Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Volga
Electrical Engineering ,
Loren B. Wagenaar’s technical career began as a transformer development engineer at the Sharon, Pennsylvania, plant of Westinghouse Electric Corp. upon graduation from South Dakota State University in 1965. During his stay in Sharon, he obtained a MSEE degree from Akron, Ohio State University. During his 14 years in Muncie, Wagenaar gained experience as a development engineer on transformer insulation systems and electrical bushings up to 1,100 kV. He also obtained an M.S. Math degree from Ball State University in 1973. In May 1982, he joined American Electric Power in Columbia, Ohio, where he became responsible for all aspects of the procurement of power transformers, shunt reactors and instrument transformers, all with voltages ranging to 765 kV. He was involved with technical and commercial specifications, in-house and industry standards, performance evaluations, cost of loss analysis, design reviews, test witnessing and analysis of in-service failures. He then held the position of staff engineer. He was a fellow member of the IEEE and a member of IEEE PES and DEIS societies and IEEE SCC 4, HVTT and the Transformers Committee, where he was chair of the dielectric test subcommittee for 12 years. He was a U.S. representative to IEC Technical Committee 14, an international standards group on transformers and a member of Working Group 24, responsible for international standardization of dielectric tests and external electrical clearances for transformers. He held eight U.S. patents, co-authored seven technical papers, as well as numerous other industry papers, on high voltage transformers and bushings and was a registered professional engineer in Indiana.