Jim Bradshaw, a power circuit breaker maintenance instructor at Siemens Power Academy, has extensive experience with Siemens BZO, SDO, SP, SPS, SPS1, SPS2, TCP, LPO, and 3AT power circuit breakers. He is widely recognized by customers as the leading specialist on Siemens power circuit breaker operation and maintenance.

Jim will be teaching a half-day training course on BZO6/6C breaker maintenance at Finepoint’s Circuit Breaker Test and Maintenance Training Conference in October. The session is tailored to increase the knowledge of personnel responsible for the installation, operation, and maintenance of Siemens high-voltage oil power circuit breakers.

Jim has been teaching courses, both field-based and classroom-based, since 1986. Most of his education has been through hands-on experience. He was involved in Siemens’ (then Allis-Chalmers) first SF₆ power circuit breaker project as a materials coordinator and assembly supervisor. He joined the field service organization in 1979 where he has worked on breakers in all 50 states and in 20 countries on four continents. He managed the field/customer service department from 1999 to 2003.

Electric transmission and distribution utilities face the challenge of maintaining and upgrading an aged and stressed infrastructure with fewer and fewer in-house labor resources. “Maintaining equipment in proper working order helps eliminate problems for our customers,” Bradshaw said. “Providing maintenance know-how to the industry makes their systems more reliable.”

Bradshaw and other instructors at the Siemens Power Academy have been training power engineers in the United States and internationally for more than 37 years. Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, supplies high- and medium-voltage power delivery equipment, energy management systems, network planning and power system engineering software for regulated and deregulated generation, transmission and distribution markets.