ABC-Power* has developed an innovative product that monitors, measures, controls and optimizes energy use within an industrial environment. The fragility of the aging power grid, coupled with the rapid deployment of alternative energy sources including solar, wind, batteries, and various forms of generators, has created a need for their product. AEC Engineering has been working with ABC-Power* for over two years to refine the components within their control panel to achieve UL-508A listing, both in the US and in Canada, which they have now done.
In February ABC-Power* received an order for 25 units that needed to be quickly deployed across a variety of industrial facilities nationwide. They turned to AEC for fabrication. AEC worked with their suppliers to expedite materials and made this project a priority within the work schedule.
Previously ABC-Power* had performed their own testing and configuration, however, orders had been small, and an order of this size would require more resources than they could make available. In addition to this they found that to test the electrical and functional characteristics of this particular order, the only test equipment available cost $60K-$70K. Again, they turned to AEC for help.
AEC Shop Foreman Brandon Morissette and senior design engineer John Kraus put their heads together to determine if AEC could develop something quickly that would perform the testing required. After a few revisions back and forth with ABC-Power’s engineers they settled on a design and set Brandon to work to assemble it from components readily available or in house.
Due to the fast pace and importance of this order, ABC-Power* elected to rent the expensive tester (Plan A) and use AEC’s homemade version as a Plan B. Within a couple of days Brandon had assembled the AEC tester and had it ready to go when ABC-Power* arrived. It should be mentioned that along with building the tester and performing his ‘day job’ keeping the shop running efficiently, Brandon also recruited the help of co-worker Nate Barrett (Master Electrician) to install 240V and 480V disconnects to the area of the shop that would be used for testing.
With the customer on-site and the ship date looming only days away, the shop was humming with activity. Panel Technicians Bill, Matt, and Jake all contributed to the fabrication and testing effort under Brandon’s leadership. In the end the deadline was met and no other customer projects were adversely impacted. The AEC tester proved to be 98% as effective as the expensive one and can be easily modified to meet 100% requirement for the next order. The customer was very happy, both with AEC’s ingenuity as well as the team’s professionalism, customer service, and commitment to getting the job done in the highest quality way.
* not their real name
