Engineering is about solving problems and Tom Lundquist, engineer, has some valuable advice for others who are part of this industry: Be careful jumping to conclusions before evaluating all the facts.

Lundquist know what he is talking about as he is involved in problem resolution for utility and industrial facilities and does consulting for system grounding and shielding, transformer applications.

He is president of his own consulting company, Lundquist Consulting Services, Inc. His work includes special projects involving EHV and HV substation equipment applications, specifications, acquisitions, testing, and inspections.

“My present position offers a broad range of exposure to manufacturers and clients helping to deepen my experience level,” Lundquist said. “My past experience provides a sound base for discussion of many power system applications. These experiences provide insight into areas that attendees are interested.”

Lundquist will be leading a half-day course at T&D World University on Oct. 29 on “Getting Value out of Diagnostics and Monitoring Programs.” He will feature a short presentation on what substation equipment is monitored and will then facilitate further presentation and discussion from other experts on this subject.

Two presenters, Tony Pink from Dynamic Ratings and Steve Jennings of Serveron Corp. will be providing discussions on state-of-the-art monitoring systems and techniques. The final presenters, Chris Hanks and Brad Staley of Salt River Project (Phoenix, Arizona) will describe the integration of asset data at the SRP.

Lundquist has presented many papers and tutorials during his experience as an electrical engineer in the power industry. He provided a tutorial on substation safety grounding at the TechCon 06 meeting and taught a course in substation grounding to engineers and station designers at the Salt River Project.

Before starting his own consulting company almost two years ago, Lundquist spent 21 years with Salt River Project (SRP) as an executive engineer involved in all aspects of substation applications. He also worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation for 13 years as a district engineer and service center manager.

His involvement in the power industry came about after he joined the U.S. Navy in 1960 and progressed through the Navy nuclear power program as an electrical operator. “This lead to a university education as an electrical engineer specializing in the power area,” he said.

His company, located in Gilbert, Arizona, provides consulting, “and we are also able to act as contract administrators and review contract documents for completeness,” Lundquist said. “We also are representatives of JST Transformers, the only American-owned EHV manufacturer of power transformers with over 100 years as a factory, located in Lyon, France. We act as the American arm of JST for business development and service of their product.”

Lundquist said he enjoys the independence involved in the consulting business, and “it is interesting work.” But it does involve many hours on the job. He is also a member of many industry associations, including IEEE, ASTM International and CIGRE.

When Lundquist is not putting the time into engineering and consulting, he volunteers as a Big Brother for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization. He has a “little brother” named Logan. He also works on agility training of his dog and enjoys scuba diving. “Once in awhile I’m a serious pre-1960 U.S. stamp collector,” he said.