Alex McEachern - power quality expert - SEMI F47 - IEC 61000-4-34

Alex McEachern (mack-ECK-urn)
TEL +1-510-522-4400
FAX +1-510-522-4455
e-mail:
  Alex@McEachern.com
Web sites:
  Power Standards Lab
  Live! World map of power quality
  PQube
  PQ1 Power Quality Relay

Free - Power Quality Teaching Toy - download the program

Upcoming schedule

Professional activities

Recent & pending publications

Patents (power quality)

Patents (other topics)

Photos

Recent reviews

Brief bio

Curriculum Vitae (brief)

Recent travel

(Link to 1999 Schedule)
(Link to 2000 Schedule)
(Link to 2001 Schedule)
(Link to 2002 Schedule)
(Link to 2003 Schedule)
(Link to 2004 Schedule)
(Link to 2005 Schedule)
(Link to 2006 Schedule)
(Link to 2007 Schedule)
(Link to 2008 Schedule)
(Link to 2009 Schedule)
(Link to 2010 Schedule)
(Link to 2011 Schedule)

(Link to 2013 Schedule)

2012 Schedule
~~Completed~~ Pending

~~9-10 January 2012 - Anaheim California - IEEE PES Conference~~

~~17 January 2012 - Begin-the-year dinner with Marek Samotyj~~

~~19 January 2012 - Pleasant Hill California - IEEE Speech~~

~~16 February 2012 - at PSL - meet with Ron Hofmann, John White~~

~~~~6-7 March 2012 - Los Angeles California - JPL/NASA Conference~~ (Marco will attend)~~

~~21 May 2012 - St Petersberg RUSSIA - UIE Congress~~

~~20-24 March 2012 - Hawaii: Honolulu Electric (HECO), U.S. Navy, Lanai Photovoltaic Array with Sandia National Lab~~

~~22 April - 1 May 2012 - GERMANY, SLOVENIA, CROATIA - Teach seminars~~

~~2 May - 4 May 2012 - Sardinia, ITALY - IEC SC77A WG06 meeting~~

~~5 May - 12 May 2012 - Personal time - ITALY - with Red~~

15 May 2012 - Ron Hofmann at PSL

17 May 2012 - Agilent visit to PSL

21 May 2012 - Medical appt

24 May 2012 - FIDVR Workshop - Tempe, AZ

1-3 June 2012 - Sears Point - Sonoma Historic Races

4-6 June 2012 - San Antonio TX - EPRI PQA

14-15 June 2012 - PTO - U.S. Open with Joel Sanders

17-20 June 2012 - HONG KONG - ICHQP - Keynote Speech

20-25 June 2012 - THAILAND, MALAYSIA, other tentative Asia

27-29 June 2012 - IEC SC77A WG09 Meeting at PSL Alameda

2-5 July 2012 - Personal time off

9-10 July 2012 - UGIM - Berkeley (Bill Flounders)

13-16 July 2012 - Portland Oregon (Heather, Andre)

22-26 July 2012 - San Diego, California - IEEE PES General Meeting

10-11 August 2012 - Wedding!

13-17 August 2012 - PTO

16/17 August 2012 - (tentataive) Hawaiian Electric seminars

19-22 August 2012 - (tentative) St Louis Missouri - GovEnergy - Richard Pierce

11 September 2012 - SCV EMC - Santa Clara Valley EMC Chapter talk

18-19 September 2012 - Remote Conference - Denver, Colorado

22-26 October 2012 - Washington DC area - teach seminars, Dominion Power on 24 October

24-31 December 2012 - PTO

Professional activities

Keynote speech - 2012 International Conference on Harmonics & Power Quality - Hong Kong
Keynote speech - 2011 EPQU - European Power Quality Conference - Lisbon, Portugal
Keynote speech - 5th International Conference on Power Quality - 2010 - Xi'an, China
Keynote speech - 2009 China National Conference on Electric Power Standards - Shanghai, China
Keynote speech - 4th International Conference on Power Quality - 2008 - Yangzhou, China
Keynote speech - Asia-Pacific Power Quality 2007 Conference - Kuala Lumpor, Malaysia
World-wide seminars on power measurement and practical power quality
Extensive world-wide travel to solve difficult power quality problems, especially at semiconductor factories and automobile factories.
In 2006, honored with the "1906 Award" by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for exceptional achievement in work fundamental to IEC electric power standards
Widely recognized as the expert of all experts on SEMI F47 voltage sag immunity and semiconductor tool electrical engineering.
Convenor / Chairman of IEC 77A WG09 - power quality instrumentation standard - IEC 61000-4-30. Active in writing drafts, maintaining informal web site.
IEC 77A WG06 - voltage dip immunity standards. Active in writing drafts of IEC 61000-4-11, 61000-4-34.
Recipient of 2001 Mungenast Award for lifetime contributions to the power quality industry
Has taught graduate-level courses on power quality in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.
Official liason between IEEE and IEC on all power quality matters (IEEE SCC-22, IEC77A)
Voting member of SEMI Facilities Committee for semiconductor industry. Principal author and Chairman of SEMI F47, voltage sag immunity testing standard, 2011 update.
Senior Member, IEEE. Active on IEEE 1159.x, 519.x working groups.
Former Chairman of 1159.1 (Power Quality Measurements). Voting member of SCC-22 (Standards Coordination, Power Quality Standards). Regularly provide peer review for IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
Technical reviewer for technical papers for IEEE Transactions, and a variety of conferences.
Founder of BMI, Chairman of Dranetz-BMI, and founder of Power Standards Lab, the leading power quality instrument manufacturer.
22 years on Board of Directors of WPT, parent company of Dranetz-BMI and Electrotek Concepts (no longer a Board member)

Peer-reviewed technical articles

McEachern, A., McGranaghan, M., Defining Grades of Power Quality, CEATI Report No. T034700-5118, November 2004
McEachern, A. Designing Equipment for World-Wide Power IEEE Industry Application Society meeting, Pittsburgh, October 2002
McEachern, A. Designing electronic devices to survive power quality events, IEEE Ind Appl Magazine, 6(6):66-69 Nov-Dec 2000
(co-author) A survey of North American electric utility concerns regarding non-sinusoidal waveforms, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 11(1):73-78 Jan 1996
(co-author) Practical definitions for powers in systems with nonsinusoidal waveforms and unbalanced loads, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 11(1):79-101 Jan 1996
McEachern, A. et al Revenue and Harmonics - an evaluation of some proposed rate structures, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 10(1):474-482 Jan 1995
(co-author) Effects of harmonics on equipment, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 8(2):672-680 April 1993
McEachern, A. A floating-window algorithm for detecting certain power-line faults, IEEE Trans. Instrumentation and Measurement, 39(1):112-115 Feb 1990
McEachern, A. A system for capturing and presenting short duration voltage surges on AC power-lines, IEEE Trans. Instrumentation and Measurement, 39(1):38-41 Feb 1990

Recent and pending publications

Power Quality Instrumentation - Standards, Pitfalls, and Shortcuts - Special Feature article, Spring 2003 NETA World (published by International Electrical Testing Association)
Power Quality Monitoring - Where Do We Go From Here? - cover story, August 2002, Power Quality Magazine
History of power quality monitoring - paper for tutorial at Summer IEEE meeting
Sag Generators - Not as simple as they seem, August 2001, Power Quality Magazine
With Bob Gilleskie, SDG&E - An End-use Equipment Approach to Improved Power Quality Services, PQA 2001
With Bill Moncrief, EPRI - An Approach to Charging for Power System Harmonics, (Poland)
Encyclopedia of Electrical & Electronics Engineering (John Wiley & Sons): Chapter on "Electric Power Systems Measurement"
Amusing articles: Human Mechanical Resonances, Leonardo da Vinci's Power Factor Correction Capacitor, Early history of Electric Power, etc..
Click here: Fun Stuff

Older publications

Handbook of Power Signatures - The original 1980's book on interpreting power quality disturbances.
Popular & trade magazine articles

Patents (power quality)

4,642,563 Impulse measurement system
4,694,402 Waveshape fault detection
5,014,229 Digital calibration techniques
5,089,979 Transducer calibration techniques
5,184,066 Quality lock (with Nicholson, Waterman)
5,212,441 Harmonic-adjusted power factor (with Grady)
5,298,854 Harmonic-adjusted watt-hour (with Moncrief)
5,298,855 Harmonic metering technique
5,298,856 Harmonic metering technique
5,298,859 Harmonic metering technique
5,298,885 Harmonic metering technique
5,298,888 Harmonic metering technique
5,300,924 Harmonic instrument (with Nicholson)
5,302,890 Harmonic-adjusted power factor (with Grady)
5,270,637 Impulse direction on power lines
5,307,009 Harmonic-adjusted watt-hour meter
5,347,464 Enhanced resolution PQ measurements
5,408,523 FAX'ed power quality data
5,471,401 Waveform library (with Nicholson)
5,481,468 "Doubling down" compression algorithm
5,530,738 PQPager
5,581,471 Extended-temperature PQ disk storage (with Piehl)
5,742,153 Coasting power supply for harmonic measurements
6,285,169 Sag generator with switch-mode impedance
6,759,765 Sag generator with plurality of switch technologies

Patents (other topics)

Damage to structures by earthquakes
- 5,526,694 Instrument for detecting hidden damage after earthquakes (with Ungerer)
- 5,789,677 Dual-axis force-feedback accelerometer
Reducing exposure to magnetic fields
- 5,536,979 Switched charger technique (with Haverstock)
- 5,680,028 Toothbrush recharger with reduced EMF

Sandy McEachern

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