Tag: electrical engineer

Walled Lake Consolidated Schools Western High School Learning Commons. Courtesy: Peter Basso Associates Inc.

Fire and Life Safety

Designing K-12 schools for integrated fire, life safety and resilience

Los Angeles Unified School District Shenandoah Elementary School’s modular buildings were removed and replaced with a new two-story classroom building. The building is solar-ready with photovoltaic supports, integrated lighting systems connected to the building automation system, a large outdoor play area and high CHPS rating. Courtesy: Cannon Design

Electrical and Power

How to design resilient power systems for K-12 schools

Accommodating up to 550 PreK-12 students, the Julius E. Sprauve campus on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, combines a light building footprint, resiliency and innovative building systems to create a flexible and forward-thinking learning environment for students, faculty and the St. John community. Courtesy: DLR Group

Automation, Controls

Designing K-12 school buildings with smart automation in mind

Figure 1: A 1,000 hp, 460 V motor driven by a variable frequency drive. Courtesy: CDM Smith

Case study: Tips for replacing a motor or drive

Figure 1: A graph displaying the harmonics caused by a variable frequency drive and the resulting waveform. Courtesy: CDM Smith

Motors and Drives

Know the common design considerations regarding motors and VFDs

Figure 4: Example of single-ended secondary unit substation arrangement with secondary bus ties for partial redundancy. Courtesy: CannonDesign

Case study: Mission critical lab achieves power redundancy and resiliency

Figure 3: Example of paralleling switchgear with touchscreen interface and three generator control sections. Unseen are the hot-swappable, dual redundant programmable logic controllers. Courtesy: Kevin G. Reeves, CannonDesign

Emergency, Standby, Backup

Guidance on designing reliable mission critical power systems

Engineering trends to watch in 2026

Figure 1: Typical arrangement for data centers showing the yard equipment and chillers on roof top. Courtesy: WSP

Emergency, Standby, Backup

Know the electrical, power components in a data center

Consulting-Specifying Engineer January/February 2026

Electrical and Power

Read the January/February 2026 issue