Cable Sizing Flowchart - A Tool To Help Reinforce The State of Electrical Engineering Workforce

In the last decade, maybe longer, the oil, gas and chemical (OGC) industry has seen a decline in the electric power engineering ranks and knowledge base. With the advent of the pandemic and the great resignation that followed, the industry has seen an acceleration of this knowledge drain. As experienced workers retire, knowledge around engineering and design of electrical systems and the application of various products is leaving with them, and hence engineers are being tasked with doing more sooner. Many universities have shifted the focus of their curriculums to cater to the field of high tech, leaving only a handful of institutions with strong programs in electric power engineering and subfields such as electric machines, power electronics, and power systems. Addressing skill gaps has become a point of discussion from break rooms to board rooms. One clear example is the sizing of Medium and Low Voltage power cables, that are critical to the supply of electric power in all industries. Selecting and sizing cables can have a material impact on the overall reliability, safety, and the CAPEX cost of a project.This paper discusses the state of engineers retiring and resigning in the industry causing knowledge and training gaps and give examples of a cable selection tool. The tool brings relevant knowledge that resides in IEEE, and the National Electrical Code (NEC) around cables and selecting the right size of cable using Low Voltage Cable Sizing Flowchart in appendix A, based on 2023 NEC. The goals of the paper are to expose the knowledge and training crisis to a widespread audience and then to provide a handy reference cable sizing guide for the early career professional who is asked to make cable selection, and to serve as a springboard for further reference depending on the specific application that the engineer might be tasked with.