Jim's first automation project was the Longmont Colorado Hydro Plant. This plant is very old and historic and was visited by Nikola Tesla in the early 1900s. Due
to the last remaining operator retiring, the plant was fully automated with an Opto22 single board computer controller using Opto basic programming. The controller provided startup
and shutdown function for two Pelton wheel generators. A complex load following feature was programmed to gain maximum power for the constantly changing flow provided by the
reservoir. All programming and design was done by Jim.
Jim created a custom system map board for Longmont using bi color red/green leds on Cad developed background driven by a PS2 computer. Jim used visual basic to drive the status of
the leds indicating whether system switches were open or closed. The operator simply entered the switching order directly in the computer to update the board.
Jim used a PS2 computer with a 16 port serial adapter card to communicate with SEL relays and pass that data over a 900mhz MAS system to a Landis and Gyr SCADA system. All details of
this project are detailed in the paper "Managing Multiple Intelligent Devices ...." presented to Western Protective Relay Conference in 1992.
Jim is an expert using protective relay logic to solve T&D problems and provide control functions such as PID control loops in power plant applications.