Insulated Conductors Committee

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William A. ThueWilliam A. Thue

IEEE Fellow

Past ICC Chairman

1985 ICC Distinguished Service Award


It is with sadness that we share news of the passing of Bill Thue, who died peacefully at his home in London on July 12th.  Bill was 93.  A private funeral is planned for August 9, and a Memorial Service is planned for April 28, 2018 in London.  Bill was a past Chair of ICC, an IEEE Fellow, and the recipient of the ICC Distinguished Service Award in 1985.

William A. Thue received a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1946.

Employed by Florida Power & Light for 38 years in construction, operations and engineering assignments. Bill is an IEEE Fellow and recipient of the ICC's Distinguished Service Award in 1985. He is a Past Chairman of the Cable Engineering Section of AEIC; and a Past Chairman of NESC Subcommittees 1 and 7. He has authored or co-authored over 35 papers and articles involved with the transmission and distribution of electric power. Bill has been a Consultant since 1986.

In 1992 Bill was elevated to level of IEEE Fellow with the following citation: For contributions to improved underground power cable systems and standards.

The following Biographical outline was provided courtesy of RTI Group LLC.

William A. Thue is a Senior Electrical Engineer who is widely recognized as a leading authority in the power industry for his contributions to electrical power cable design, application, and standards. During his thirty-eight years of employment with Florida Power and Light Company in the Engineering and Operations Department, Mr. Thue was involved in the design and construction of electrical power transmission, distribution and generation systems; overhead and underground engineering design; overhead and underground crew supervision; submarine and aerial cable design and installation; underground transmission design and installation; nuclear and fossil power plant electrical systems; cable testing and fault location; safety and environmental investigations; development of work and training procedures; and accident and service reliability investigations.

Mr. Thue was responsible for the entire underground system of FP&L including the Miami underground secondary network. As Manager of Underground System Operations he was responsible for establishing safety and maintenance rules and procedures throughout the company. During these years, he was active in the development of national and international standards and codes; and has been active in the development of industry standards for cables and accessories and has testified before such organizations as: Florida Public Service Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Advisory Commission on Reactor Safeguards.

He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, member of the IET, and past Chairs of: Insulated Conductors Committee of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Cable Engineering Section of the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, Electric Power Research Institute's Distribution Task Force, underground Lines of the National Electrical Safety Code (ANSI C-2), and Purpose and Scope of the National Electrical Safety Code (ANSI C-2)

Mr. Thue has authored or coauthored many technical papers on electrical power cable shielding, fireproofing, performance and life estimation. He has been a contributor to: 1957 Underground Systems Reference Book and 2011 EPRI Distribution Systems Reference Book, The "Bronze Book."

Following his retirement from FP&L, Mr. Thue began a consulting engineer career were he has been involved in research projects for EPRI, taught short courses at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is editor of Electrical Power Cable Engineering -- now in its 3rd Edition, and involved in over 130 legal cases an expert witness in Canada and the USA.

Relevant Experience
• Member of RTI team as a consultant to Connecticut Light & Power as to the cause of the secondary network explosion in Waterbury, CT of Feb 21, 2007.
• Provided consulting services to Mayor Bloomberg of NYC to find the causes of the Long Island City network failures of early July 2006.
• Participated with other RTI team members for an audit of the IPL system after the Jan 5, 2005 secondary cable failure.
• Provided consulting services to Consolidated Edison of NY to find the causes of the Washington Heights secondary network failures of July 6, 1999.

Academic Background
• University of South Carolina, Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering in the U. S. Navy V-12 program, 1946

Professional Experience
• Senior Electrical Engineering consultant, RTI Group, LLC, Annapolis, MD, February 2005 - present
• Senior Electrical Engineering consultant, Reynolds Technologies International, LLC (rti), wholly owned subsidiary of FTI Consulting, Inc., Annapolis, MD, 2003 - 2005
• Electrical Engineering Consultant, FTI Consulting, Annapolis, MD, 2001 – 2003
• Consulting Electrical Engineer, emphasis on teaching and an expert witness in over 100 legal cases in the United States and Canada, 1984 – present
• University of Wisconsin at Madison, Course Instructor & Lecturer: Applications and Assessment of Power Cable Systems, 1984 – present
• University of California at Los Angeles, Course Instructor: Power Cable Engineering Clinic, 1986 - 1993
• Florida Power & Light Company, Student Engineer, Junior Engineer, Crew Supervisor, Senior Engineer, Supervising Engineer, System Operations Engineer , 1965 -1975; Manager System Underground Operations, 1975-1979; and Senior Staff Engineer, Distribution Engineering, 1979 - 1984

Professional Associations and Activities
• National Electrical Safety Code - ANSI C2; past chairman subcommittee #1, purpose, scope subcommittees; past chairman subcommittee #7, underground lines subcommittee; member interpretations subcommittee.
• Insulated Cable Standards Committee - ANSI C8; member since 1985.
• CIGRE - International Conference of Large Electric Systems: member1972 - 1990; Attwood Associate, 1980
• Power Engineering Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE): member 1945 - 2006; life fellow 1992; program chair - underground distribution conference 1969; vice chair - underground distribution conference 1972;
• Chairman - special technical conferences 1972 - 1982; executive chairman - underground transmission and distribution conference 1974.
• Insulated Conductors Committee of the Power Engineering Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers: member, 1955-2006; chairman, cable characteristics 1969-1972; secretary treasurer, 1972-1974; vice chairman, 1974-1976; chairman 1976-1978; chairman, standards subcommittee 1978-1983; outstanding service award 1985; chairman, submarine cable installation guide 1986-1989; chairman, power cable field test guide 1993-2006.
• Association of Edison Illuminating Companies - Cable Engineering Section: member 1958-1984; secretary 1968-1970; vice chairman 1970-1972; chairman 1972-1974; chairman, extruded dielectric cable specifications, 1970-1983.
• Electric Power Research Institute: member, advisory committee 1978-1981; chairman, underground distribution 1980-1981.
Research Activities
• Electric Power Research Institute: member, advisory committee 1978-1981; chairman, underground distribution program 1980-1981.
• Industry Advisor on numerous Research Projects.
• Member of Electric Power Research Institute’s Long Life Cable Group and contributor to EPRI’s “Distribution Cable Research Digest, Volumes One and Two,” EPRI Publication EL-6271, 1989.
• Author of Electric Power Research Institute’s “Distribution Cable Research Digest, 2000,” publication BR-110693.

Selected Publications
• Thue, W. A. and Clayton, J. M.; "Lightning Performance of Aerial Cable – Field and Laboratory Studies," IEEE Summer Power Meeting, Toronto, June 1957.
• Underground Systems Reference Book, Edison Electric Institute, EEL Publication 55-16, 1957, Chapter 7 - "Conduits and Manholes."
• Thue, W. A. and Ware, P. H.; "Effect of Shield Design on Performance of Aerial Cables," IEEE Winter Power Meeting, New York, NY, Jam 31-Feb 5, 1965.
• Thue, W. A.; "Thermal Resistivity of Concrete," IEEE Underground Transmission Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 1972.
• Thue, W. A. and Ware, P. H.; "Improved Low Voltage Cables," IEEE 1974 Underground Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition, Dallas, TX.
• "Operating and Testing Experiences on Solid Dielectric Cables," CIGRE, Paris, France, 1980.
• "Accelerated Aging of Extruded Dielectric Cables, Controls and Monitoring Methodology," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp 596-602, April 1992.
• "Accelerated Aging of Extruded Dielectric Power Cables, Parts I and II: Life Testing of 15 kV XLPE-Insulated Cables," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp 603-608, April 1992.
• "A Statistical Aging Model for XLPE-Insulated Medium Voltage Distribution Cables, "IEEE 1994 Annual Report -- Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, pp 458-470.
• "Accelerated Cable Life Testing of EPR-Insulated Medium Voltage Distribution Cables," IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp 1195-1208, July 1994.
• "Design and Application of Aerial Systems Using Insulated and Covered Wire and Cable," Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference, 96CH35968, Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 15-20, 1996.
• "Safety Considerations of Aerial Systems Using Insulated and Covered Wire and Cable," Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference, 96CH35968, Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 15-20, 1996.
• Editor of and Contributor to Electrical Power Cable Engineering, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1998, ISBN: 0-8247-9976-3.
• Editor of and Contributor to Electrical Power Cable Engineering – Second Edition, Marcel Dekker, New York, 2003, ISBN: 0-8247-4303-2.

Lectures and Presentations
Frequent speaker and seminar presenter and guest lecturer for a variety of groups and organizations including:
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Commission on Reactor Safeguards
• Environmental Protection Administration
• Florida Public Utility Commission
• National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Edison Electric Institute
• South Eastern Electric Exchange

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