Light-industrial electrical work across Red Deer and Central Alberta: motors, starters, drives, control circuits, machine wiring and the distribution that feeds them. Most calls start with a machine that stopped and nobody on site can say why. Grasse Electric is owner-operated by Todd Grasse, a Red Seal Journeyman Electrician, serving Central Alberta since 2018.
Equipment, power and controls in working shops and light-industrial facilities.
Overloads that trip on start but hold when warm, contactors that chatter or weld, burnt coils, loose line-side terminations and single-phasing from a blown fuse. We meter the motor, the starter and the supply rather than guessing at which one failed. More detail on motors, motor controls and VFDs.
Overcurrent, ground-fault, overvoltage and undervoltage trips, drives that fault only under load, cooked cooling fans and failed line reactors. We read the fault log, check DC bus and input phases, and look at what the drive is being asked to do before condemning it.
Power feeds, disconnects, control wiring and reconnection for machines coming in, moving across the floor or being brought back into service. See equipment and machine wiring for how that work is scoped.
Three-phase feeders, subpanels, breakers, fused disconnects and transformers sized for what the machine actually draws. Panel schedules get corrected while we are in there, because nobody wants to be guessing at breakers during a breakdown. See panels and equipment power.
Start/stop stations, interlocks, relays, timers, limit switches, e-stop strings, pilot devices and 24 V control supplies. Wiring, repair and modification of control panels — see electrical controls.
Machine-shop and wash-bay high-bay LED, failed drivers, lighting circuits that drop out in sections, and layouts that leave shadows over the work. Covered on the commercial lighting page.
The ones that only happen on the night shift, or after a wash-down, or when a second machine starts. These take method and time, not parts. See electrical troubleshooting.
Conduit, cable tray runs, exhaust-fan wiring, receptacles and welder circuits added to existing buildings. Straight, supported, bonded and labelled so the next person can follow it.
Tightening and thermal checks on distribution, cleaning drive heat sinks, replacing tired contactors before they let go, and correcting the deferred items that have been on the list for two years. Booked around your production schedule.
Grasse Electric is a one-electrician operation with service vehicles, a trailer and lift access. That shapes what the work looks like. It is a good fit for a shop with fifteen machines and a production problem, and a poor fit for a project that needs six electricians on site for four months. Being clear about that up front saves everyone a wasted trip.
Manufacturer experience includes drives such as Schneider Altivar, TECO and Lenze. Grasse Electric is an independent electrical service contractor, not an authorized distributor or factory service provider.
In practice that means diagnosis, parameter checks, wiring corrections, replacement and commissioning of drives in the field. Where a drive needs factory repair or a warranty claim, we will say so rather than spending your money proving it twice.
Tip: before a drive gets replaced, check what the incoming voltage is doing on all three phases under load and what the motor megger reads. A large share of repeat drive failures trace back to a supply problem or a motor winding that was already going, not to the drive itself.
What stopped, what it does now, what changed before it started, and what voltage and equipment we are dealing with. Enough to bring the right gear on the first trip.
Lock-out, verify dead, then work from the supply in. Meter readings and fault codes before parts. If the cause is mechanical or in software, you get told that.
Repair on the spot where parts allow, or a clear list of what is needed and how long it will take. Temporary arrangements only where they are safe and you know they are temporary.
Testing under load, rotation confirmed, labelling and panel schedule updated, and a plain description of what failed so it can be tracked if it repeats.
It depends, and it is worth finding out before parts get thrown at it. A breaker that has been tripping for months can be worn and will trip below rating, but far more often the trip is real — a motor drawing more than it should, a soft ground fault, a failing contactor pole, or a feeder that was undersized when the machine was added. We measure running current on each leg, check the motor’s insulation resistance, and look at the supply before deciding anything.
Yes. A lot of shops have no drawings, or drawings that stopped matching reality several modifications ago. We trace the circuit and mark up what is actually there. Where it makes sense we leave a corrected panel schedule and labelled control wiring behind, which costs a little time once and saves a lot on every call after.
No. Field wiring, I/O terminations, sensors, safety circuits, drives and control power are all in scope, and we can prove an input is making it to the card or an output is not firing. Changing the program itself is a different specialty and we will tell you when that is what you need.
Not a large one. This is an owner-operated business, not a crewed construction contractor. Additions to existing distribution, new equipment feeds, machine wiring, lighting and controls work fit well. A ground-up industrial build with a months-long crew requirement does not, and we will point you to someone who is set up for it.
After-hours service is available at an additional charge, and availability has to be confirmed by phone — one electrician can only be in one place. Call 403-872-8698 and you will get a straight answer about whether we can get to it tonight or first thing.
Red Deer and Red Deer County plus Blackfalds, Sylvan Lake, Penhold, Springbrook, Innisfail, Lacombe, Ponoka and Morningside. The full list is on the service areas page.
Call with the details and we will tell you what it will take.
