Senior Electrical Engineer who specializes in all phases of substation design and operation, including protective relaying, controls, wiring, grounding, cable and conduit, SCADA equipment, and interfaces, as well as physical electrical arrangement of equipment in substations. More than 38 years of extensive experience in the electrical engineering and utility fields. He is an expert in all phases of substation design and operation. Managed SCADA system designs for the overhead distribution systems (auto loops and unit substations) as well as the extensive underground low voltage network systems which provided near real-time data from more than 25,000 network transformers while serving as Department Manager of SCADA Systems for a major gas and electric utility.
In his position as Chief Electrical Engineer at an architectural and engineering company that designs and retro-fits electrical substations, generating stations, and industrial facilities, this expert was responsible for overseeing substation design in the power delivery group and his duties involved management of all electrical engineering and design requirements including calculations for battery systems, lightning, voltage drop, grounding, AC and DC station distribution, high voltage bus, and all equipment installations. He has designed, and still continues to provide consultation on, many of the ground grid designs for substations ranging in voltage from 4 kV to 500 kV, and has participated in the conductor and grounding design of a 500 kV transmission line using monopoles.
Academic Background
- Master of Science – Electrical Engineering – Polytechnic University of New York
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science – College of Staten Island of CUNY
- Power Systems Course – Power Technology, Inc.
Professional Experience
Senior Electrical Engineer and Distribution Systems Consultant, RTI Group, LLC (RTI), Annapolis, Maryland, 2011 to present.
Instructor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Center for Continuing Engineering Education
- Instruction and training for Engineers and Managers, short courses in various fields of Power Engineering
- Developing and presenting a two-day course entitled, “Safe Grounding Practices and Design.”
- On-site training for engineers and managers.
Chief Electrical Engineer, Power Delivery, Altran Solutions, Cranbury, NJ
- Responsible for all electrical project design, specification, and calculations required for electrical substations and or generating stations as it relates to the electrical power, switch gear, protective relays, instrument transformers, power transformers, circuit breakers, generators and their auxiliary systems. In addition, calculations involving short circuits, load flow, voltage drop, conductor sizing, conduit sizing, grounding, lightning, ampacity, battery sizing calculations and motor starting are included.
- Served as the Project Manager for prototype 13kV superconductor project being led by American Superconductor and funded by Department of Homeland Security.
- Completed a Risk Assessment study for distribution transformer vaults in an urban environment for Con Edison of NY.
- Responsible for design and engineering projects associated with medium voltage substations and generation facilities. Contributed to the final construction phase of Glendale Substation in NY to add an additional transformer bank; realigned the high voltage clearances for the bus support insulators and circuit switcher. Supervised design for new feeder positions.
- Performed Short Circuit, Relay Coordination Studies, and Arc Flash Analysis.
- Designed a high voltage interface for utility in connecting two generators using collected methane gas from a landfill to power the generators. Revenue metering and monitoring systems were included in the design.
- Participated on substation engineering and design projects for various utilities, and in the replacement of 230 kV transformers, Live Tank Circuit Breakers, relay panel upgrades, and complete substation design.
- Completed the electrical engineering calculations and design for a 500 kV transmission line in compliance with PJM standards.
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
-Department Manager, Distribution Engineering Department
- Responsible for the design and engineering of all distribution SCADA Systems, including the specification of the communications media, protocol, and purchase of hardware such as RTU’s, data concentrators, sensors, and radio communications systems. Responsible for the relay protection design in the unit substations including the application of microprocessor relays and data concentrators.
- Extensive work experience interfacing SCADA equipment with breakers, pole top switches, and network protectors.
- Designed and installed a substation automation system in over 200 substations; 700 pole top vacuum reclosers switches, and responsible for the monitoring system used in 25,000 underground network vaults.
- Extensive project management experience regarding numerous construction projects maintaining strict control to both the schedule and budget. Familiar with POTS lines, dedicated phone lines, fiber communications, frame relay communications, and 900 MHz MAS licensed radios.
- Investigated methods to develop and install many stray voltage monitoring devices to mitigate the shock hazard to the public for the vast population of secondary network service boxes and other underground structures.
- Knowledge of grounding practices as established in the NEC and NESC for both electric utility systems as well as industrial environments. Managed several projects investigating low voltage arcing faults, manhole explosions and failure analysis.
- Responsible for the oversight and management of the Electric Operations capital budget.
-Program Manager, Research and Development Department
- Program development and management in the area of Distribution Automation and Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). Determined budget allocation, preparation, control and approves initial project proposals.
- Provided the technical and financial leadership that is necessary to develop and monitor several major projects in the program. These include the development of SUNDAS, Low-cost sensors, a 4 kV Unit Substation automation retrofit system and various communications related projects including several AMR systems.
-Principal Research Engineer, Research and Development Department
- Responsible for overall Research and Development project management.
- Formulated and recommended annual R&D budget and developed 5‑Year plan that includes outside research organizations such as EPRI and ESEERCO.
- Frequently utilized organizational and interpersonal skills in dealing with outside departments and contractors to complete various R&D construction projects.
-Senior Research Engineer, Research and Development Department
- Responsible for project formulation, technical and administrative project management, and analysis of R&D results.
- Research projects in the areas of fiber optic sensors, relaying and communications for transmission and substation applications, automatic and remote access metering, amorphous steel core distribution transformers, cogeneration, power circuit breakers and remote secondary network monitoring.
-Engineer, Electrical Engineering Department
- Designed various relay protection schemes for the electrical transmission system (138 & 345 kV).
- Assisted in design implementation, by review and approval of specifications, manufacturer’s drawings, schematic and elementary diagrams.
- Determined relay settings for protection of generating stations, substations and transmission lines. Performed short circuit calculations and analysis using symmetrical components to determine proper relay settings or relay design.
- Conducted numerous equipment failure investigations.
-Project Engineer, Technical Support & Development
- Performed technical studies and investigations on various power system equipment, instrumentation and protective relays. This included protective relays, controls and transformer acceptance testing at a 345 kV compact SF6 substation, and a 345 KV open air equipment among others.
- Developed numerous field test procedures for power transformers and phase angle regulators.
- Evaluated various relay test equipment in laboratory environment.
-Associate Project Engineer, Technical Support & Development
- Assisted in analysis of 1977 northeast blackout. Designed and bread boarded CPU “watchdog” alarm circuitry associated with PDP-11 1 mini‑computer on HVDC (High Voltage DC) project. Managed all testing phases of HVDC project including the supervision of two technicians.
Professional Memberships
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – Member
- Power & Energy Society (IEEE)
- Professional Engineer – States of New York (inactive) and New Jersey (active)
Military Service
Served in the United States Air Force working on B52’s and KC-135 aircraft in South East Asia as a Navigational Aids and Avionics Technician, attaining the rank of Staff Sgt
