Empowering the Utility Workforce.
Learn more about how our training program will help you gain the qualifications you need to successfully complete modern power utility projects.
Achieve New Possibilities For Your Workforce With Industry Leading Training Solutions
Enhance your qualifications to ensure project safety and maintain reliability.
The utility industry is facing many workforce-related challenges, from a loss of knowledge and skills through retirements, to engineering and technological gaps as grid modernization projects advance.TRC’s Power Academy is helping to mitigate these impacts by building the critical, technical, safety and business qualifications required for success.
Built by industry subject matter experts and instructional design professionals, our training program is aligned to industry standards, regulatory requirements and evolving technology and equipment specifications. Our courses meet the standards and requirements of the Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP) and are approved by the International Electrical Testing Association (NETA). We offer Professional Development Hours (PDHs) and Continuous Technical Development (CTDs) credits.
Empower the Evolving Power Workforce With TRC Power Academy
Our cache of best practices, proven processes and lessons learned from the safety and human performance industry, combined with the science and psychology of human learning, makes us one of the top experts in designing, developing and delivering high-quality training systems and materials for the power sector. Our approach ensures that topics are developed and taught logically and practically, leading to lasting and continuous improvements for employees.
Our instructors are engineers with extensive experience in the utility industry. They stay current with industry standards, such as those from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state utility regulators. With local and national knowledge, they ensure team members stay up to date with industry regulations.
Learn online through self-paced instruction or take hands-on classes at our well-equipped training facility.
Achieve New
Possibilities
Partner With TRC’s Tested Practitioners
Our State of the Art Training Center
TRC’s training center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, provides a fully equipped mock substation with a control house and yard environment that simulates real-world conditions and scenarios. We train on equipment including:
- AC distribution panels
- DC distribution panels
- Battery charger
- Circuit breaker simulators
- CCTV simulators
- Power transformer simulators
- VT simulator
- SF6 gas circuit breaker
With two large classrooms that leverage interactive technologies, we offer a controlled environment for structured training sessions. This enables our students to develop proficiency, efficiency and consistency in hands-on tasks, such as testing, commissioning, troubleshooting, adherence to industry standards, policies and procedures, safety and quality, planning, communication and risk reduction.
Testimonials
Learners within our programs share their experiences with our curriculum and instructors.
Achieve Your Workforce Development Goals With TRC
At TRC, we offer diverse training opportunities to educate individuals or an entire workforce. With our learning solutions, participants will:
- Become equipped with the skills needed to effectively, efficiently, and safely perform field work all while delivering a quality service.
- Master skills by performing hands-on activities that closely mimic real-work scenarios.
- Learn from subject matter experts in small class sizes.
- Network with industry professionals and develop lifelong professional relationships.
- In-person facilitator or instructor-led sessions
Our classes support technical knowledge, regulatory standards, health and safety and emerging technologies within the utility industry. Features include:
- Virtual instructor-led training sessions
- On-the-job training systems
- Self-paced, web-based training
- Interactive videos and animations
- Coaching and mentoring reinforcement systems
- Social learning systems
- Employee performance-centric learning system
Course Offerings
Online, Instructor-Led
Advance Your Knowledge and Skills Your Way
We offer a pre-planned or customizable curriculum covering technical and nontechnical coursework for utility teams of any skill level. Our training opportunities include:
- Training webinars: Access live courses — conceptual and practical — virtually.
- Technical courses: Full, multi-day sessions covering essential topics.
- Professional skills: Nontechnical training to help navigate a changing workplace.
- Custom training: Develop coursework specific to your organization and processes.
Join TRC Power Academy and Advance Your Career Today
TRC equips individuals and teams with the knowledge and skill to succeed in complex electric utility work. We offer everything from fundamental courses to focused technical training to customized curriculum that meets your utility’s requirements. Contact Us Online for more information.
Sharing Our Perspectives
Our practitioners share their insights and perspectives on the trends and challenges shaping the market.
Videos
Webinar Replay: Substation Automation – Best Practices for IEC 61850 Implementation
March 29, 2022
Modernizing utility equipment, standards and processes pays dividends for improved safety, security and reliability. But transitioning to a new high-tech system model can be challenging.
Insights
The Best Process for Transforming Thermal Generation Power Plants
February 9, 2022
Faced with an aging fleet, stricter environmental regulations, reduced costs for natural gas and competition from renewables, more than 600 power plants have been decommissioned in the last 20 years, a pace that will increase with the announced closure of nearly 350 additional plants by 2025.
Insights
Amplifying the Next Phase of Fleet Electrification: The Pickup
September 30, 2021
TRC’s analysis for one client fleet shows that even a $70,000 EV can compete on cost with a comparable gas-hybrid vehicle priced at $40,000 – at least in California where upfront and ongoing incentives stack up quickly.
News
TRC Acquires Montreal’s Quatric, Expanding Digital Capabilities for Utilities
June 16, 2021
Today, TRC announced the expansion of its digital capabilities with the acquisition of Quatric, a Montreal, QC and Quincy, MA-based firm that provides engineering services and technology solutions to electric and gas utilities.
Regulatory Updates
NERC Addresses Single Points of Failure in Protection Systems Among Other FERC Concerns
October 25, 2018
Under the proposed NERC TPL-001-5 standard, utilities with transmission planning responsibilities will be required to identify reliability risks related to protection system failures and take mandatory corrective action. It will be critical to have an in depth understanding of your company’s protection system settings and to perform the system studies necessary to identify where single points of failure may result in cascading tripping of transmission elements. Mitigation actions may require the installation of redundant protection systems which in turn may lead to significant substation redesign. Transmission planners and planning coordinators should begin preparing for any necessary protection system changes. TPL-001-5 Overview NERC began studying the reliability risk associated with single points of protection system failure starting in 2011 as directed in FERC Order 754. TPL-001-5 will bring significant changes for Planning Coordinators and Transmission Planners as they perform annual Planning Assessments. There is a new obligation to adequately account for the reliability risk posed by single point of protection system failure via risk-based Assessment. This reliability risk management approach will be implemented through modifications to the Category P5 Planning Event which is described in Table 1 of the TPL-001-5 standard. NERC believes that the most cost-effective Corrective Action Plans to address unacceptable system performance for the P5 Planning Events will likely be to add protection system component redundancy in certain cases. Protection system redundancy changes to address Category P5 Event system performance violations should reduce or even negate non-redundant component related risks that need to be considered in assessing transmission system performance. These risks will be identified during simulations of certain extreme events as required under the standard. TPL-001-5 also addresses reliability risks related to outage management as directed in FERC Order 786. The standard requires utility planners to consider maintenance outages of significant facilities as well as outages for critical long lead time to repair or replace equipment. Specifically, it addresses stability analysis to assess system performance for conditions expected during possible unavailability of long lead time equipment. Although it is not a NERC defined term, it is believed that a “spare equipment strategy will be sufficient to allow flexibility for utilities to conduct both steady state and stability analysis required by TPL-001-5. For example, a utility’s spare equipment strategy may include the warehousing of a replacement transformer to be installed given the failure of an in service transformer. When a utility’s spare equipment strategy may prevent major transmission equipment from being out-of-service for one year or more, this possible equipment unavailability need not be assessed as part of TPL-001-5.
News
TRC Expands Presence in Power Market with Acquisition of Ohio-based IJUS
October 1, 2018
LOWELL, Mass. – TRC, a leading provider of end-to-end engineering, consulting and construction management solutions fueled by innovative technology, announced today it has acquired IJUS, a top power/utility engineering firm based in Gahanna, Ohio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Insights
TRC and partners win $1 million grant for engineering innovative New York microgrid
April 20, 2017
TRC is proud to support Huntington, NY bolster power reliability and climate-change resiliency with a sophisticated new “community microgrid’’ combining solar energy, a fuel cell, biogas and traditional natural gas to deliver electricity and heat to local customers and institutions.
