Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers Philadelphia Chapter Presentation

Wednesday, September 4, 2024 Virtual ZOOM Course: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

An Overview of the Philadelphia Zoning Process for Engineers

Presented by Meredith L. Ferleger, Esq., Dilworth Paxson, LLP

Meredith L. Ferleger – Dilworth Paxson LLP (dilworthlaw.com)

Securing entitlements for a project in Philadelphia requires interaction with a variety of stakeholders throughout the process, including pre-requisite review agencies, permitting departments, City Council members, and local communities. Project Engineers are frequently called on to provide critical support to the project team, which may include the developer, architects, attorneys and other consultants with the common goal to see the project to fruition. If a variance is required, the Engineering team is relied upon to provide crucial information on the project’s impacts concerning noise, traffic, environmental issues, and other “non-zoning” related aspects of the project that are important to address while working with numerous stakeholders throughout the process. Join Meredith L. Ferleger, Esq. of Dilworth Paxson LLP on September 4th for a discussion surrounding the Philadelphia zoning process and learn of how the engineering team may assist to shepherd the project from the first filing to the issuance of a Zoning Permit.

FREE to attend and view, $5 for PDH

PSPE believes the “course” will be accepted for credit in PA, NJ, and other National Model states where courses do not required pre-approval.  This course has not been certified for credit in the State of NY.  Prices using PayPal Course and PSPE Certificate – $5.00

For reservations, go to:  http://www.pspe-philly.org

Zoom Invite to https://drexel.zoom.us/j/87140804166 

PSPE05sep24ZoomInvite.docx (pspe-philly.org)

We’d like to thank Mr. Oleg Goureev, Component and Systems Manager, and Mr. Martin Bussiere, business Development Manager, Rail Segment North America, ABB Electrification Products, for another great presentation on technologically advanced products to support railway vehicles and wayside operations. Of particular interest is how small circuit breakers rated up to 1000 V dc can interrupt fault currents! The presentation is available on our Philadelphia Chapter VTS website.

The IEEE VTS Philadelphia Chapter recently held a meeting to discuss NFPA 130 wire and cable requirements for non-emergency and emergency applications. The meeting was well attended by 37 people representing the electrified railway industry. We would like to thank Alex Marciano from Marmon Industrial Energy & Infrastructure for an informative presentation, looking through NFPA 130 and providing practical examples and industry applications. The presentation is located in pdf format on this website. It is particularly interesting to those presently involved with the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project and the East River Tunnel Project on both sides of Penn Station New York. Our chapter will continue to host presentations applicable to local engineering projects of interest to our membership. Please provide feedback and suggestions for meeting topics.

The IEEE VTS Philadelphia Chapter was privileged to have Fernando Soares of Powell provide an excellent presentation on traction power substation design. I consider the presentation one of the best available on traction power substations, equipment, design criteria, testing requirements, and practical applications. If you missed the presentation, it is located in pdf format on this website. Thank you Fernando!

Get your professional development credits for your professional engineering license renewal from PSPE.

Attend the PSPE-Philadelphia Boot Camp on September 18, 19, and 20, 2023.

The IEEE VTS Philadelphia Chapter enjoyed a great presentation at 10:00 am on Friday, August 11 by TMC Transformers. The topics included:

TMC Company Overview
Dry Type Transformers
– Advantages and Market Applications
Technology
– Cast Resin Transformers
– VPI (Vacuum Pressure Impregnated) & VI (Vacuum Impregnated)
Technical Concepts
– Ratings, Efficiencies, Testing, & Regulatory Standards
Accessories
– Protection, Temperature Monitoring Devices

Handouts are located on our Meetings page.

The IEEE Philadelphia VTS Chapter held a meeting on May 18, 2023 with a great presentation on Grid Edge Solutions and Battery Energy Storage Systems given by Jon Judson and John Glassmire. The Chapter thanks both of them for their time and presenting great slides to those 31 participants in attendance.

The IEEE VTS Philadelphia Chapter thanks Dennis Balickie from ABB and Jeff Small from Curve Technology for a great presentation on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Design given on March 23, 2023. We had 48 people in attendance for this interesting presentation, which is available on our VTS Philadelphia Chapter website.

STV Incorporated was awarded honorable mention in Electrical Power Systems Engineering for the Wayne Junction Static Frequency Converter Station Rehabilitation Project by the Philadelphia Chapter of Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers (PSPE). STV participated in the Chapter’s 2022 Outstanding Engineering Achievements (OEA) program.

“This tribute is given to STV Incorporated for their roles in the development of traction power, electrical, communications, mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, architectural, civil, structural, geotechnical, environmental, cost estimating, scheduling, project management, and quality assurance/control of the SEPTA Wayne Junction Static Frequency Converter (SFC) Station Rehabilitation project. The SEPTA Wayne Junction SFC Station, located in North Philadelphia, is the sole source of 25 Hz power for a major portion of SEPTA’s Regional Rail System, serving over 26 million passenger trips in 2020. STV’s role was to meet the challenge of selecting the required SFC technologies that fulfill the project design criteria, while integrating this technology into the existing facility infrastructure with minimal impact, and keeping the station operational to continuously serve the Delaware Valley Region. The team was also tasked with rehabilitating the facility, expanding it for the new SFC equipment, and upgrading all supporting auxiliary systems.”

STV and its team will be honored at the annual PSPE Philadelphia Chapter banquet on February 25, 2023 during National Engineers Week. #Eweek2023

STV’s team included:
Sowinski Sullivan Architects
Matrix New World Engineering
Promatech
American Geotech, Inc.
Siemens Mobility GmbH

A presentation on the project can be found at:
www.pspe-philly.org/oea/2022OEA/STV-WJSFC-Presentation.mp4

Join the Philadelphia Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers on December 1, 2022 to view the presentations submitted for the 2022 Outstanding Engineering Achievements Award program. The presentations will be shown at 5:30 pm on December 1 via Zoom. Please email OEA@pspe-philly.org for details or click on the link below to view the PSPE Philadelphia Chapter website.

PSPE Philadelphia Chapter (pspe-philly.org)

Back in person! The 2022 PA AV Summit returns in person for the 5^th year in a row. If you are interested in learning and hearing about the technology development in the AV industry along with other topics such as workforce, equity, freight, deployment, infrastructure, and environment, you’ll love attending the 2022 PA AV Summit.

This year’s Summit will be held in Pittsburgh, PA from October 25 – 26 at Stage AE. Registration opens soon. More information can be found on the PA AV Summit: www.paavsummit.org

We’d like to thank Bob Swayne for an excellent presentation on the history of major power blackouts and a description of the North American power grid. This was the first joint meeting between the IEEE VTS Philadelphia Chapter and the Philadelphia Section. The Chapter had 23 registered and the Section had 86 registered for the meeting.

We had 32 people in attendance on March 28. We’d like to thank Martin Bussiere, Oleg Goureev, and Eric Denis for an excellent presentation on ABB’s DCBreak, a new rolling stock high-speed direct current circuit breaker. The presentation is available on the Meetings page.

Our Feb 25, 2022 meeting had 43 in attendance.  Thank you Benjamin Stell for an excellent presentation on wayside energy storage systems! Learning about available battery types and their applications was very informative. Our participants provided positive feedback on their favorite topics.

“Illustration of different types of wayside energy storage technologies available in the market helped me understand the differences of these technologies.”

“With more authorities considering WESS, it was very nice to see an up-to-date list of manufacturers and their solutions.”

“The detail on flywheel installations including their simplicity along with their hazards.”

“The most helpful topic was the criticality of design in some systems. It made me realize that the design, while always critical, was more critical for certain applications.”

Our chapter kicked off its new online evaluation form for those that want PDH certificates through the IEEE.  Please remember to read each question carefully, selecting “strongly disagree” or “strongly agree” appropriately.

Update: The form is now revised placing “strongly agree” at the top.