OMICRON Magazine

Frank Wang, Engineer at ATCO, speaks to us from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada about their electrical testing practices and how our primary test sets, com- bined with the Primary Test Manager™ (PTM) software, help his colleagues deal with the many challenges that they face at work. ATCO is a large public company found- ed in 1947 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Over its history of more than 70 years, ATCO has grown to become a global corporation with $22 b in assets and nearly 7,000 employees. ATCO serves over 2 Million customers in more than Hi Frank, nice to meet you and thank you for giving us the chance to talk about this relevant topic. please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role within the company – maybe start with how long you have been with atCO? Frank wang: This is my 7 th year with ATCO. Before joining the company, I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing and University of Alberta, Edmonton, both in electrical engineer- ing. I have a mixed background in en- gineering design, power system study, renewable energy systems and electri- cal testing. I am a graduate from ATCO’s Engineer-in-Training program, and my current job title is Engineer. In general, how is asset testing performed at atCO and what’s the strategy behind it? Asset testing is a shared responsibility at ATCO. Our Edmonton-based Electrical Construction and Commissioning team performs the pre-energization com- missioning testing. That happens right after the construction or rebuild of sub- station assets and before they go into service. The district office-based Field Maintenance Services team performs the maintenance testing over the life cycle of assets. So far, our asset main- tenance strategy has been centering around time-based approaches. OveRCOMING tHe CHalleNGe OF Data HaNDlING 100 countries. The company has three vertically integrated global business units, including Structures & Logistics, Electricity, Pipelines & Liquids as well as a retail Energy division. The Electricity Global Business Unit operates in the electricity generation, and the transmis- sion and distribution (T&d) sectors. The Maintenance and Construction depart- ment of the regulated T&d division is a primary user of our products. Frank Wang works in this department as an engineer for the Electrical Construc- tion and Commissioning team. «Regarding data handling, PTM provides us with one single solution for capturing and managing critical electrical test data.» Frank wang Engineer, ATCO 14