AC : POWER TECHNICIAN ASSOCIATE DEGREE PROGRAM

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1 AC : POWER TECHNICIAN ASSOCIATE DEGREE PROGRAM Michael D. Rudisill, Northern Michigan University Michael Rudisill received a BSEE from the University of Illinois and a MSEE from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Michigan and has been with Northern Michigan University for over 15 years. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Page

2 Power Technician Associate Degree Program Introduction A diverse combination of companies involved in the electrical power industry along with Northern Michigan University (NMU) and coordinated by Lake Superior Community Partnership (LSCP) have operated an Electrical Line Technician Program for several year, a very successful pre-apprenticeship program that prepares students to install, maintain and operate electrical systems to supply energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers, and to underground generation facilities As a result of the success of the Line Technician program and the needs of industry members in the consortium, a comprehensive survey was conducted in the summer of 2008 which indicated a strong regional need for another program. In response to the survey and needs of the LSCP consortium industry partners, the Electric Power Technician program was developed in partnership with the consortium members and approved by the university. This is an associate degree program (in contrast with the lineman program which is a non-credit certificate program) with the first cohort entering the program in the fall of Program Development This program initiative was developed in conjunction with the LSCP consortium which was originally formed to establish and currently serves as the advisory board for the electrical lineman s school. This same group is now supporting the establishment of the power technician program with both technical assistance and equipment donations. The key members of this consortium are: Lake Superior Community Partnership (LSCP) A community economic development organization, established in 2000, the LSCP is a 501(c)(3) corporation whose primary mission is to promote and advance economic and workforce development in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Board is comprised of a diverse group of active community leaders. The mission of the LSCP is to promote and advance education, economic and workforce development along with cultural and recreational activities in the Upper Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) is is a regulated electric utility company which serves more than customers in two-thirds of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. UPPCO offers a variety of programs and resources to help stimulate growth and to help promote strong, growing businesses and communities in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. American Transportation Company (ATC) (an electrical power transmission company) was established in 2001 as the first multi-state electrical transmission-only utility. Their assets include over 9,350 circuit miles of transmission line and 510 substations (wholly or jointly owned) over portions of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. They operate two systems operations centers and have $2.5 billion in total assets. Page

3 Systems Control (electrical equipment manufacturer) was formed in 1962 in Iron Mountain Michigan and soon gained national recognition as a premiere designer of control and relay panels, as well as medium voltage switch gear. Today they produce substation control centers, relay and control products and engineering services for industries and utilities nationwide as well as for the Department of Defense. M.J. Electric (electrical contractor) specializes in electrical and instrumentation construction and maintenance. M. J. Electric provides an experienced technical and professional management team capable of directing the electrical/instrumentation effort from project concept through completion. M. J. Electric serves customers nationwide through these operating divisions: Industrial, Power & Controls Division, Utility Division and Program Management Organization. Several other entities operating in the electrical power sector also participate to include Ontonagan County Rural Electrification Association, City of Escanaba, Alger Delta Electric, Marquette Board of Light and Power, We Energies, U.P. Power Company, Champion Inc., North Electric Inc. City of Gladstone and City of Negaunee. Program Curriculum The curriculum developed is shown below with the courses developed specifically for the power technician program in italics. The rest of the course already existed and are used in other electrical associate programs and the ABET accredited baccalaureate degree in Electronics Engineering Technology offered by NMU. Fall Semester I EN 111 College Composition 4 CIS 110 Principles of Computer Information Systems 4 ET 112 DC Circuit Analysis 4 MA 104 College Algebra for Science & Tech 4 Winter Semester I EN 211D Technical Report Writing 4 ET 113 AC Circuit Analysis 4 ET 180 Substation Equipment 4 IT 215 General Industrial Safety 2 HP 200 Physical Well Being 1 HP 2xx (elective) 1 Summer Internship** 6 Page

4 Fall Semester II ET 211 Digital Electronics ET 210 Discrete Semiconductors 4 ET 255 Transformers 4 Elective 4 Winter Semester II 4 ET 270 3φ Power & Equipment 4 ET 280 Protective Relay Systems 3 PH 201 College Physics I 5 Elective 4 ** Summer Internship is highly encouraged but may or may not be for credit. (It should be noted that the original plan was to make the summer internship required however after consulting with the various members they came to the realization due to the hazardous nature of the work for inexperienced students most members would not be able to offer internships and it was therefore unrealistic to be able to offer sufficient internships for the students going through the program.) All the program specific courses were developed in partnership with consortium members to provide students with the specific knowledge they will require working in the electrical power industry. A brief description of each course is listed below. ET 180 Substation Equipment The objective of this course is to familiarize the student with the operation and maintenance of a power distribution substation. Safety and proper operating procedures following appropriate regulatory and safety standards will be emphasized. Students will become familiar with ground grid systems, control panels, protective relays, reclosers, voltage regulators and other equipment commonly found in an electrical substation. ET 255 Transformers The student will be introduced to transformers commonly used in the power distribution network. Common configurations, construction and auxiliary equipment will be introduced along with the maintenance procedures. Page

5 ET 270 3φ Power & Equipment The theoretical and practical aspects of 3φ electrical power generation and distribution will be covered along with the equipment used in the distribution system. Apparent, reactive and true power, power factor correction and harmonics in three phase systems will be covered as will the equipment commonly used in system control. This will include switches, circuit breakers, reclosers, voltage regulators, reactors and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. ET 280 Protective Relay Systems This course looks at the protective relay system that is used to insure dependable distribution of electrical power. The system is developed from the basics of relay operation to the modern communication based relay tripping. Labs and Test Equipment To support the program the consortium members agreed to build a mock electrical substation on the NMU campus to allow students in the program to have a realistic laboratory environment. All of the substation equipment including transformer, circuit breakers, voltage regulators and switch gear were donated and assembled on campus. This was not new equipment but was current equipment that the various utilities were moving/upgrading for a variety of reasons. In addition several additional transformers, regulators, circuit breakers were donated to be used inside so the students could test equipment in all sorts of weather. Additionally all the equipment for substation monitoring and control were donated. This equipment currently resides in NMU labs where students can learn about and practice various skills from battery maintenance to circuit breaker testing. There are future plans to construct a large control building adjacent to the substation to allow the controls to be connected directly to the yard equipment. The original plan was for the surrounding utilities to loan the appropriate test equipment for the students to train on. Due to the high cost of this test equipment it was not deemed feasible for NMU to be able to equip a laboratory with the appropriate instruments. However it was felt with the participation of several local utilities and power transmission company that it would be possible to adequately support the curriculum with appropriate test equipment to allow the students sufficient hands-on training. DOE Grant However in the fall of 2009 just after the program was initiated we became aware of a grant opportunity being offered by the Department of Energy (DOE) under the stimulus bill. The DOE recognized that with the required upgrading of the nation s electrical grid and impending retirement of a large percentage of workers in this area there was a looming crisis within the electrical power workforce. This realization which was essentially the same one our local collaborators had come to several years before when we initiated the study of this program. Page

6 When we first looked at the grant request for proposals we recognized that is was looking to do exactly the same thing as our current program however the request was really for new programs. We decided to apply regardless as we felt we could benefit greatly from increased support and enlarge the number of students in the program. We therefore put together a proposal asking for just over $600,000 pretty evenly divided between equipment to support the curriculum and personnel. The personnel request included one full-time instructor to allow us to expand the number of students in the program and parttime positions to advertise the program and make sure it remained technically current. In April of 2010 we were notified that we had been successful with our proposal for the full $670,000 award to support the program with the equipment and support for additional instructors. (The grant was to be awarded in January, it was actually awarded in June.) We felt that this was a very strong corroboration that our program was both structurally coherent and timely. With the extra support provided by the DOE grant the program has accelerated and drawn considerable interest both locally and regionally. We were able to hire an additional electronics instructor in the fall of 2010 and have committed most of the money for new test equipment. The new equipment is very advantageous as not only is it new and therefore state of the art, but it is also constantly available (not just loaned for a couple weeks at a time) and therefore enriches the student s learning. Conclusion The program will graduate its first cohort of eight students in May of The second cohort numbers 14 students scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2012 and we committed to building the program to graduate 20 students a year in our grant proposal. We have had enthusiastic support both from our local consortium members and have had numerous inquiries about graduates from companies outside our local area. We believe this effort is an excellent example of industry collaboration with a higher education institution to produce graduates that can move directly into the workforce. It will provide these companies with qualified workers that have the ability to quickly become productive employees with the knowledge to advance within the industry and stay current with evolving technology. The additional support from the DOE was certainly a huge boost to the program and has allowed it to grow both in numbers and quality much faster than we could have initially hoped. However the fact that the program was essentially in place prior to the DOE RFP demonstrates a remarkable timely and coherent collaboration between Northern Michigan University and our local private industry partners. Page