Jim Phillips, P.E.

For almost 30 years, Jim has been helping tens of thousands of people around the world understand electrical design, theory and applications.  Having taught over 1800 seminars during his career to people from all seven continents (Yes Antarctica is included!), he has developed a reputation for being one of the best trainers and public speakers in the electric power industry.

Jim is a member of the Arc Flash Working Group IEEE 1584 - IEEE Guide for Performing Arc Flash Hazard Calculations.  He is the Co-Chairman of the IEEE Task Group IEEE 1584.1 which is developing a guide for specifying arc flash studies.  Jim wrote "How to Perform an Arc Flash Study in 12 Steps" which was published by the NFPA. He was one of the main writers for the NEC Digest - the Official magazine of the National Electrical Code and has also authored articles in Europe.   Throughout his career he has served on many committees including the Energy Policy Committee of IEEE in Washington DC. He is a member of The National Fire Protection Association - NFPA, The Power Engineering Society and the Industry Applications Society.

Although Jim was born just outside of Chicago, his family moved to Ohio when he was 8 years old, which is where he grew up.  He began his pursuit of an Electrical Engineering Degree at The Ohio State University in 1976, where he worked his way through college and graduated with a BSEE. After college he continued his learning career at Square D Company's Power System Analysis Group in Lexington, Kentucky.   While at Square D, he was responsible for various power system studies such as short circuit and coordination, as well as developing their power system analysis software and ... teaching at their training programs. This is where Jim's love of teaching others began.

That was the beginning of a life long pursuit of helping others understand subjects, that on the surface, seem difficult. Jim learned shortly after Ohio State that subjects such as electric power systems, electrical design and even the deepest theory do not have to be complicated. (He says that's not what they told him in college!).

Jim moved on in his career to work for Ohio Edison Company in Akron, Ohio. He began in the Transmission Planning Group, and later moved to the System Protection Group where he was in charge of the staff responsible for various power system studies. Seeing the utility side of the business was a great benefit in understanding the bigger picture of electric power systems.

It wasn't long after joining Ohio Edison that he again had the urge to continue to educate others. Jim took an evening position at Stark State College where he taught the National Electrical Code and Transmission and Distribution Systems. He began to notice his evening classes were becoming quite full and found that day time students were waiting to take evening classes because Jim had a unique way of explaining difficult subjects in a very straight forward style.

That revelation led to the formation of a training company called T2G Technical Training Group which would give Jim a way to educate as many people as he could. Technical Training Group started out small in 1987 but over the years it's reputation grew as Jim developed courses on everything from Power System Design to NFPA 70E and Arc Flash, Protective Relaying, Symmetrical Components. Per Unit, and everything in between.

Early in his engineering career, Jim decided to take the Professional Engineering Exam in order to some day begin an engineering company. He became a licensed P.E. and subsequently has became licensed in many states.

About the same time that Technical Training Group was being developed, Jim also formed Phillips Engineers + Consultants, Inc. which is an engineering firm specializing design and analysis of electrical power systems. His career has been about more than just educating others, his career includes practicing what he teaches. He has provided electrical design for everything from small commercial buildings to large scale cogeneration power plants. The countless power system analysis projects that he has undertaken on everything from waste water treatment plants to aircraft carriers have given him a unique perspective on power system analysis.

Jim and his wife (college sweetie and best friend!) of 29 years have two children (actually two adults now) and enjoy being with family and friends.