Don Schleicher of Florida Power & Light solves problems as many engineers do, and at this year’s Finepoint Circuit Breaker Test and Maintenance Training Conference, he will present a session on avoiding theft of ground wire.

As a lead engineer at Florida Power and Light, Schleicher is responsible for substation design and standards. In this role he solves unique station layout, equipment configuration, and philosophy issues involving distribution, transmission, plant switchyard, and EHV substations.

Schleicher serves as an in-house technical consultant and trains other engineers in areas of bus design, grounding, lightning shielding, illumination, and insulation coordination and arrester application. He addresses material and system performance and reliability in these areas. In addition, he advises others on similar power plant, industrial, and distribution issues.

His presentation will cover FPL’s use of copperclad (CCS) steel conductors in substation grounding. Attendees will hear about FPL’s substation grounding philosophy summary and different conductor sizes, including copper and CCS equivalent. He will cover specific component grounding practices, special copper flexible leads and CCS to aluminum clad steel connections.

Schleicher plans to also present the advantages and the drawbacks of using copperclad steel. He will be available for questions after the session on Thursday, Oct. 4.