WEAT E&I Seminars

E&I Committee

The WEAT E&I Committee sponsors technical seminars from time to time. Please watch the calendar for the next technical seminar. Presentations at the technical seminar will be posted on this page.

Upon arrival, there will be a donation jar for Water For People. This is an ongoing effort, and will continue to be entirely voluntary. Plans are to donate 100% of the amount collected to charity. As you know, we have not charged—nor do we plan to begin charging—any fee for participation in these seminars. This opportunity to make a totally voluntary charitable donation is intended to make a difference, so your generosity is appreciated.

Please notice that we will drop down to one presentation a quarter instead of every-other month.  Therefore we will only do four seminars this year instead of 6 (January, April, July, October).

For information, please contact George Luke at gluke@gaiconsulting.com

PAST EVENTS

October 23, 2019: Backup Power Regulatory Considerations

Hosted at Prime Controls in Lewisville.
Presenters:

  • Scott Thomas (Cummins)
  • John Logan/Ed Keenan (Trinity River Authority of Texas)
  • Mark Patter (ERCOT)

June 26, 2019: Design Drawings

Hosted at WESCO Distribution in Irving.
Presenters and Panelists:

  • John Robinson (CDM Smith)
  • Indira Pjetrovic (CDM Smith)
  • John Manning (Freese and Nichols)
  • Kent Meyerhoeffer (WHECO)
  • Sahar Saffar (Signature Automation)
  • Bill Sammons (Walker Controls)

January 23, 2019: Treatment Process Control

We had 30 attendees join us from system operators, suppliers, contractors, and design engineers from across the Metroplex.  The seminar was held at Graybar’s office in Fort Worth and lunch was provided immediately following the presentations.  It is only through the support and generosity of folks like Graybar that we are able to offer these seminars with lunch at no cost to our participants.

Copies of the presentations are available online here. Presenters included:

Aeration Basin and UV Process Explanation

  • Dr. Leonard Ripley, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE (Freese and Nichols, Inc.)
  • Dr. Nick Landes, Ph.D., P.E. (Freese and Nichols, Inc.)

UV Equipment

  • Joseph Jordan and Ralph Franco (Xylem)

Aeration Basin Controls

  • John Manning, P.E. (Freese and Nichols, Inc.)
  • Michael Schuster, E.I.T. (Freese and Nichols, Inc.)
  • Brian Sahm, P.E. (Freese and Nichols, Inc.)

July 2017 E&I Seminar:

The WEAT E&I Committee held its third technical seminar of 2017 on Wednesday, 19th July.  This seminar presented the topic: “Centrifugal Pumps: How They Work, How They Fail, How to Make Them Last.” The presenters were:

  • Granger Smith – Smith Pump Company
  • David Pierce – Specific Energy

Click here to download a copy of their presentation.

The dialog was lively and there was wonderful give/take between the presenters and the audience. We had 41 attendees from across the Metroplex representing owners, consultants, manufacturer reps, and contractors.

The seminar was held at the Freese and Nichols office in Fort Worth and lunch was provided by Rockwell Automation immediately following the seminar.  As you know, we have not charged, nor do we plan to begin charging any fee for participation in these seminars.  It is through the generosity and support of organizations (such as FNI, Rockwell Automation, and the presenters in this case) that we are able to host the meeting and provide a meal for free.

The next WEAT E&I Technical Seminar will be on Wednesday, 18th October and the preliminary topic will be on “Low Voltage versus Medium Voltage”.  More information on that will be forthcoming.

April 2017 E&I Seminar:

The WEAT E&I Committee held its second technical seminar of 2017 on Wednesday, 19th April.  This seminar presented three separate topics.  The presenters and their topics were:

  1. “Electrical Testing”
    • Robert Loveless – Shermco Industries
  2. “Electrical Inspections from an Owner’s Perspective”
    • Mike Zapata – Trinity River Authority
  3. “Electrical Inspections from an Electrical Contractor’s Perspective”
    • Tommy Richardson – Tommy Electric

The seminar was held at the General Electric facility in Plano and lunch was provided immediately following the seminar.

January 2017 E&I Seminar:

The WEAT E&I Committee held its first technical seminar of 2017 on Wednesday, 18th January.  This seminar presented two separate topics. The UL-508 Standards presentation was followed by a panel discussion.  The presenters and their topics were:

  1. 2017 NEC Changes
    • Mike Querry – Trinity River Authority of Texas
  2. UL-508 Standards
    • Kenneth Stone – Mbroh Engineering, Inc.

Following these, a panel discussion continued the topic of UL-508 Industrial Control Systems by presenting the views of a UL-508A Panel Shop, an engineering firm, and a system operator.  The panel participants were:

    • John Hamsher – Prime Controls
    • Roger Williamson – Mbroh Engineering, Inc.
    • Mike Querry – Trinity River Authority of Texas

The dialog was lively and there was wonderful give/take between the panelists and the audience.

We had over 50 attendees from across the Metroplex representing owners, consultants, manufacturer reps, and contractors.  The seminar was held at Eaton’s Facility in Grapevine and lunch was provided immediately following the seminar.  As you know, we have not charged, nor do we plan to begin charging any fee for participation in these seminars.  It is through the generosity and support of organizations (such as Eaton in this case) that we are able to host the meeting and provide a meal for free.

The next WEAT E&I Technical Seminar will be on Wednesday, 19th April and the preliminary topic will be on “Site Inspections”.  More information will be forthcoming.

July 2016 E&I Seminar:

The WEAT E&I Committee held a technical seminar on Wednesday, 20th July.  This seminar was primarily focused on “Interpreting Plans and Specifications”.  Instead of having individual presentations, this seminar consisted totally of various panel discussions.  We had three different topics that were discussed as they related to the general topic of “Interpreting Plans & Specs”.  These topics and the panelists were:

  1. Constructability
    1. Kevin Nowak – Rockwell Automation
    2. Eva Gorgi – Dallas Water Utilities
    3. Wendy Nilsson – Gupta & Associates
    4. David Smith – RLC Controls
  2. Submittals
    1. Andy Paulson – Signature Automation
    2. Rudy Engert – Schneider Electric Software
    3. Kent Meyerhoeffer – WHECO Controls
    4. Tony Scudieri – Prime Controls
    5. Gary Alford – City of Arlington
  2. Change Orders
    1. Kent Meyerhoeffer – WHECO Controls
    2. David Smith – RLC Controls
    3. Gary Alford – City of Arlington
    4. Andy Paulson – Signature Automation
    5. Eva Gorgi – Dallas Water Utilities

The dialog was lively and there was wonderful give/take between the panelists and the audience.  We had over 50 attendees from across the Metroplex representing owners, consultants, manufacturer reps, and contractors.

The seminar was held at The Reynolds Company’s Facility in Fort Worth and lunch was provided immediately following the seminar.  As you know, we have not charged, nor do we plan to begin charging any fee for participation in these seminars.  It is through the generosity and support of organizations (such as The Reynolds Company in this case) that we are able to host the meeting and provide a meal for free.

January 2016 E&I Seminar:

The seminar was held at the WESCO’s Facility in Irving and they provided lunch immediately following the seminar.  As you know, we have not charged, nor do we plan to begin charging any fee for participation in these seminars.  It is through the generosity and support of organizations (such as WESCO in this case) that we are able to host the meeting and provide a meal for free.

Jim Tubbesing and Heath Wilson, Tubbesing Solutions:

  1. Electrical Equipment Layouts for Critical power Applications
  2. Smart UPS Features for Critical Power Applications
  3. UPS Topologies for Critical Power Applications
  4. Power Distribution Trends for Critical Power Applications
  5. HVAC Design Trends for Critical Power Applications

Scott Thomas, Cummins Power Generation – Emergency Power Systems

November 2015 E&I Seminar:

The seminar was held at the Graybar’s Facility in Fort Worth and Graybar provided lunch immediately following the seminar.  As you know, we have not charged, nor do we plan to begin charging any fee for participation in these seminars.  It is through the generosity and support of organizations (such as Graybar in this case) that we are able to host the meeting and provide a meal for free.

Bill Popp, National Sales Manager, Analytical Technology, Inc, “Chlorine and Chlorination Technologies”

Polly Porter, Compliance Specialist; Small Business & Local Government Assistance; TCEQ | Region 9, “TCEQ Compliance and Resources”

Cathy Sieger, Compliance Coordinator for TRA, “TRA Reporting Procedures”

July 2015 E&I Seminar:

Thermal Hydrolysis Comes to Texas – CDM Smith

Distribution Transformers – Schneider Electric

May 2015 E&I Seminar:

Secure Connectivity for Critical Infrastructure – Tempered Networks

Benefits of Virtualization in the Water/Wastewater ICS Environment – Signature Automation

Augmenting Operations’ Decision Support System with Real-Time and Archived Video – Siemens