EUSO - Electric Utility System Operations Course - Reading, PA

Who Should Attend?

EUSO is designed for any personnel whose job performance benefits from a deeper understanding of how utility operations and systems function. This includes personnel from all departments, technical and non-technical.

Course Registration Options Include:

1. All 3 Days

2. 3rd Day Only

3. First 2 Days Only

Attendance in the 3-day EUSO class is structured based on a person’s background and interests. Most utility employees get maximum benefit from attending the first two days in which all key equipment from the generator to a toaster is covered.

This includes generators and types of generation, transformers, breakers, fuses and switches. It all includes quantities familiar to all employees including voltage, current (amps), power (watts), energy (kilowatt-hours and megawatt-hours) and resistance (Ohms).

Employees in technical jobs, or applying for technical jobs who do not have a background in utility electrical systems benefit most from attending the full three days. These include engineers and those supporting engineers, employees associated with control centers and electrical apprentices.

Employees with strong electrical backgrounds who understand all key electrical equipment can benefit from attending only the third day.

People attending only the third day must understand generator excitation control and generator governor control because these two functions control generator megawatts and generator megavars; just under three hours are devoted to these areas.

Course Descriptions

The 3-day version of the EUSO class begins with the various generation technologies including steam turbine generation, gas turbines, hydro, wind, wave action, tidal, solar and newer generations types in the research and development stages including hydrogen and ammonia and utility-scale fuel cells. The 3-day EUSO class integrates the various electrical quantities, volts, amps, resistance, impedance, kilowatts, and kilowatt-hours, as a system is “constructed” by the instructor. The construction begins with generation and ends in a toaster in a residence. As the system is “constructed,” all key equipment is integrated into the system including how each piece of equipment is constructed and how each item operates.

The third day of the class covers the operations of electric utilities. Grid operations includes the working relationships between generator operators, generation dispatchers and transmission operators. Transmission wheeling, Automatic Generation Control (AGC) and Area Control Error (ACE) for matching generation to load and for wheeling energy through several utilities. Grid operations also include underfrequency load shedding to protect generators from their critical speeds, various types of demand response, spinning and non-spinning reserve, islanding and black-start requirements. Plant operations includes explaining VArs in an understandable way describing conflicts between transmission operators who are requesting VArs and generator operators who must deny the VArs. The relationship between the time of day and the need for each type of VAr is explained. The role plant location plays, and not generation fuel  costs, in providing VArs is included. Plant operations also includes the step-by-step process for manually synchronizing a generator, key generator protection including reverse power, sync-check, generator differential, stator temperature, generator critical speed, and overspeed protection.

The 2-day version of the EUSO class includes the topics mentioned above except what is covered on day three.

What does EUSO Cover?

1. Science of Magnetic Fields with Respect to:

   1. Generators

   2. Transformers 

   3. Electrical Safety

2. Power Production and Electrical Laws

3. Construction and Operation of Generators and Transformers

4. AC & DC Voltage and Current, Including 3-Phase

5. Equipment, Operations and Systems from Different Fuel Sources

6. Generation Systems Including Types of Exciters

7. Transmission and Distribution Systems

8. Power Grids, Reliability and Outage Case Studies

9. Buying & Selling Energy between Utilities

   1. How Generators Produce Power without Changing Operating Speed

   2. AGC

   3. ACE

   4. Wheeling

   5. ISOs, RTOs & Balancing Authorities

10. Power vs Energy

11. Inductive Reactance, Capacitive Reactance and Impedance

12. Reactive Power / Power Factor / VARs

13. Circuit Breakers, Relays, Fuses, Conductors and Switches

14. Substations and Switchyards

Hotel: Hampton Inn Reading/Wyomissing

• Hotel Address: 1800 Papermill Rd    Reading PA 19610

• Hotel Phone: 610-374-8100

• To get a reduced room rate discount for a limited time, ask for the rate: “ELECTRIC UTILITY SYSTEM”

Copyright - Professional Training Systems, Inc.