The Journey to Develop a New IEEE Standard in the Metals Industry

One of the activities by volunteer members of various technical committees across the 39 individual Societies of the IEEE is developing new IEEE Standards. The paper focuses on the efforts of one such committee, the Metal Industry Committee (MetIC) of the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS), in the committees' efforts to develop a new IEEE Standard focused on Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Transformers applied in the steel making industry. This specific industry application was selected as a good candidate for the new Standard by the MetIC due to the unique and demanding transformer design requirements that are specific to supply of safe and reliable power to an electric arc furnace. This paper will explain the application, discuss best practices in formation of a standards development working group, the steps of engagement with the IEEE Standards Association in developing the new standards and lessons learned in working through the standards development process to-date. An open invitation of any new members to join the working group can be found in the section titled Conclusion.