of medium voltage ASDs and how to validate the entire installation through computer simulation after the drive has been selected. These power system studies become valuable in terms of seeing the net effect on the entire network and avoiding costly disruptions.
Tags: adjustable speed drive, asd, dynamic modeling, Electrical Engineering Software, ETAP, harmonics, Low Voltage, medium voltage, motors, PCIC, variable speed drive, vsd
ETAP Software | admin | 
September 30, 2010 2:29 pm | 
Comments (2)
View of an ETAP lab
Many of us can remember the feeling of being a young engineer, or even worse, a new graduate without real engineering experience and without a job. This feeling is very prevalent in today’s new graduates. They are graduating at a time when many companies cannot afford to bring in new people because of the state of the economy.
Almost every job posting states a requirement for 3 years of experience or more, which means many new graduates have the same frustrating thought: “How do I get 3 years of experience if no one is looking for a person without experience?”
Well, the good news is that demand for a new age Power Engineer graduate is emerging, one that carries a different weight to many companies looking to bring in the bright new young minds of this world.
While many people can get confused with just operating a remote control for a TV, young engineers see and accept technological advancements as one of their primary reasons to exist. So they picked their college of choice very carefully, preferring one that taught and used real world applications. Many universities understand this and are standardizing on ETAP Power Labs as a means to educate students.
ETAP is a power engineering software that has changed the expectations and efficiency in which power system analysis is done. Many young engineers are thus graduating with the knowledge of utilizing ETAP for power system analysis.
After graduation, on-the-job training is not needed for them since they spent 4 years going through classes that teach load flow analysis with a power flow software or short circuit analysis with a short circuit software. As many companies see the benefit of hiring graduates with ETAP experience and accept this change in culture, we can easily see the new requirement on job descriptions will no longer be 3 years or more; the new requirement is “Experience with ETAP.”
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