Fully online technical training designed around real industry demand, so you can specialize at your own pace.
10/31/2026
Start Date
2 months
Duration
100
Total Hours
6 Modules
Program
Duration
Total Hours
Program
Start Date
ICTESS’s Protective Device Selection and Coordination Training Course is designed to train specialists in analyzing, selecting, and configuring protective devices for low- and medium-voltage electrical systems. The program covers everything from the fundamentals of time-current curves to advanced techniques for selective coordination between upstream and downstream protective devices.
You’ll learn the selectivity criteria that engineers apply on real-world projects: reading trip curves, selecting circuit breakers and residual-current devices in line with the National Electrical Code (NEC), calculating short-circuit currents, verifying interrupting ratings, and testing methodologies used to validate coordination. The course includes a capstone project in which you’ll apply everything you’ve learned to design a complete protection scheme.
The Protective Device Selection and Coordination Training Course addresses a critical need in the electrical industry: keeping people and equipment safe through protection systems that are properly sized and coordinated. Poor selectivity can trigger nuisance tripping that disrupts service continuity, or worse, protection failures during short circuits that put both the installation and the people working on it at risk.
The course’s purpose is to train professionals who can design protection schemes that achieve full selective coordination between devices. You’ll learn to read manufacturer time-current curves, select the optimal combination of circuit breakers, fuses, and residual-current devices, calculate short-circuit currents at any point in an installation, and confirm that each device operates before the one immediately upstream.
The training also covers professional calculation software used across the industry, and culminates in a capstone project where you’ll develop a full selectivity study for a real installation with multiple levels of protection.
The Protective Device Selection and Coordination Training Course prepares you for specialized technical roles at electrical engineering firms, licensed electrical contractors, industrial maintenance departments, and project consultancies. You can work as an electrical design engineer, a protection specialist in industrial facilities, a commissioning technician, or a selectivity and short-circuit study specialist.
The training prepares you to manage protection projects from design through final verification: performing short-circuit studies on distribution systems, sizing protective devices in accordance with the National Electrical Code (NEC), developing one-line diagrams with selective coordination, configuring protective relays, and running test protocols to confirm each device performs correctly.
Study from anywhere with no commuting required. Balance your technical specialization with your current professional career.
Organize your study schedule around your own availability. Move through modules at the pace that works best for you and revisit anything you need extra practice with.
Learn the selectivity and short-circuit calculation tools used by engineering firms on real-world projects.
Technical video lessons, manufacturer catalogs, forums with specialized instructors, and hands-on coordination exercises.
With ICTESS, you’ll get specialized technical training focused on professional practice and designed to help you master the skills the electrical industry demands in protective device coordination. Learn with an up-to-date methodology and real engineering tools.
What you'll achieve
Interpret time-current curves for circuit breakers, fuses, and relays, identifying thermal, magnetic, and instantaneous trip zones to ensure selective coordination.
Select thermal-magnetic circuit breakers and residual-current devices in accordance with the National Electrical Code (NEC), factoring in rated current, sensitivity, trip curve type, and installation conditions.
Design upstream and downstream coordination schemes using amperometric, time-graded, logic-based, and energy-based selectivity techniques to prevent nuisance tripping.
Calculate short-circuit currents at any point in an installation and verify that each device’s interrupting rating exceeds the maximum expected fault current.
Execute protection tests and trials following standardized protocols, documenting results and validating that the designed coordination scheme performs correctly.
The electrical industry is dealing with increasingly complex installations as renewable energy, storage systems, and non-linear loads become more common. This shift demands professionals who can design protection schemes suited to new network topologies. Coordination failures cause service interruptions with significant economic costs and, in serious cases, put the safety of people and equipment at risk.
A Shortage of Selectivity Specialists: The job market faces a shortage of technicians with deep expertise in protection coordination. Many professionals know the basics of device selection but lack the skills to carry out full selectivity studies, verify compatibility between protection levels, or correctly interpret manufacturer curves.
Increasingly Demanding Codes and Standards: Updates to the National Electrical Code (NEC) and related standards are setting stricter requirements for overcurrent and fault protection. The Authority Having Jurisdiction increasingly requires documented selectivity studies, driving demand for professionals who can prepare this technical documentation.
A Competitive Edge in the Job Market: Specializing in protection coordination sets you apart significantly from generalist profiles. Mastering short-circuit calculations, selectivity techniques, and professional software positions you as a top candidate at engineering firms, contractors, and industrial maintenance departments.
Completing the Protective Device Selection and Coordination Course positions you as a specialist in a critical area with strong demand. Industrial, commercial, and infrastructure installations need technicians who guarantee safety and service continuity through properly coordinated protection systems.
Access to Specialized Technical Roles: You can pursue roles like protection design engineer, commissioning technician, panel maintenance lead, or selectivity consultant. Specializing in protection coordination opens doors to more complex, higher-responsibility projects.
Ability to Ensure Installation Safety: You’ll learn to design protection systems that meet code requirements and protect people and equipment, taking on high-level responsibility for verifying electrical schemes.
Recognized Professional Certificate: The ICTESS professional certificate validates your technical specialization in protective device selection and coordination, strengthening your position in the electrical and industrial job market.
This course is designed for professionals and technicians looking to specialize in the design, selection, and verification of electrical protection systems in low- and medium-voltage installations. Recommended profiles include:
Program details
The capstone project is the culminating stage of the program and represents the practical integration of every technical skill developed throughout the course. It involves developing a complete selectivity study for a real electrical installation, from network analysis through to final documentation for submission to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), applying the professional methods and calculation tools used across the industry.
The project is based on an installation with multiple levels of protection, including a main low-voltage switchboard, secondary panels, and branch circuits. You’ll calculate short-circuit currents at every significant point in the installation, select protective devices in accordance with the National Electrical Code (NEC), verify the interrupting rating of each device, design upstream and downstream coordination using selectivity techniques, and plot overlapping time-current curves to demonstrate correct coordination.
The project also includes verifying ground-fault protection with a vertical selectivity analysis, documenting the complete one-line diagram with technical specifications for each device, and preparing a selectivity report in the professional format required by the authority having jurisdiction. The final documentation must demonstrate your ability to produce rigorous technical studies that ensure safety and service continuity in professional electrical installations.
ICTESS’s Protective Device Selection and Coordination Training Course includes hands-on training with industry-standard tools for LV installation calculations and selectivity studies, along with time-current curve analysis using manufacturer data from companies such as ABB, Siemens, and Legrand. You’ll work through real-world case studies, from entering installation data to generating professional selectivity reports. Proficiency with these tools is highly valued at engineering firms and electrical contractors, since it lets you develop coordination studies with the technical rigor the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) demands.
An electrical engineering degree isn’t required, but technical training in electricity or demonstrable professional experience in the field is recommended. The course is designed for electrical and industrial engineers, but it’s also accessible to licensed electrical contractors, maintenance technicians experienced with electrical panels, and designers who work with one-line diagrams. A solid foundation in basic electricity, reading electrical schematics, and familiarity with the National Electrical Code (NEC) is essential. The program includes short-circuit calculations and trip-curve interpretation, so being comfortable with basic technical math is necessary to get the most out of the training.
The ICTESS professional certificate validates your technical specialization in protective device selection and coordination and is recognized by companies in the electrical sector as high-level supplementary training. While it isn’t an official university degree, the certificate documents specific, in-demand technical skills: reading time-current curves, selecting devices per code, designing selectivity schemes, calculating short-circuit currents, and using industry-standard software. Engineering firms, electrical contractors, and industrial maintenance departments especially value this hands-on training as a complement to a base degree, since it shows you’re current on applicable codes and capable of developing professional selectivity studies.
This Protective Device Selection and Coordination Training Course stands out for its specialized focus on a critical area that many general courses barely touch on. While typical electrical installation courses cover many topics at a surface level, this program dives deep into selectivity techniques: amperometric, time-graded, logic-based, and energy-based. The content includes real calculations engineers use on professional projects: analyzing overlapping time-current curves, verifying interrupting ratings against calculated short-circuit currents, and designing coordination across multiple protection levels. The course also includes hands-on training with industry-standard software and culminates in a complete selectivity study you can add to your professional portfolio.
