News & Events

Electric Power Reliability Summit 2019 to be Hosted at The University of Texas at Austin

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 | AUSTIN, TEXAS

The Electric Power Reliability Summit will return to Texas on September 17-19, 2019, hosted by the university’s Center for Electromechanics, and will feature expert speakers and practitioners from across the country.

In May 2018, the Electric Power Reliability Summit (EPRS) brought industry leaders, reliability professionals, and experts from several areas of power system reliability together in Houston, Texas. In 2019, the community will relocate to the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center on the campus of the University of Texas.

The 2019 summit will be hosted by the university’s Center for Electromechanics (CEM), the largest university-based electromechanics research and development facility in the country. The CEM is at the forefront of research for electrical and mechanical engineering, working closely with the Department of Energy on projects to improve the grid.

For forty years the CEM has conducted leading-edge research, working alongside the government and industry on collaborative projects including system modeling for microgrids and hydrogen fuel cell development.

EPRS attendees will have an opportunity to tour the center and learn more about the work they do there firsthand.

Participants in 2019’s EPRS can expect to collaborate with peers and focus on leadership. The goal of the summit is to not only develop a reliability plan that will guide you into the future, but to shape organizational culture.

More than 1,000 maintenance and reliability professionals will gather at the 2018 SMRP Annual Conference in October.

"No Power, No Happy": SDMyers to Bring Electric Power Reliability Conversation to SMRP Annual Conference in Orlando

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 | TALLMADGE, OHIO

SDMyers will be packing up it’s “reliable, low-cost and uninterrupted power” message and expertise and delivering it to the The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) 26th Annual Conference, taking place Oct. 22 through Oct. 25 in Orlando, Florida.

The theme of this year’s exhibit is “No Power, No Happy,” a concept that emphasizes the risk of unplanned downtime and massive capital expenditure in the event of a transformer failure.

More than 1,000 maintenance, reliability and physical asset management professionals will gather at the 2018 conference for education, certification and networking.

The conference will feature several high-level speakers, such as Captain Mark Kelly, commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour's final mission, along with maintenance and reliability practitioners from across the country. Alan Ross, Vice President of Reliability at SDMyers, will speak at the conference about the organizational skills required to make a difference at an organization and overcoming the challenges associated with the shift in diagnostic and analytical systems brought on by condition-based monitoring.

SMRP is a nonprofit professional society formed by practitioners to develop and promote excellence in maintenance, reliability and physical asset management while creating leaders in the profession.

For more information on the conference, visit the SMRP website for a full list of presentations, speakers, and exhibitors.

New standards from the National Fire Prevention Association codify recommendations on PPE, de-energizing, and external sampling as standards.

New NFPA Standards on Arc Flash Safety Affect Oil Sampling Procedures for Cabinet Transformers

AUGUST 29, 2018 | TALLMADGE, OHIO

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has announced immediate changes to electrical safety best practices that will affect safety protocols for cabinet transformers.

SDMyers operates a very robust safety policy that is informed, in part, by standards published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Every three years, the NFPA publishes a revised set of standards—NFPA 70E®: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace—which is adopted by companies nationwide as the standard for accessing and servicing high voltage electrical equipment.

The 2018 edition of the NFPA 70E® standard details a significant change to the set of best practices that apply to cabinet transformer inspections and sampling. These measures are aimed at reducing the risk of injuries caused by arc flashes and are a result of new data that highlights the frequency and severity of the risk associated with these incidents.

Arc flashes are sudden energy discharges—explosions—caused by a fault in an electrical circuit reacting with ionized air. These potentially deadly events can reach extremely high temperatures, ejecting molten metal and expanding air so violently that workers can be thrown across a room.

The new standard codifies  the following aspects of cabinet transformer safety: 

All technicians servicing cabinet transformers must wear the appropriate grade of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) every time a cabinet is opened.
Some higher-rated cabinet transformers must be de-energized before they are serviced.

Precautions must be taken to mitigate the risk of arc flashes.

SDMyers has already developed solutions to address these changes and is contacting customers with cabinet transformers over the next few weeks to put the appropriate safety measures in place. For more information, download the full version of NFPA 70E or visit our Arc Flash Safety guide to learn more. For an immediate response,  contact SDMyers or speak directly with an SDMyers expert at (330) 630-7000.

Alan Ross, VP of Reliability at SDMyers, and SMRP Outreach Director Nancy Frost at the Whitehouse.

SMRP Discusses Grid Reliability During Second Fly-In of 2018

JUNE 12, 2018 | WASHINGTON D.C.

The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) was back in Washington, D.C., recently to meet with members of the U.S. Administration, congressional leaders and federal agency officials to discuss SMRP’s expertise in smart grid reliability.

During the two-day fly-in on May 22 and 23, SMRP Smart Grid Working Group Chair Alan Ross and Outreach Director Nancy Frost, PhD, CMRP, led SMRP’s government relations staff in meetings with the White House Domestic Policy Council, the U.S. Senate Energy Committee on Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

SMRP members provided counsel and expertise for maintaining secure, resilient and reliable energy infrastructure in the U.S. Discussions also included how SMRP’s members are vital to maintaining electrical systems through sound reliability practices.

“Our February fly-in was so successful that we dedicated another set of meetings solely to SMRP’s Smart Grid Working Group and its key initiatives, allowing us to focus on a sector that is highly relevant within the Administration, Congress and federal agencies,” said Devin Sears, SMRP’s government relations director. “As a leading voice for the maintenance, reliability and physical asset management profession, it’s important that SMRP continues to advocate, partner and share our grid reliability expertise with key policy influencers.”

Members of SMRP’s government relations program recently participated in the 6th annual National Infrastructure Week, a national week promoting investment in U.S. infrastructure. To learn more about SMRP’s working groups, subject matter experts and advocacy efforts, visit smrp.org/government-relations.

SDMyers added new training dates in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Germany to the 2018 schedule of international courses.

New International Training Dates Added

June 1, 2018 | TALLMADGE, OHIO

We recently added three more dates to our 2018 international course offerings. Due to demand we will be visiting Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Abuja, Nigeria; and Frankfurt, Germany.

SDMyers offers transformer maintenance courses in English and Spanish at locations across the world. This year we are adding the following courses to our schedule:

Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Transformer Management Essentials (3 day course) August 6-8, 2018.

Abuja, Nigeria. Principles of Transformer Maintenance (2 day course) August 21-22, 2018.

Whether you choose to attend one of our international classes, or you decide to bring a training team into your organization, know that the information you receive from us has helped reliability practitioners across the globe deal with transformer maintenance issues safely and effectively.

The redesigned SDMyers website is easier to navigate and includes new features such as video and a 60-question Transformer IQ Quiz.

SDMyers Launches New Website

May 15, 2018 | TALLMADGE, OHIO

SDMyers launched a new website this Spring that highlights the company’s extensive range of transformer maintenance services, presents their diverse line of specialized engineered products, and showcases their workplace culture.

This is the fifth edition of the website, which sees content completely overhauled and redeveloped with user experience in mind. Navigation has been simplified to make it easier to find individual pages, content has been rewritten to make it easier to digest and understand, and video has been used throughout to help explain some of the more complex aspects of the company’s business.

SDMyers offers comprehensive transformer maintenance training, and the section of the website that displays courses has been revamped to make the information easier to understand. Registering has been simplified, and customers can now sign up for classes in fewer clicks than before with registrations made within the SDMyers website itself.

The new site includes several interactive elements, including new opportunities for visitors to explore transformer services, read up on research, and discover more about transformer management. Visitors can even test their own transformer expertise with a 60-question Transformer IQ Quiz, which offers advice on what classes to take based on the score.

Come visit the SDMyers booth at the RELIABILITY Conference. Say "hello," chat with us about your transformer reliability plan, and get a "NO POWER, NO HAPPY" shirt.

Alan Ross, VP of Reliability, will present at this year's conference on April 24. The talk will focus on how to define the reliability culture you want to create.

SDMyers to Present and Exhibit at RELIABILITY Conference 2018

April 15, 2018 | TALLMADGE, OHIO

We are delighted to be an integral part of this year’s RELIABILTY Conference. Come and say “hello” to us during the expo, check out our presentation on Tuesday, and test yourself with our online quiz. We’ve so much to share with you. Let’s talk.

Transformers in industrial applications are incredibly important. They power production lines, critical equipment, and entire industrial operations. If a critical unit fails, the power goes down immediately and brings everything to a halt. SDMyers is here to help you not only avoid unplanned outages, but also create a culture of reliability around transformer management that will keep your operation running smoothly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

Catch Alan Ross’s talk on Tuesday for insights on transformer reliability

This year Alan Ross, our Vice President of Reliability, will present on how to build a best practices reliability culture in your organization. Alan’s examples will focus on high-voltage power system maintenance, but the subjects are broad enough to apply to most aspects of reliability. Alan’s talk will cover how you as a reliability professional can define the exact reliability culture you want to create, gather support from leadership, understand the changing demographics of the workforce, and define what a “best practices” and “reliability culture” looks like. You can catch Alan’s talk, “Building a Successful Transformer Reliability Program,” between 2 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. in room Sonoma D on Tuesday, April 24.

Take the Transformer IQ Quiz and see how your reliability knowledge stacks up

Do you know your power factor from your Karl Fischer? Your Roger’s Ratio from your Duval Triangle? Test yourself of all aspects of transformer reliability by taking our new Transformer IQ Quiz, available online right now. This 60-question multiple choice quiz was compiled by experts at SDMyers, and it can help you find gaps in your transformer knowledge. It can even suggest course tracks based on the amount of questions you get right. And if you’re already a transformer expert? Get your team members to take it and find out what training they might need to boost their Transformer IQ—and your reliability program.

Join us in Houston this May for The Electric Power Reliability Summit 2018

We are sponsoring a new conference—the Electric Power Reliability Summit—on May 16 and 17, 2018 in Houston, Texas. This is a forum for reliability practitioners, created by reliability practitioners, with a focus on practical solutions. You’ll identify industry best practices, evaluate yourself and your current high voltage reliability plan against those practices, and discover practical ways to close that gap in knowledge. Most importantly, you’ll walk away with a game plan. The summit will feature ReliabilityWeb’s own Terry O’Hanlon, SMRP Chair Dr. Howard Penrose, and a whole host of industrial reliability leaders from all over the US giving talks, leading panels, and participating in workshops. This is the inaugural event and an excellent opportunity to get ahead of the current trends.