IPS expands service capabilities, coverage, and distribution with acquisition of leading independent power distribution services company

(Greenville, SC — December 27, 2021) IPS, the North American leader in service, repair and engineering for electric motors, generators, and rotating equipment, continues to grow with its acquisition of National Switchgear and National Field Services.

Headquartered in Lewisville, Texas, National Switchgear and National Field Services provide a wide range of power delivery solutions. Founding owner Doug Powell, began in 1986 with a plan to warehouse and inventory used and surplus switchgear equipment for customers. As major switchgear OEMs exited the service business, the company saw a demand for skilled third-party technical services and expanded to offer switchgear rebuilds, remanufacturing and upgrades. In 1997, National expanded again, adding switchgear installation, commissioning, and field services.

Today, the company has five locations, including branch operations in San Marcos and League City, Texas and Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, and three brands — National Switchgear, National Field Services, and the National Training Center. The field service operation is a NETA accredited organization with 53 NETA and NICET certified electrical testing technicians. National Training Center, the company’s training division, opened in 2015 to provide hands-on education for new and veteran technicians. It also offers open enrollment to customers. These investments in complementary services and continuous improvement are now part of IPS. They strengthen IPS single-source capabilities, as the company offers power distribution services throughout its IPS North American network.

“I couldn’t be more excited about teaming up with IPS,” said Doug Powell, NATIONAL’s Founding Owner. “For years I have observed their steady pursuit toward growth by blending technology, process improvements and safety into the fabric of their organization. I’m truly excited to team up with IPS and build out a national power services platform with that same degree of excellence.”

“The combination of IPS and NATIONAL brings an opportunity to our clients, suppliers and employees that NATIONAL alone could not have done,” said Robert Koren, CEO of NATIONAL. “To be a part of the industry’s leading independent services supplier, from generation to meter to motor, brings about an excitement for the future of our company and what it means for the industry we serve.”

“National Switchgear and National Field Services will become a platform for a new service division for IPS focused on adding Power Management services that are highly complementary to our existing offering,” said John Zuleger, IPS President & CEO. “In combination, we will seek to become a Trusted Advisor to customers seeking to manage their Power Management and Electro-Mechanical equipment. The combined company offering will position IPS to identify and correct electrical losses for its customers leading to safer, more reliable, and energy efficient operations.”

Bulkley Capital, LP and Libby Sparks Willis Starnes PLLC, an affiliate of BMD, acted as financial advisor and legal counsel to NATIONAL, respectively, in connection with the transaction.

For more information on IPS or National Switchgear and National Field Services, or to arrange an interview with IPS senior management, contact Megan Thompson, IPS Director of Marketing, at 864.451.5636 or [email protected].

About Integrated Power Services

Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, IPS is the North American leader in the service of electric motors, generators, and mechanical power transmission components, with over 5,500 customers across a wide range of capital-intensive industries, including but not limited to power generation (fossil, nuclear, hydro and wind), petrochemical, air separation, oil & gas, metals, mining, paper, aggregates, and cement. IPS has 38 service centers and field offices across North America, combining industry-specific experience with deep engineering resources to deliver reliability to customers

IPS services include engineering, in-shop repair, on-site field services, distribution, motor storage programs and contract manufacturing. For more information, visit www.ips.us.

Impacts on Reconditioning Companies

Reconditioning companies across the U.S. are facing a potential threat that will negatively affect any business with a critical electrical infrastructure.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently presented to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) the updated NFPA-2020 National Electric Code (NEC), which they had recently revised through the required rounds of its standards development process.

Suggested changes must be proposed and approved during the public input stage and then published for review and comment, according to the American National Standard (ANS) process. However, there are 17 changes to the reconditioned equipment section that were proposed in the standard after the public comment stage.

The Standards Development Process

The Regulations Governing the Development of NFPA Standards establishes the procedure for the NFPA standards development. All NFPA standards are revised and updated every three to five years in cycles that begin twice each year, according to the NFPA standards development process.

Each revision cycle proceeds according to a published schedule which includes final dates for each stage in the standards development process, according to NFPA. The four fundamental steps in this process are:

1. Public Input
   2. Public Comment
   3. NFPA Technical Meeting (Tech Session)
   4. Standards Council Action (Appeals and Issuance of Standard)

Reconditioned Defined

The National Electric Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Policy on Reconditioned Electrical Equipment states that reconditioned equipment is defined as electromechanical systems, equipment, apparatus or components that are restored to operating conditions.

This process differs from normal servicing of equipment that remains within a facility, or replacement of listed equipment on a one-to-one basis, according to the NEC.

However, the term reconditioned is incorrectly referred to as rebuilt, refurbished or remanufactured in the NEC 2020 revisions.

Proposed Changes

The Remanufacturing Industries Council (RIC) wrote a letter to the NFPA to request that they would pass on the 17 proposed changes until the next code making cycle because of their potential harm to the industry. Postponing the proposed changes until the next coding cycle would allow the industry at large to comment.

Christel Hunter states several of the proposed changes in her presentation at the 2019 PEARL Conference:

• Reconditioned equipment will be identified as “reconditioned” and the original listing mark will be removed unless it is reconditioned by the owner or operator as part of regular maintenance
• The following equipment cannot be reconditioned: equipment that provides ground-fault circuit interrupter protection for personnel, arc-fault circuit interrupter for protection, ground-fault protection for equipment, and eleven other types of equipment
• The reconditioning process shall use design qualified parts verified under applicable standards and be performed in accordance with any instructions provided by the manufacturer
• Panelboards shall not be permitted to be reconditioned
• Reconditioned switchgear shall be listed, or field labeled as reconditioned, and previously applied listing marks, if any, within the portions reconditioned shall be removed

Rippling Effect

According to the most recent International Trade Commission survey, the size of the remanufacturing sector of our economy represents at least $43 billion annually, as well as providing hundreds of thousands of jobs in our economy.

The proposed changes to remanufactured equipment, although well intentioned, will not only hurt reconditioning companies, but also the U.S. manufacturing industry for multiple reasons.

For example, the industry will experience a restricted supply of readily available and safe electrical distribution equipment and an increase of business interruption claims. There will also be an increase in the cost of acquiring, engineering, and scheduling extended shutdowns to replace entire substations.

Take Action

The deadline to file a notice of intent to make a motion to reject these proposed changes was April 26, 2019. Voting members of NFPA were also able to attend the Technical Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on June 20 to voice their concerns and vote for certified amending motions.

It is still possible to file an appeal with the NFPA Standards Council by July 10, 2019. The Standards Council will be meeting from August 5 to August 7 in Quincy, Massachusetts, this year to provide final approval on the proposed changes to the NEC standard.

Visit the NFPA website to learn more about the NFPA Standards Council and their meetings.

Republished with permission of National Field Services. Originally published on June 27, 2019.

WHEAT RIDGE, CO – “Grid and critical infrastructure failure are what keep me up at night, because it is estimated that it would take the U.S. less than a week to fall into anarchy from such a disaster,” concluded Chloe Demrovsky, executive director of the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRI) in her keynote speech at the Professional Electrical Apparatus Reconditioning League’s (PEARL) 20th Anniversary Conference, held in Newport Beach, Ca., April 5-9.

Citing that power outages alone cost the U.S. some $96 billion each year, Ms. Demrovsky stressed the importance of preparedness for and recovery from disasters in her speech: “Resilience is a Competitive Advantage: How to be a Reliable Supplier.”  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines resilience as the ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions, such as attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents.

“With the theme of our conference this year being ‘Disaster Recovery,’ we were particularly interested in hearing Ms. Demrovsky’s insights into the key role that the supply chain plays in this essential recovery process,” noted outgoing PEARL President Doug Powell. “PEARL supports and maintains the integrity of electrical systems by developing certified training programs, being included in the National Electrical Code and creating a reconditioning standard. This is what PEARL is all about and is how we as an industry strive to be the best-prepared supplier during emergencies and disasters.”

Ms. Demrovsky cited six emerging supply chain risks: cyberattacks, communications failures, political/social unrest, pandemic, critical equipment failure, and aging infrastructure. From here, she stressed that the focus needs to be on the impacts, not on the causes of the impacts. She identified four impacts that a disaster can create: Facilities issues, such as a flood or fire; Business or operations issues, such as a transit strike or supply chain missteps; Technology, which refers to IT issues; Organizational issues, such as mergers and acquisitions.

Summing up the essential need for planning, Ms. Demrovsky shared a seminal case study: In 2000, a minor fire in a plant that provided the majority of microchips to Nokia and Eriksson resulted in a total destruction of the microchips, due to their sensitivity to smoke damage. Nokia had a plan in place to stay in business if such a disaster occurred with a key supplier; Eriksson did not. As a consequence, Nokia went on to succeed in business. An additional outcome of this case study was the realization that businesses need to add resiliency clauses to their business contracts.

“PEARL provides an alternative for the industry by offering safe, reconditioned equipment that can be used to quickly and effectively recover from a disaster, be it equipment failure, electrical outages, or natural disasters,” said Mr. Powell. “The organization is proud of the integral role it plays in disaster recovery and unites suppliers in order to help ensure that trusted equipment can be delivered to a facility in need as quickly as possible.”

For more information on PEARL and the reconditioning industry, visit: pearl1.org.