EasyPower AutoDesign

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the EasyPower Tuesday refresher webinar series. My name is Jim Chastain. I'm solutions engineering with Bentley and EZ Power expert, quote, unquote. Today, we're gonna be talking about the, clever module and EZ Power offerings that are included with the, twenty twenty four update and most all the different bundles of EZ Power offering. So welcome to all. And as we're in the habit of doing, I'd like to start with a quick poll question. For those of you that haven't attended a webinar before, we, provide a certificate of attendance to everyone that attends, and many people use that to, support their extended education, credits. And, we will be recording the session and posting on the website, and you will receive via email a link to that posted, website of the video. So as we are in the habit of doing, I'd like to start with the poll questions. Appreciate your participation. First poll question is how do you currently size system elements in a new design? Again, no obligation or liability. And I'm just trying to get some feedback on where you currently stand with this particular task. We for those of you that have not attended a Arc Flash workshop, we do a monthly Arc Flash workshop where we do provide the tools, the same tools that I use for the demonstrations and the workshop to all people that register register for the workshop, and, they give you a chance to play with the auto design for two weeks. So just a heads up. So it looks like we're close to a quorum. Let's leave this open another ten seconds. Alright. Here's how people have weighed in. So it looks like, we have a majority of people using the datasheet lookup method, which is for those of you that have other methodologies, feel free to include make a note on the chat window, just for my edification. Nothing nothing obligating you for sharing anything. Okay. The next question is how often do you predict short circuit, or do you have to predict short circuit and arc flash results before knowing which component supplier will be used? This one's a little bit more dicey. And, it's something that seems to come up a lot. For design systems when you don't know where the, the low bidder will be on the construction side of things. So again, no obligation or liability. We're close to a quorum. Alright. Thank you for participating. Interesting. So we got a fifty fifty split between rarely and often. I don't know what I expected, but that's a little surprising to me. Thank you for participating. Okay. So now the point is we're gonna be talking about the EC Power Otter design module, what it does, or how it does it, and what the controls do. And by this, I mean, we we act like it's a plug and play situation, and in some respects, it is. But the fact is, it has a particular formula, if you will, that it uses, and that formula for design decisions can be modified by the user. So the point is is it doing what you want it to do, and how do you make that happen? So we'll be doing that as we go through this next thirty minutes. So what it does do is provide automatic sizing for low voltage equipment, and it's based on the loads, and it follows the recommended practices of NEC and IEEE recommendations. It can size cables, circuit breakers, fuses, transformers, specifically medium voltage to low voltage or low voltage to low voltage transformers. So it's not a catch all. And, we'll get into more of that as we as we go through this. So now for those of you that have EC Power, if you've, got access to EC Power for the, webinar that we do, the workshop, you can you can follow this demo. But my system must have an energy source It must have the load sized to be able to work the, the calculations. And so what we're gonna see is I can size elements for a single motor control center load. I can I can size cables individually or en masse, and there are elements or there are ways to lock auto sizing, so I don't affect I can I can, make sure that nothing if I've selected a particular size or part number, the auto sizing will not affect it because of that control? So let's jump into the example and see what it looks like. Now for those of you that have easy power, the center column has a user's guide. This will bring up a PDF copy of the user's guide for the whole tool suite, and the details of doing smart design is dedicated to a chapter in this book. So I invite you to take a look at that if you have access to it. Meanwhile, I'm gonna open the sample folder. In my case, my tools are installed into my documents, CC Power twenty four point o one lines. And under this folder, there's a sample folder. And inside of the sample folder is a smart design example. So I'm gonna open it up. Okay. For starters, I need to have an energy source. So if you don't have at least a utility or a generator or a battery in your system, our smart design will not be able to do anything. Secondarily, it only controls or only will size medium, low voltage equipment. So if I have a, medium voltage element, for instance, this fuse or this cable, you will not be able to size those. So the procedure goes something like this. I'm gonna left click and drag to select my system. I'm gonna go down to auto design. I'm gonna invoke auto design. And as I do that, this tool comes back with some values for the breakers, the cables, the transformers, and if we look at the, the system elements, even the loads. Now you might say, well, where did this stuff come from? For instance, this first cable is a one c three fifty kcmil with ninety nine feet long. Where did that come from? Well, it came from the database that we've preselected in the rules, and so I'll I'll be jumping into that shortly. But the point I wanna make is I can size this individual copy. So I'm in database edit. I'm gonna go out and open up the dialogue box for this cable and intentionally missize it. So let's say this is for some reason or another, I have this set up for a a fourteen k c m I l or size fourteen AWG and a single conductor per phase. So I'm gonna go ahead and auto calculate. So this gives me something whether it's right or not. I don't know. My point is I can go in and resize an individual cable by right clicking and auto design that element. And as I do, it comes back with the two conductors, six hundred k c mil. Now the difference is or the the ninety nine feet comes from one of the rules. And if I have the, size set up for a different length, let's say, seventy five feet, Now when I invoke auto design for the cable, it will it will utilize the seventy five feet in the calculation. Okay. And then likewise is true with the motor control center loads. If I'm in database edit and we go into description, I can size each one of these individually. For instance, here's a motor. I can right click on the line element, auto size protective device and cable. And as I slide over, you can see it's got a generic older case circuit breaker standard, MCP one fifty. And the conductor has been sized for a number four, ninety nine foot long. Okay. So this gives me a clue as to where things are what is going on, and the and the rules control that decision. If I go to date auto design options, I can access the rules that are being used. So first of all, it's gonna use a library sheet from the device library, and the choices include two generic data sheets, and we'll get in and look at these in a second. And then two each from four different manufacturers. So there's Cutler Hammer, GE, Siemens, and Square d. So this first time through, I used the generic, database. I'm gonna use Square d this time around. We're going to create a we're not gonna worry about bill of materials. We're gonna use a code to do the sizing for downstream loads, although we can choose one of these other selections as an alternative. We can size part of the system or everything, so let's size everything. If I have any motors in the system, I'm gonna use I have a the ability to select the motor description. So we're gonna use full voltage nonreversing for now. When it comes to cables, if there's not a length of cable, the cable length indicated, we're gonna use ninety nine feet to calculate the voltage drop. And that way, whenever I go back and do a, search on ninety nine, I can update the lengths of the cables as, as my design requires. Likewise, protective devices. I can choose a maximum available pickup or minimum available, selection. And then the feeder breakers are based upon the bus rating or the load for that particular bus. And then based upon the lock rotor multipliers that can be changed, I can, calculate the downstream voltage drop based upon exceeding a five percent drop, I can upside the conductors, in this case, by twenty percent. I can change these variables as well. So right now, I'm gonna go in and look at analyzing this system with a square d device library and see what happens. Now one point to be made, as I indicated, it's not gonna do anything with this medium voltage cable, so I need to go in and fix that or address that as far as the size. And let's say it's fifty five feet long. It's an XLP. We're gonna auto calculate. It's rated for three hundred ninety five amps through a steel conduit. Okay. So first pass was with generic. This pass is gonna be with, I think, Square d. Vocoder design. It's gonna think about it for a second. When the color comes back to me, I've got all square t part numbers, and they're sized for the downstream load. We've got transformer sizing based upon the load that's been connected. And if we go in and look at the schedule for the motor control centers, we can send this was already set up for main leg only, so it didn't, size anything there. But for my static loads, these are the static load values. And I'm showing the square d part number and the trip and the interrupt rating and then the conductors. Again, all with ninety nine feet. Now, again, if I didn't wanna if I have these all manually set up and I don't wanna change it, I can go in and lock auto sizing so it won't be affected by the next time I run the program. Okay. Any questions about that? So now I wanna go in and and find out where all this is being controlled or how I how I deal with that. Now, one of the more helpful features of this module is the ability to generate a report giving me the justification for each decision that was made. And if I go to my list of windows, I'll see on my report generation an auto design report, and it shows me that the fuse wasn't, sized, the bus, and the high voltage wasn't sized nor was the cable, which we expected. Here's the transformer selection and the justification for the transformer sizing, and then the rest of the elements in turn. Now not all this is gonna be perfect. And so where it throws an error, it gives me a warning that there was five, fifteen hundred amps rated, and we're tapping it, equal to the sizing on the amps. So I may a human may wanna check this out. So, again, there's justification for each, decision that's been made. And where there's an error shown, this is where a human needs to enter interact. For instance, in this panel row eleven, it wasn't sized because the bus ampere rating for the circuit and the calculated downstream amps were both equal to zero. And so it stuck with the size cable that we had initially set up. Okay. Now so how do we control all this? So first of all, what we've done so so far is is done every we've done everything with the basic default rules. So the question is where how does this affect my my example or my decision process? The, types of circuits that the module is set up to recognize are motor circuits, where we have a direct motor to a bus and a protective device or a cable or two cables, feeder circuits where we have downstream panels or discrete elements, and MCCs with the ability to have downstream elements, And then transformer circuits. Again, the loads are discrete or separated, and the tool can calculate the loading from each feeder. Okay. I keep referring to the design library and then, database device library. So that's where we're gonna look at it now. If I come up to file, open device library, let's look at my standard. Just for for grins, you'll note notice that I have other values or other device libraries available, and these are modified to support that particular operation, for example, that I wanna run with that setup as far as the library itself. So there there could be a need to have different libraries based upon my selection, used for part selection. So let's go ahead and open the standard library. Now we keep talking about the devices selected and and the devices available, and the data sheets for all those devices are listed up here at the top under this top section of the device library. So cable calculations, multicast circuit breakers, fuses, switches are all detailed. And if there's a manufacturer making a part, this is where you would find it. Now as far as auto design, it refers to this little module down here at the bottom. And in that, I mentioned we have several catalogs, two each from four different manufacturers. So here's the Cutler Hammer, GE, Siemens, and Square d. Now these are different from the listed of the parts up above because these refer to dish decision trees that I've created or that have been created. These are included in your default installation that were included based upon using this catalog for part selection. And how that is done is that there's a list of motors. Again, there's a list of feeders, again, protective devices for single phase, two phase, and three phase. Now this is where the decision tree can be modified by the user. So currently, under the selection for cutter hammer, when we have a switch gear, designated as the equipment, these current ratings or current demand are put on the system, I can have a transformer load that's determined or protection is determined by these selections. So I take that back. These are all GE parts and oh, GE two thousand seven right there. So if we have this load on a switch gear, this would be the first choice, and these would be the designations of this solid state trip unit. The point being, these will change based upon how I've designated that particular, bus. So I can call a bus panel board or motor control center, and it will change the designation or the return that the auto design will provide. Now these are these are sections. If you go ahead and look at the generic, we can look at the protective device selection. And in this case, we're using generic manufacturing names, but these are a different selection that have been, constructed for a particular project. And so if I wanna use if I don't wanna have a manufacturer, if I wanted to use the vanilla part number, we could use the generic and then and then make adjustments to it if my project had parts that's not on this list. For instance, if we look at transformers, if we have a six hundred volt transformer, say, twelve eight to six hundred volts, I don't have one listed. And so I could and so that would be an error that would be reflected once I run auto design. But once I put that transformer in this library or in this selection sheet, it would then be available for selection by auto design. So the point is you can customize the decision tree, which is based upon the loads, the conductors, the protective devices, the type of equipment that we're using, and the transformers, you can control how the selection is made both in the manufacturer because I can use any manufacturer or generic selection. So for instance, if I wanted to add the new primary voltage, let's say, was twelve point eight and secondary voltage is six hundred. It would give me that, capability, and then I'd have the ability to do KVA entry for whatever the transformer designation is in this particular range. And it would be available then next time I had a choice or circuit that had this transformer requirement. Okay. So it feels like I'm I'm kinda stumbling around, but my point is it's not a plug and play tool as it as it is first launched, but it can become very, clever way to do auto sizing for your particular needs if you understand where the adjustments, can be made. So first of all, you can adjust the rules. So if I go back and close my device library, I can adjust the auto design rules under options, pick out the catalog I wanna use for a part selection, decide how we're gonna be doing the downstream load comparisons, the motor starters, whether or not I have values for the length of the cable or not. I mean, can I could go in and put in fifty five feet as a thing I wanna use for typical values? So adjusting the, the rules for selection and then adjusting the database to reflect the part numbers that I wanna use in the project, make it a very versatile tool. So I'm gonna try this one more time. And you go to auto design options. Let's use GE twenty eleven. Now one of the questions is, how current is the pricing? And the answer is it's it's not current. It was good at the time. And so approach the cost involved with the jaundice high. You can change the the pricing on the catalog to reflect what you know to be the current price. And consequently, your installation would be more valuable to you, than it would be to to me. And once I select everything, Volcado design, Look at my one line, and it'll reflect the rules that I in play put in place. And then under my list of windows, I look at the, justification for the decisions that were made. Any questions? So, basically, the order design can size low voltage system elements, use a prescribed list of components that I can control or if they can be modified. And then controls of the decision tree will guide the the selection as needed. It's an interesting, tool to try out. And by all means, if you have other questions, feel free to contact tech support or me, and we'll talk to you down the road.