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

Alex McEachern (mack-ECK-urn)
Founder, Power Standards Lab & Power Sensors Ltd
Fellow, IEEE Convenor, IEC
TEL +1-510-522-4400
FAX +1-510-522-4455
e-mail:
  Alex@McEachern.com
Web sites:
  New! PQube 3! Check it out - it's fantastic!
  Live real-time PQube 3 meters
  Amusing PQube 3 video

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 1999-2009 Schedules
(Link to 2010 Schedule)
(Link to 2011 Schedule)
(Link to 2012 Schedule)
(Link to 2013 Schedule)
(Link to 2014 Schedule)
(Link to 2015 Schedule)
(Link to 2016 Schedule)
(Link to 2017 Schedule)

(Link to 2019 Schedule)

2018 Schedule
~~Completed~~ Pending

January 11, 2018 - Terry Chuah at PSL, Tom Haverstock re patent, M Samotyj start-the-year Lunch

January 15, 2018 - PSL Global Information Center - set-up
January 22-25, 2018 - DistribuTECH - San Diego California - Chair

January 27-29, 2018 - personal - niece Hilary's wedding - Tuscon Arizona

February 5-9, 2018 - M Barbaresso at PSL - planning & market size - joined by Scott Ungerer on 2/9

February 21, 2018 - Dinner - Gary Morgenthaler (re-scheduled)

February 22, 2018 - Washington DC - IEEE SGT Conference, DARPA, NRECA, USPTO

February 28, 2018 - Riverside California - DERMS Clean Start Kickoff meeting - LLL, Riverside Pub Pwr, Los Alamos NL, PNNL, SGS

March 4, 2018 - Breakfast, Gary Morgenthaler, Menlo Park California

March 7-16 2018 - IEC SC77A Working Group 6 - Imposimato - Venice ITALY

March 22 2018 - PS Board Meeting, Alameda California

March 23 2018 - Oratium at PSL

March 31 - April 2, 2018 - (personal) Vacation

April (3) & 4-5 2018 - Chair, IEC Working Group 9 (PQ Measurement Methods) at PSL, California

April 11, 2018 - "Fab-caused problems for semiconductor tools" - give lunch-and-learn talk in Milpitas California

April 16-19, 2018 - IEEE PES T & D Conference - Denver Colorado

April 24-29 2018 - EdF, IEC - Paris FRANCE

May 2-5 2018 - (personal) Boston Massachusetts

May 11 - June 1, 2018 - lecture tour - DENMARK, NORWAY, SWEDEN, BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND

June 7, 2018 - Presentation at Power Expo - MEXICO

June 12-15, 2018 - PS Board Meeting, Montreal CANADA (or Alameda California)

July 30 - Aug 3, 2018 - IEEE EMC Symposium - Long Beach California

August 4-11, 2017 - IEEE PES Annual Meeting - Portland Oregon

September 18-21, 2018 - PS Board Meeting, Montreal CANADA

September 24-27, 2018 - (personal) Guemes family gathering

December 13, 2018 - PS Board Meeting, Montreal CANADA

Professional activities

Keynote Speech - 2017 CBQEE - Sao Paolo BRAZIL
Keynote speech - 2016 International Power Quality Management - Moscow RUSSIA (via video)
Commencement Address - ACU Class of 2016 College of Engineering
Keynote speech - 2016 Intelec Conference - HOLLAND
Keynote speech - 2015 Intelec Conference - Osaka JAPAN
Keynote speech - 2014 International Conference on Power Quality Management - Moscow, RUSSIA
Past Chair IEEE SCC-22 - IEEE Cross-society Standards Coordinating Committee on Power Quality
Chair - 2013 IEEE International Smart Grid Technologies - Panel session on micro-synchrophasors
Keynote speech - 2013 China Power Quality Summit - Beijing CHINA
Plenary speech - 2013 International Conference on Renewable Energy and Power Quality, Bilbao, SPAIN
Honored by elevation to IEEE Fellow in 2012 for "Contributions to Power Quality Measurements and Immunity"
Keynote speech - 2012 First PQ Asia Conference - Manila, PHILIPPINES
Keynote speech - 2012 International Conference on Harmonics & Power Quality - HONG KONG
Keynote speech - 2011 EPQU - European Power Quality Conference - Lisbon, PORTUGAL
Keynote speech - 2010 5th International Conference on Power Quality - Xi'an, CHINA
Keynote speech - 2009 China National Conference on Electric Power Standards - Shanghai, CHINA
Keynote speech - 2008 4th International Conference on Power Quality - Yangzhou, CHINA
Keynote speech - 2007 Asia-Pacific Power Quality 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. Chairman of IEC Working Group 6 (Imposimato) Task Force on 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.
Fellow of the IEEE. Active on IEEE 1159.x, 519.x working groups.
Chairman of IEEE 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 and Conference Publications

(co-author) Micro Synchrophasor-Based Intrusion Detection in Automated Distribution Systems: Towards Critical Infrastructure Security, Sept 2016, IEEE Internet Computing, 20(5).

McEachern, A. Some research topics for power quality, Proceedings of the Power and Energy Society General Meeting (PES), 2013 IEEE, pp. 1-5

McEachern, A. Fab Pitfalls with "Green Energy" at University and Government Campuses, 19th Biennial University/Government/Industry, Micro/Nano Symposium (UGIM) , July 2012

(co-author) Voltage dip immunity of equipment and installations, CIGRE/CIRED/UIE Joint Working Group C 4 (2010).

(co-author) Power quality aspects of smart grids International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ'10), Granada SPAIN 23-25 March, 2010, p. 1-6

McEachern, A. Power Quality Issues with New Energy Sources, EU-Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI)Regional Power Quality Conference, 2009

(co-author) CIGRE/CIRED/UIE JWG C4.110 - voltage dip immunity of equipment in installations - status April 2008, 13th International Conference on Harmonics and Quality of Power, Sept. 2008-Oct. 1, pages 1-8, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

McEachern, A. A new ultra-low-cost power quality measurement technology, 9th International Conference on Electrical Power Quality and Utilisation, October 2007, Barcelona, Spain

McEachern, A. World-wide power quality-20-year cycles of development, 1965 to 2025 (2006): 0825-0825.

McEachern, A. An international approach for PQ monitoring standards, IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2005. IEEE Proceedings, pp. 2227-2229

McEachern, A. Identifying harmonic sources on the power grid - some technical challenges, Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting 2005 , June 2005, Page(s):2324 - 2325 Vol. 3

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

A. McEachern, Sag Generators - Not as simple as they seem, Power Quality Magazine, August 2001.

A. McEachern, Roles of Intelligent Systems in Power Quality Monitoring: Past, Present, and Future, 2001, Proceedings of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer Meeting, pp 1103-1105.

McEachern, A. Designing electronic devices to survive power quality events, IEEE Ind Appl Magazine, 6(6):66-69 Nov-Dec 2000

McEachern, A. Power System Measurement, Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (1999)

(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

Some other 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
7,511,468 Harmonics measurement instrument with in-situ calibration
S/N 13/562,049 System and Method for measuring a parameter of an AC power grid while minimizing the likelihood of lightning damage (micro-synchrophasor)

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

Active participant in "negative Power Factor" discussion on Wikipedia

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