IEEE members and non-members are welcome. Lunch is $14 ($17 at the door). RSVP by Jan 17 to Mark Burt, MBURT1@tuelectric.com, 817-215-4632.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, February 9, 2000 6 pm
With the high costs of radio spectrum, infrastructure, and real estate, cellular/PCS providers employ many techniques to maximize the capacity and coverage of the radio network. This talk will begin with an overview of the radio environment, followed by a discussion of the features that help increase capacity and lower interference. The talk will focus on common features in the major standards such as Power Control, Variable Rate Coding, Frequency Hopping, Hierarchical Cell Structures, etc. Advanced reuse patterns for higher capacity in TDMA-based networks will be discussed including 1/3 and 1/1. Finally, the impact of interference and tighter reuse patterns on throughput for GPRS and EDGE will be discussed. Alan Triggs is a Senior RF Engineer in the Mobility Network Consulting group at Ericsson, and is an adjunct faculty member at SMU.
Location: Rady Room, 6th floor, Nedderman Hall,
UTA. Off the elevators, Rady Room in on your right.
Nedderman Hall is on Cooper & Border in Arlington.
http//www.uta.edu/uta/campusMap2.html for UTA map. Nedderman Hall
is Bldg 21 on the map.
For more information please contact Saibun Tjuatja
Email tjuatja@uta.edu
Phone (817) 272-3974
Fax (817) 272-3443
IEEE members and non-members are welcome. Lunch is $14 ($17 at the door). RSVP by Feb 14 to Mark Burt, MBURT1@tuelectric.com, 817-215-4632.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
During the 1990's, the continued evolution of computer technology allowed many software applications to be quickly developed and implemented based on specific needs. Although these applications effectively supported their unique requirement, it was quickly realized that supporting multiple databases containing similar information was not only inefficient, but restricted a user from extracting the knowledge regarding an asset in a timely manner. To streamline TXU Transmission's overall operation, a project was initiated in 1998 to develop a single centralized knowledge database using MAXIMO that would accommodate the asset management and workflow process as well as other sources of information including outage events and GPS locations. For those applications that could not be consolidated, a "query" tool was developed that effectively integrated other databases with MAXIMO to support today's knowledge requirements and tomorrow's competitive environment.
Donny Helm received a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering (PE) from Texas Tech University in 1984 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Texas Tech University in 1989. Donny is a member of IEEE, SPE, TSPE and also participates in several Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) committees and working groups associated with Transmission maintenance and condition monitoring. His primary responsibilities include the oversight of the Transmission maintenance management system, Transmission Interruption Reporting System (TIRS), and several other applications that are used to measure system performance. Donny also participates in several benchmarking studies that are used to assess Transmission system performance (i.e. reliability, availability etc.) in comparison to other electric utilities. Donny has been with TXU since 1990, and has held several positions in the Distribution, Customer Service and Transmission organizations.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Monday March 20, 2000 to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
The TXU Electric Transmission Digital Fault Recorder "DFR" monitoring system consists of approximately 100 remote transmission sites connected via high speed modems to three different vendors ? master station PCs at a centralized location at the Transmission headquarters in Ft. Worth, Texas. TXU Electric's transmission grid DFRs utilize over 3000 analog and 6000 digital channels to record transmission system voltages and currents as well as breaker and protective relaying equipment contacts during power system faults. Protection engineers and technicians analyze the data after it arrives at the central corporate location to assess the operation of the protection system as well as characterize and archive significant disturbance events.
Due to the "ripple effect", depending on the severity of a transmission system disturbance, more DFR records than required to analyze the disturbance are generated. The location of multiple DFRs in proximity to large load/generation centers and typical severe weather patterns can produce a tidal wave of DFR data for system fault/disturbance events. Prompt manual examination of all DFR records and archival of the significant transmission system disturbances became a burdensome task. In addition, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) issued a series of compliance standard requirements in regard to disturbance monitoring adequacy in a utility system. According to NERC, "Each Region shall develop a plan that defines the requirements for the installation of disturbance monitoring equipment to ensure data is available to determine system performance and the causes of system disturbance."
To address the DFR information tidal wave and efficiently analyze, categorize, and prioritize TXU Electric's DFR file records for human consumption, DFR screening software development became a formal Transmission system imperative. As part of TXU Electric's support of university research, the initial development work was done in conjunction with Texas A&M University's Electrical Engineering Department. Currently, the DFR Event Classification Project enables the automatic processing, archiving and accessing of DFR data files over TXU Electric's corporate LAN and serves as the backbone of TXU Electric's disturbance monitoring database.
Sherry Goiffon received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1977 and joined Texas Electric Service Company. Her work included transmission switchyard maintenance, construction, budgeting, insulation coordination, and surge arrester application. She has over 20 years of experience in transmission grid system protection, disturbance and transient analysis. Currently, she is working part time for TXU Electric as a Senior Engineer in System Protection. She serves on the Transient Recorders Users Council and is Chairman of the Georgia Tech 2000 Fault Disturbance and Analysis Conference.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Monday April 17, 2000, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: TXU Electric and Gas, 115 W. 7th Street, Room 303, Fort Worth, Texas (The entrance for this building is located on Houston Street.)
The Petroleum Club of Fort Worth is still under reconstruction, and it will not be reopened in time for April 18 meeting.
April 1, 2000 will be marked as the official 3G date for the wireless industry as ITU finalizes the IMT-2000 standards. The IMT-2000 standard consists of mainly three families, namely, CDMA-DS (a.k.a. WCDMA), CDMA-MC (a.k.a. cdma2000) and TDMA (EDGE). Each family has its unique technical merit and is supported by various existing service providers. Though most of the service providers are interested in the capacity gain, it is the high-speed data access that 3G systems will provide that will have the most impact on the future. Due to the limited bandwidth in the current (2G) wireless network, the terminals today are used as voice terminals; data applications over the air way are confined to e-mail, short message services, and other applications that require only low data rate transmissions. With a packet data rate as high as 384Kbps, the wireless industry will extend the 3G data network from "Anytime" to "Anytime-Anywhere" by providing mobility to the booming internet industry. The 3G terminals will evolve from pure voice or voice-data terminals into "Communicators," devices that are capable of storing personal data, full Internet browsing, and real-time video/audio applications. In order to provide reliable as well as secure wireless data services, more work on quality of service (QoS), fraud detection, etc. are required. Software-defined radio and antenna arrays may also be used to provide a more flexible radio front-ends and higher gain. Some of these activities are not subject to standardization and hence provide all sorts of opportunities for creative developers.
Dr. Yichyun (Mitch) Tseng is the Lead Standards Engineer of Nokia Inc., Irving Texas. He serves as Nokia lead delegate in various CDMA standards fora, including TIA/TR45.5 and 3GPP2/TSG-C, where he serves as the Vice Chair for Work Group 1 (Feature Requirements). Prior to joining Nokia, he had been with Nortel Networks and DSC Communications (now Alcatel USA).
Dr. Tseng received the B.S.E.E. degree from Tatung Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan in 1982. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), Richardson, Texas, in 1990 and 1993, respectively. Dr. Tseng is a member of IEEE, and a life member of CIE/USA-DFW Area Chapter, in which he has served terms as Fund Raising Chair and VP Treasurer.Location: University of Texas at Arlington, Rady Room, 6/F Nedderman Hall, 416 Yates St. 6/F, Arlington, TX 76019
For more information please contact Saibun Tjuatja
Email tjuatja@uta.edu
Phone (817) 272-3974
The City of Dallas and Hillwood Development Corporation are partnering to design, develop, and construct a new arena in Dallas (American Airlines Center). This will be the future home of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team and the Dallas Stars professional hockey team. In addition to this world-class sporting venue, Hillwood is developing the surrounding property into a unique, uptown, mixed-use development. TXU's involvement began with the sale of approximately 28.5 acres of former Dallas Power Plant property to Hillwood. It has subsequently expanded beyond our traditional role of providing electric and gas service to include interfacing with our municipal and private sector partners on decisions directly related to environmental remediation, property sale/development, protection/relocation of facilities, and electric utility restructuring/competition.
Donald Ortamond received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (PE) from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana, Lafayette) in 1972. Donald is a member of IEEE and PES. He has held various engineering and supervisory positions while employed at Dallas Power & Light and TU Electric. His present position is Project Manager in Metro Design Engineering at TXU Electric and Gas with responsibilities for the oversight of all TXU activities involving the Dallas Arena Project and the surrounding Victory Development.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Monday May 15, 2000, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
The Southeast Region Transmission organization has been instrumental in pioneering and developing a new non-invasive technique using sound analysis for evaluating the condition of numerous types of substation equipment. The development of this process has been a collaborative effort between TXU and Paul Spears from Acoustic Solutions. Initially, the acoustic analysis technique was used to determine the mechanical condition of low voltage feeder breakers in substations. More recently, the use of acoustic analysis has been extended to evaluating load tap changers and oil circulation pumps on substation transformers. Earlier this year, the acoustic analysis technique was adopted Company wide.
Shannon Caraway, P.E. is currently the Support Manager in Southeast Region for TXU Transmission. Prior assignments within TXU have included 3 years in Grid Planning, 4 years in Distribution Engineering, and 5 years in Customer Operations. He earned a BSEE (1995), M.Engr. (1998), and a MBA (2000) from UTA at night while working for TXU. He is an active member and former officer in IEEE, as well as, a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Monday Aug 14, 2000, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
On January 1, 2002 the electricity market in Texas will be open to competition at the retail level. ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, is the non-profit corporation established to maintain the reliability of the existing electrical grid while ensuring open access to this new retail market. Although ERCOT has been managing wholesale transactions since 1996, extensive changes will be required in order to provide market access for retail consumers. Mr. Noel will provide an update on ERCOT's efforts to meet these responsibilities.
Mr. Noel joined ERCOT on May 1st of this year, following a series of senior executive assignments around the country. Most recently he served as Chief Executive Officer of his own strategic consulting firm. Previously he was President and CEO of Commodore Applied Technologies, Inc.; President and COO of Trans American Waste Industries, Inc.; and President of Ecova Corporation, a former Amoco subsidiary. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, Mr. Noel had a distinguished career in the U. S. Army before being named Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, where he directed the development and operation of the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Friday September 2000, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
To varying degrees, different transmission system operators have measured the performance of their protective relay systems; however, general comparisons cannot be made between different transmission systems because no consistent performance measuring criterion has been utilized. This performance measuring methodology presents a simplistic approach to analyzing the performance of a protective relay system that is associated with any transmission system. The total number of misoperations can be compared to the total number of events to determine the relative success of the protective relay system. This simplistic approach is broad enough to allow for comparisons between different transmission systems with different design parameters.
Mr. Carpenter has held numerous engineering and management positions within TXU Electric Transmission and Distribution. In 1992, he became the System Protection Manager for TXU Electric responsible for the protective relay operations of the transmission system. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. He is also a member of the Power System Relaying Committee of the IEEE, serving as Chairperson for the Guide for Protective Relay Applications to Transmission Lines Working Group, and Chairperson for the Transmission Protective Relay System Performance Measuring Methodology Working Group.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Mon October 16, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas
ERCOT system voltage control and stability involves all parties connected to the electric system including generation, transmission, distribution and load. Voltage control, power factor correction (reactive power compensation) and management, generator rotor angle (synchronous) stability, protective relaying, and control center operations all influence voltage stability. We must avoid failures, collapse and blackouts of the complete power delivery system. Dr. Chen of the University of Texas at Arlington will explain what reactive power is and discuss recent low voltage days in the North Texas/ DFW Metroplex area during major system outages. With the coming competitive electricity environment and possibly higher transfer levels, Dr. Chen will discuss some ideas for balancing static and dynamic devices to maintain a reliable interconnected bulk electric system.
Dr. Mo-Shing Chen has been the director of Energy Systems Research Center at University of Texas at Arlington since 1968. He is a Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. He is an IEEE Fellow and has recently received the IEEE Millennium Medal Award. His concentration within the past several years has been voltage stability for electrical power systems, and Texas deregulation.
Cost $14.00 with RSVP $17.00 without RSVP
Please RSVP by noon on Mon Novenmber 20, to Mike Bui through Lotus Notes, to e-mail address MBUI1@txu.com, or telephone number 817-215-6103.
Location: Petroleum Club, 39th floor, Continental Plaza, 777 N. Main. Fort Worth, Texas