For educators and training programs

DistroForge Learn: Free Courses on the Electric Distribution Grid

A no-cost reference and study resource for lineman and powerline-tech programs, community-college courses, and utility training departments.

What this is

DistroForge Learn is a set of free, self-paced online courses on how the electric distribution grid works and the equipment that runs it. It runs to 10 tracks and 76 lessons, written in plain language for people early in their utility careers. The material is published by DistroForge LLC, a distribution market-intelligence firm, and is free for anyone to read or assign.

What it covers

Foundations

  • Utility Regulation and Grid Ownership (5 lessons): who owns a utility (investor-owned, cooperative, municipal, federal) and how FERC, NERC, and state commissions divide authority.
  • AC Power Fundamentals (8 lessons): Ohm's law, the kW/kVAR/kVA power triangle, power factor, and percent impedance.
  • Distribution Grid Fundamentals (9 lessons): how the grid is built, powered, and protected from the substation down to the meter.

Safety

  • Electrical Field Safety (9 lessons): qualified-worker rules, minimum approach distance, arc-flash labels, lock-out/tag-out, rubber goods, and the two-person rule, keyed to NFPA 70E and OSHA.

Equipment

  • Distribution Transformers (6 lessons): reading a nameplate, sizing a unit for a load, and comparing designs and losses.
  • Distribution Equipment (10 lessons): conductors, URD cable, fuse cutouts, voltage regulators, capacitor banks, surge arresters, padmount switchgear, and metering.

Operations and analysis

  • Single-Line Diagrams and ANSI Device Numbers (7 lessons): reading a one-line top to bottom and decoding C37.2 device numbers, plus the SCADA, DMS, OMS, and ADMS vocabulary.
  • Protection Coordination (10 lessons): the relay, recloser, and fuse hierarchy, TCC plots, and coordination time intervals.
  • Load, Voltage Drop, and Reliability Indices (7 lessons): load factor and diversity, feeder voltage drop against ANSI C84.1, and computing SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIDI, and MAIFI.

Codes and standards

  • Electrical Codes and Standards (5 lessons): which document governs a given situation across NESC, NEC, ANSI C84.1, and the IEEE C57/C37/C62.11 families.

How programs use it

  • Assign a track as pre-work before a hands-on lab, so students show up with the vocabulary already in hand.
  • Point new hires to the foundations tracks during their first weeks on the job.
  • Set a refresher on codes, safety, or protection ahead of a certification or exam.
  • List lessons as supplemental reading next to a textbook or a manufacturer's manual.

Access terms

The courses are free, with no account and no sign-up, and no ads inside the lessons. They read well on a phone, so students can work through a lesson between classes or on a break. Content stays published at stable URLs, so a link you hand out today keeps working.

How to link or cite it

Link to the hub at https://distroforge.com/learn, or to any single track or lesson by its own URL. Name the resource DistroForge Learn.

Suggested citation DistroForge Learn, DistroForge LLC. https://distroforge.com/learn

Contact

Questions, or want a walkthrough of the material for your program? Email [email protected].