Nigel of McQuin Electrical Power Consulting, Inc.

In May 2000, a group of college students had a dream of building an electric car, with the intention of breaking the existing land speed record. In October 2004 at the Bonneville Speedway on the salt-flats of Utah, they achieved this goal establishing a new land speed record of 321.83 mph for the fastest electrically powered wheeled vehicle. In subsequent years till Oct. 2010, the team ran further hydrogen fuel-cell and Li-Ion battery powered racing vehicles, all of which exceeded 300 mph in timed speed trials.

The speaker’s experience in pulsed power-supply designs, and a wide variety of induction machinery designs and applications, have played an important role in the development of electrical machinery for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles drives. This has also led to the design of specialized traction drive motor for electric lap-racing cars, as well as highway electric drive systems for motor vehicles and delivery vans. The advantages and short-comings of these objectives will be discussed, and the important lessons that have been learnt in this process of development.

Biography:

Mr. Nigel McQuin gained a 1st Class Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London, England in 1977, specializing in electrical power systems and rotating machinery; he also holds minor qualifications in geology and paleontology. He joined GEC Large Machines Co. as a development Engineer, where he worked on the design and analysis of a wide variety of electrical machine problems. In 1984-5 he returned to Imperial College, now as a research assistant, to develop induction generator designs for stand-alone single-phase domestic windmill power generation.  He later joined Brush Electrical Machines Co. in 1985, then as development manager.

In June 1990, Mr. McQuin moved to the USA, where he became Vice President and Test Laboratory Manager at PSM High Power Test Laboratory in East Pittsburgh. Since December 1996 he has been self-employed as an independent Electrical Power Consultant.

Mr. McQuin has been chairman of STLNA (Short-Circuit Testing Liaison – North America), a coordinating body for the high-power electrical test laboratories within NAFTA. He is also on the IEEE main standards committees for Switchgear (C37), Transformers (C57), Surge Protection Devices (C62), Electrical Machinery (C50) and High Voltage Testing Techniques (PSIM).

He is an Individual Member of CIGRE (Paris), and is also a Member of the IET (London). Locally he contributes to the IEEE Pittsburgh Section by providing technical presentations; in 2006 he was awarded the PES Outstanding Engineer Award for his “Contribution for Engineering on High Speed Electric Drives for Racing Cars”, which currently holds two world land-speed records in excess of 300 mph; and received IEEE Distinguished Lecturer recognition in 2014.

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