On December 18 NEPPA held the last class for 16 Substation II Technicians. Most of the participants in this class had previously completed Substation I in 2014 and had come back to finish a more advanced training session covering all aspects of substation work. Substation I covers mostly theory and introductory level training that includes Power Transformers, Relays, Circuit Breakers, Batteries and a host of other subjects relevant to substation work. Substation II is much more hands on type training and also uses many of NEPPA’s affiliate members to aid in the learning experience. Experts in the substation field are brought in to expose the students to the latest in testing equipment and procedures. For example, Omicron sent two experts, one in Power Transformer testing and another in Circuit Breaker testing, with their latest test sets on display. Robert Brown and Ron Pellegrini came from Danvers Electric with their relay test set. They brought a few relays and the class was able to witness the set up and then test relays right in the classroom. A Print Reading session had to be cancelled due to scheduling conflicts but will be added to all substation training classes in the future. Those sessions were extremely informational and invaluable to each class participant.

NEPPA would once again like to thank all of those affiliate members that provided experts and also our own member utilities for sharing their experts for the enhancement it brought to our substation training classes. This class, perhaps as much as any class NEPPA has ever conducted, was able to network very well with each other. Those relationships will prove to be valuable as they face problems and difficulties at work in the future and now have others that may be called upon for assistance. Due in large part to the interest in this class and that of several utility managers, NEPPA is contemplating developing a comprehensive four-year Substation program in the near future to provide the best substation training possible.

Graduates include: