As one of those few EE trained in power, I would agree with many of the comments. My background is primarily marine electrical systems where the engineering requirements are far more extensive than most land-based projects. When I first started working in facilities (2 yrs ago) I had little knowledge of the NEC with the exception of a few articles which are referenced by marine standards; motor and transformer protection for example. I was amazed at the details to which the NEC dictates how a building is to be wired. Nothing like this exists in the marine world. I was also amazed at how little information is expected to be shown on electrical plans. My facilities associates stated "Why bother? All the details are in the NEC." Others stated they didn't want the liability of putting too much detail in the plans. In my humble opinion, the NEC was written to make everything cookbook because, unfortunately, there are many installers who have no training in basic electrical theory. I get extremely frustrated when the NEC or some building inspector requires me to oversize some component for the simple reason that the assumption is it won't get installed properly.
As for EE's training in the NEC, it is not offered in colleges for the simple reason that most EE's don't design electical systems for buildings. Nor do colleges teach students how to design systems for airplanes, ships, or trains. All of these are specalized areas that a EE choses after graduation. I would greatly appreciate a good course in the electrical design aspects of the NEC. While I didn't have a clue want color an equipment ground wire should be ( I would have guessed green), I really don't care. I know what it's there for and when I want one. I'll leave it to the electrician to pick the right color. I could give a great seminar on basic electrical theory, including sizing conductors, breakers, fault currents, breaker coordination studies, load analysis, etc. But please don't ask me to install the stuff.
