Rich Keil

The interaction of grounding systems has become increasingly important as the addition of solar and wind power plants and large data centers have become more commonplace.  The presentation will discuss the interaction between the utility, collector station, solar and wind power plant and data centers.  The interaction between the grounding systems requires coordination between the various owners to provide a safe grounding system at all locations.  There are many variables that influence the interaction between grounding systems.  Examples will be presented that demonstrate how the variables change the interaction between the grounding systems and the impact on the safety criteria to meet IEEE-80 Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding requirements.

Biography:

Rich has been a substation engineer at Commonwealth Associates, Inc., a full-service utility consulting firm headquartered in Jackson, Michigan for 24 years.  Prior to joining Commonwealth Associates, Rich worked for the Dayton Power and Light Company for 34 years, retiring as Manager, Design Engineering, responsible for substation and transmission engineering.  Rich’s experience at Dayton Power and Light Company includes substation design, project and construction management and support, construction/outage scheduling. equipment failure analysis, and emergency response. He also served as a member of the ECAR Electric Equipment Panel.  Rich has been a member of the IEEE PES Substations Committee since 1976 and is a member of the working groups responsible for standards and guides for substation safety, direct stroke lightning protection, bus design, grounding connectors, and ground testing. He has been a member of the IEEE working group responsible for substation grounding guide IEEE-80 since 1976 and chair since 1986.  As chair Rich has been responsible for the preparation of IEEE Std 80-2000, IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding and IEEE Std 80-2013, IEEE Guide for Safety in AC Substation Grounding editions and is working on the next edition of IEEE-80.   Mr. Keil also served as chair of the IEEE Substations Committee Transmission and Distribution Substations Design Subcommittee from 2009-2015.