Mesalands Community College's North American Wind Research and Training Center has received a 70 kV discharge stick, which it will use to enhance the curriculum and hands-on training of its Wind Technology Program.
The discharge stick was donated by Megger, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of electrical testing and measuring equipment, and will be used by students while they perform maintenance work to safely remove the static charge from equipment and other voltage-retaining components.
‘We plan to use the discharge stick to augment the training of our technicians so when they are working with high-voltage lines, they will know how to utilize the discharge stick in order to keep a large separation between their body and the wiring,’ explains Jim Morgan, director of Mesalands' wind research and training center.
Morgan says this skill will benefit students when they need to replace fuses and complete disconnects from a distance in order to avoid the dangers of high electrical voltage.
Megger has been providing equipment for students at the wind center since 2008, when the company donated over $9,000 in electrical testing equipment. Last year, Megger donated battery-testing equipment that is now being used to evaluate the overall health of the batteries utilized in the college's on-campus 1.5 MW wind turbine, and during class demonstrations regarding battering technology.
