I don't know about there but here most installing electricians will not have the training of an EE to do the coordination studies or have the expertise to commission electrical gear, while a few high end shops might have EE's on staff that can preform these task it is not common for them to take on the responsibility and the liability of these types of jobs as when something goes wrong it can be very costly, around here it is common that the design engineer of the electrical system is the one who commissions the switch gear and does the coordination studies, if not then it is usually out sourced to other EE's for a price, even down to turning the dials on the breakers.
It's all about the liability chain.
There is a liability/responsibility chain. The EE of record on our projects does the coordination studies and specifies the necessary settings. I would be really surprised to find a contractor on a job of this size and type that does not have an in-house EE though I wouldn't expect him to be on site on a regular basis or even ever in most cases. But I would expect that he exists and probably answers questions for the electricians in the field doing the work if they have them. He may go back to the EE that designed the job if he want's clarification or to discuss a deviation from the original design or the contractor may do that directly. As for commissioning switchgear, I've just not ever seen the manufacturer have anything to do with it unless there's a problem with it, regardless of who provided it. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Just haven't seen it on our jobs. It is ALWAYS the contractor's responsibility to get permits and get inspections done and that is made clear in the project specs. We, or our hired EE, are always ready to assist with those things, especially permits which may require some information or drawings from us, but the local contractor's relationship with local authorities is part of the value he brings to the project. He knows that the AHJ in Backwater, LA won't allow this exception of that one even though the code allows it. He knows how far in advance they need to be notified of the need for an inspection or whether they will work with you to schedule one at the last minute to meet project conditions and how to get that from them.
On some jobs, we provide only the electrical requirements of each piece of equipment to the EC and they do the rest of the design based on that. I assume that they have an EE either on staff or on call if they need one. It may depend on the location and scope of the project. They can pick the conduit sizes, wire sizes, breaker ratings and type etc. This particular project was large enough that the owner wanted an independent EE to do the design or maybe the contractor just declined to do it. I wasn't there for that discussion. On this project the owner chose to purchase the main switchgear directly but actually made the purchase through us. We can get better pricing than most end user/owners because we do projects all over the country and around the world and purchase a lot of large equipment. We don't make much on "standard" items like switchgear. That's in quotes because switchgear isn't as standard as say, NEMA 3R safety disconnects. But we basically pass our purchasing power through to the owner and just make enough to cover our cost to process the order. That's not true for all equipment we supply, but it is generally true for some items. We have national agreements with some of our customers that specify the markup we can apply to equipment we supply. If there is a problem with the equipment, be it switchgear or a pump, we expect the manufacturer to either take care of it or pay to have it taken care of and we don't go back to manufacturers that give us poor service in that regard. The upside for the ones we do go back to is that we do go back to them, over and over. That doesn't mean we don't fix anything. I fix tons of things on site. Our focus is to get the system in operation as efficiently as possible because our customer is investing money in the project and can't get a return until they start shipping widgets. And they usually have a commitment to their customer to start shipping widgets by a certain date. The carrying cost of that investment is part of the decision to do the project and delays increase that cost. It's part of our job to minimize delays.
We don't put the manufacturers we buy from through a torturous submittal/approval process. We tell them what we need, functionally, and may also specifiy certain features or options that we want and then expect them to meet those requirements if they accept the order. But unlike publicly bid commercial construction projects, we don't expect manufacturer A to meet a spec that can only really be met by manufacturer B. We understand that A and B both make and sell a certain class of product but there are differences and we don't ask A to build B's product. We buy function, performance, reliability and service after the sale. And price, of course, always matters.
The meets the spec/doesn't meet the spec dance is a game that permeates the commercial construction business. I've been on the manufacturers side of it and know the process well. Manufacture's and their reps spend a lot of effort and resources on getting engineers to specify equipment in a way that favors their particular brand. Then contractors submit an alternative product that doesn't really meet the spec because they use this type of bearing instead of that type or something and on and on it goes. We skip all that. We want a pump that does this flow at this head. We want a chiller that does this tonnage at these conditions. That doesn't mean any manufacturer is eligible. We've tried and dropped many equipment manufacturers over the years based on product performance and reliability and support.
Electrical gear is, in general, a lot less subject to that kind of shenanigans. There are add on features for some products, especially today as more and more plant equipment gets tied into plant-wide networks for monitoring and management purposes, but so far the use of that type of feature isn't common in the plant's were we typically work. It's coming. A lot of the other equipment is connected to plant networks but, so far, not electrical gear. It's not at all uncommon for a client to tell us that they only want Trane chillers or Bell & Gossett pumps or Gardner Denver compressors. I don't think any client has ever said they only want GE circuit breakers or only Siemens disconnects. Allen Bradley is a notable exception when it comes to equipment controls and especially PLC's. Many manufacturers allow only Allen Bradley for those but that's another story. We're only involved in the electrical design and installation because virtually every piece of equipment going into the project is electric. Sometimes it's just a single power connection with clearly specified MCA and OCP requirements and sometimes it's a complex array of equipment with lots of interconnecting controls and power connections. We are not electrical engineers but we know what information is required about the equipment in order for an engineer to design the supporting electrical installation.
I really don't know exactly why the decision was made on this project to supply the swtichgear. We DON'T do that more often than we do do it. But I am sure that it was driven by the owner and the owner is paying for all of it so it's his choice to make. Maybe the contractor got a horrible price on the gear or couldn't get an acceptable delivery commitment and we were asked to shop it. We will do that if the owner wants us to. If the contractor doesn't wan to do the job under those circumstances, he always has the option to bow out or decline to bid in the first place.
