WorldWide Drilling Resource

63 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® MARCH 2014 GEFCO Training Class 2013 Through the Eyes of a Student...Part VI by Veronica I. “Ronnie” Jones Managing Publisher As the year 2014 has moved forward, so has GEFCO , an Astec Industries Company. We move along with this stu- dent’s rendition of the 2013 GEFCO Training Class. BUT, before I begin with that, we have just received some very exciting news! GEFCO , understanding just how important, modern, and up-to-date edu- cation should be, is revamping and up- dating their class! How exciting can that be? WOW ~ VERY! Edcuation should always evolve with the new techniques and equip- ment, and GEFCO is stepping up to the plate. So, as we continue with the 2013 educational experiences here, and understand all this upgrading takes time with planning and implementing, just like the TOTAL MAKEOVER of the facility in Enid this past year, we hope you will stay tuned HERE each month for updates! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say...we are in school 2013: * Why don’t we make this an edu- cational experience for you as well? Come on and identify what each of these students, and/or professors, and/or GEFCO representatives are doing? YOU MUST identify each photograph! No shortcuts! Look for the Hard Hat and GEFCO Training Manual each month Qassas watches from high atop the rig, as classmates do the measuring... what are they measuring? While that is going on, what is Janelle and the rest doing down here? Hint - it takes mathematics. Is it time for swimming? Or are we checking the ___________? Putting our heads together says the Blue Team! WOW! My future is high! Thanks GEFCO GEF Send your correct answers to: michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com A Really Big Loser by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC Losing sometimes isn’t such a bad thing...like losing weight. For many of us, losing a few pounds to get down to our ideal weight is a good thing. With weight loss, we have to lose something to win. This “losing to win” concept applies to electrical power distribution too. Every power transmission line has heat losses. As the electric current travels through the metal power line, heat is gen- erated and dissipated into the air. Every time electric current is transformed - stepped up or stepped down in voltage - about 6% of the energy is lost in the conversion process. And it all adds up. Energy losses from the power generation unit to where the power is used vary widely, but energy losses going from the generation site to where the energy is used are often greater than the energy used at the site. To compensate for these losses, energy must be added at the source to make sure there is adequate energy to service the expected demand. As electric current travels through a conductor (usually a metal wire or cable, but any material works on the same principle) voltage is lost. How much voltage is lost depends on the resistance of the conductor (ohms), length of the conductor, cross-sectional area of the conductor (with a round wire or cable it’s the diameter), and the amount of cur- rent (amperage) traveling through the wire. The voltage lost is converted to heat with volts lost x amps = watts. This is called power dissipation because it’s not used by the load. The formula for calculating the volt- age loss through a copper wire is (21.4 x feet x amps)/circular mils [CM]. The constant here (21.4) is derived from the electrical conductivity (resistance) of the wire. The electrical resistance of copper wire at room temperature is 10.7 ohms Storkson cont’d on page 66.