Metering! It's my passion!
;)
Hi, I'm Brad Harris and I want to welcome you here.
I am the Founder and President of HITT. I have been teaching electrical concepts and theories for 20+ years. I started out reading meters in 1975. Two years later, I became a Night Collector. Then, in 1981, I began my metering apprenticeship. I'd come to understand that teaching was the best way to learn! So, when I passed the journeyman exam in 1984, I then began teaching my peers, new apprentices, the math related to metering, AC/DC theory, single-phase metering and three-phase kW, kVA, and kVar, power factor metering, and vector analysis.
From there I moved into relay training and became a technician until personal choices (location) drew me back into a metering position. The experience though, became helpful later on, as I combined my relay and metering training to enhance my skills and knowledge for teaching metering apprentices.
In 1996 I became the Meter Training Coordinator training apprentices full time. I enjoyed being a Technical Trainer with all my heart, until November of 2006 when I was let go as part of a widespread downsizing event. The news was exhilarating and scary at the same time. Not sure exactly which direction I would take next and not wanting to just leave the apprentices hanging, I continued to teach them on my own dime and time for another 5 months.
It was a blessing for me to be let go, as I was then able to pursue my enjoyment of metering instruction, beyond the confines of one electric company. I was now allowed time to create the diagrams and illustrations that have become the Meterman's Bible and the Companion Books.
I believe they are going to help apprentices with their understanding of metering for years to come. Sharing my knowledge of metering and skills of teaching to all metering apprentices, journeymen, and other electrical craft people is what brings me happiness and guides me to be the best instructor I can be, including the creation of a thorough training program.
My reputation as an instructor has long been respected by metering professionals and electrical craftsmen throughout the Western United States. My name is synonymous with quality instruction of electrical concepts, principles, electricity theories, and metering. I enjoy giving motivational and empowering lectures, what I like to call 'pep talks', which are designed to help instill a sense of self respect and pride for craftsmen and their craft. My personal commitment to safety combined with my renowned leadership qualities and experience help to promote a continuous campaign of success and effectiveness in meeting the training needs of electrical craftsmen and professionals.
I am blessed to know that electrical metering apprentices and other craft personnel enthusiastically seek me out for my knowledge and style of explaining electrical principles and metering. As Ed (a former student) who is an Estimator and now trains, said to me many years later: "You are the only one I know who has the ability to take this technical stuff and explain it in a way that regular guys can understand".
aka "Metergod" So, how did I get the nick name "Metergod" you ask?
Well, that's a fun story to share and one that still makes me smile when I recall that day. As with all great stories it starts out with: "Once upon a time . . . in a training class... there was a question involving Three Phase meter vectoring. I was explaining the complex problem for about an hour, scratching my cute little bald head and applying my 'thinking cap'...
The apprentices were mesmerized. Their eyes were as big as saucers taking in the steps as I drew them on the board until, finally able to take a breath, I had arrived at the answer! I had proven the vectoring problem and then jested to the apprentices (with my arms held high) ... and that's why they call me the Metergod". The rest, as they say, is history!
The Metergod in action!!
View photos of Brad as he instructs one of the labs at the Northwest Meter School 2008
METERGOD-ISMS
"Be Safe All Ways"
You will see this term sprinkled throughout the website and in my signature. Why "All Ways"? It is the combination of: Always and ALL Ways! Because I want you to be Safe ALL Ways not just Always!!!
"Have an EXPECTATION!"
How many times have apprentices heard this from me? "If you don't know what to expect, then you won't know what you are looking for." Let me share a story with you of when I realized I needed to start having "expectations" of my apprentices and teaching them to have expectations themselves...
One year I was teaching a Lab at the Northwest Meter School and came upon several apprentices looking at a piece of older test equipment and scratching their heads. "If I had my Powermate, I could solve this problem" said one apprentice. Another apprentice took out a piece of paper and began working on the calculations and vectoring. I was impressed with the ingenuity and ability of this apprentice to solve the problem using their knowledge along with the information available from the old test equipment, rather than relying on 'push button thinking' as suggested by the first apprentice.
Solving a problem using the equipment available, along your brain, is exactly how a meterman should be thinking and not relying on "New and Improved" technologies. It is critical that you be fully involved as you begin developing your expectations. You will gain experience and strategical knowledge by understanding what you are looking at and then formulating an idea on what you EXPECT to find. It won't take long for this type of thinking to become second nature. If you rely on test equipment, you are vulnerable and only as smart as the buttons you can push.
"You are SMART! Your test equipment is DUMB!"
YOU ARE SMART! You are the one who did the work, traveled to training, and even trained on your own time! You sweated over that journeyman exam and then successfully passed it! Congratulations! You are the one with the 'know how'. You ask the right questions and have mastered your test equipment to the point of submission.
YOUR TEST EQUIPMENT IS DUMB! It did not complete an apprenticeship. It never did any book work, or spent nights studying for hours, it never, ever, EVER sweated over taking that journeyman exam. In fact, it has ZERO intelligence! It was designed to make your job easier. It is only a TOOL and if you think it makes you smart, then you are the one who is dumb!
IT IS ONLY A TOOL! You understand that it is only a tool and have a measured respect for it in performing its functions in providing information to you. It only works because you can turn it on, enter information, see the output of that information processed in a few programmed routines, and well, HEY! Does IT even KNOW how to ask the right questions?
You are not dependent on it to solve your metering questions or problems. You are a meterman with 'Expectations' and you know what you are looking for as you connect your test equipment and push that button!
Don't become a 'push button' meterman who relies on a dumb tool rather than his own smart brain!
Consider this: Would you give a calculator to a 1st grade student to learn how to do math? Only if you want to disable their mathematical ability!! Think about it! Have you ever been in a situation where a cashier had to give you change manually because their register wasn't working? Were they able to or did they struggle???
"Speak your HEART, even if your VOICE shakes"
Be heard! Attend union meetings. Stand up for the metering craft! When you see work being done without regard to safety, speak up!
SPEAK your HEART,
EVEN if Your VOICE SHAKES!
When you are SPEAKING from your HEART, you will
find that your voice shakes. A FULL HEART is a heart full of
passion! BE TRUE to your SELF and your PASSIONATE heart.
Allow your Self to RELEASE your PASSION Gently.
Others will accept this and honor you
for WHO YOU are
in doing so.
"Don't let your EGO get in the way of your personal safety OR the safety of others"
My supervisor had sent me out to do a rewire job on a hot 2500 kVA transformer change out. Before I left the shop, he suggested I take a couple of rubber blankets to cover the energized conductors while I worked inside the transformer.
Fresh from my journeyman exam and on my own, I was ready to take on the metering world! I got to the job and found that the line crew had placed the CTs on the back of the transformer bushings along with a newly installed meter can on the wall. This required me to wire in the new meter and connect it to the CTs inside the energized 277/480 volt transformer. I was frustrated by the situation, but this was where my ego kicked in and got in the way of my personal safety. My judgment was overshadowed by my ego’s need for recognition as a Journeyman Meterman. I proceeded to do the work very carefully and safely until completed.
I felt an enormous amount of pride at having successfully completed the job, yet also continued to feel edginess about my supervisor having put me in an unsafe environment. I should have questioned him as to “why” I was being sent to do this job alone AND in an energized transformer.
A few weeks later, I was out working with the line crew who had done the overnight change out of the 2500 kVA transformer. They asked me if I was the one who had installed the metering at that site. After confirming that I was, they asked why I wasn’t sent out with them originally to do the work on a DE-ENERGIZED transformer. I said I didn’t know, but I did share my frustrations about that job and my concerns regarding working in an energized transformer. They informed me that the customer had agreed to pay all overtime costs related to the job, and that my supervisor should have scheduled me to go out with the line crew that evening.
Upon discovering that neither cost nor time was a factor and that my supervisor had CHOSEN to put my life at risk, I lost all respect for him and gained a newfound sense of respect for my own personal safety.
Lesson learned: Don't let your EGO get in the way of your personal safety OR the safety of others!!
"Ground Truth vs.Official Truth"
Ground Truth: It is the Military term for what is happening “on the ground” where the action is.
Official Truth: It is the "Truth" released to the Media and the public by the Military regarding the action.
For healthy interactions and communication, all working and intimate relationships must be based in GROUND TRUTH, including those occurring between an apprentice and their journeyman or mentor.
What is YOUR truth?
"We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us,
and we must provide for others to stand on ours."
"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions" - Claude Levi-Strauss
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
Electricity metering, like all fine art, has its place for recognizing the beauty and complexity of what Mr. Blondel had in mind when he said:
In a system of N conductors, N-1 meter elements, properly connected, will measure the power or energy taken. The connection must be such that all voltage coils have a common tie to the conductor in which there is no current coil.
Only understanding the WYE way of metering reduces the opportunity for metering personnel to experience the challenge of: “We know he has a great theorem, now let’s prove we can do it another way.”
The beauty in proving there is another way, will be lost for good as we limit our full understanding of the craft and it’s related work. Cutting out and replacing the old without stopping for just a brief moment to appreciate the skills of the metering professionals who have gone before us, minimizes the beauty and disrespects the legacy of electricity metering.
On behalf of Brad's apprentices:
METERGOD
'An Ode to Bradley Harris'
We call him the Metergod
A wizard at Math!
He challenges and nurtures
our apprenticeship path.
More than the books
or the challenging tests,
He cares for our safety
and that we always do our best.
The key ingredient that
sets him apart,
Is the love that he has for us all
deep in his Heart.
Witty and friendly
is his teaching style,
A knowing glance and an
encouraging smile.
He cares and he shares
The good and the tough!
Times spent learning from him
Are never enough!
A mere 4 weeks a year -
Three years in a row;
To guide our career
and off we go . . .
Brad's last training class at the Wilsonville Training Center was in March 2007. The apprentices pictured here were acknowledging Bradley 'Metergod' Harris for his commitment, friendship, and knowledge.
He had continued their training because no one picked up the torch when he (and many others, Michele included) were let go from the company that decided to downsize in Nov 2006. On his own time and dime, Brad continued to teach the apprentices. His commitment to them and the craft would not allow him to just 'let them float away' without some sort of training plan in place. Pictured here are: Jin, Mac, Jered, Glenn, and Nick.
Brad did not know that all of these precious metering apprentices were paying homage to him. He thought it was just the two he could see when the photo was taken. Upon seeing this photo, he welled up, the joy in his heart and the feeling of being honored and respected choked him up a bit.
He truly and deeply enjoys sharing his knowledge and his passion for the craft with all craftsmen & craftswomen at any level. That is what drives him, being able to share his experiences and wisdom in a gentle yet passionate role of being a teacher/mentor/role model. Teaching is something that comes easily to Brad. He loves it. He enjoys living a life that allows him to do what he loves: Instructing!