About This Career

Inspects, tests, repairs, or maintains electrical equipment in generating stations, substations, and in-service relays.

This career is part of the Energy cluster Installation and Repair pathway.

A person in this career:

• Inspects and tests equipment and circuits to identify malfunctions or defects, using wiring diagrams and testing devices such as ohmmeters, voltmeters, or ammeters.
• Prepares and maintains records detailing tests, repairs, and maintenance.
• Consults manuals, schematics, wiring diagrams, and engineering personnel to troubleshoot and solve equipment problems and to determine optimum equipment functioning.
• Analyzes test data to diagnose malfunctions, to determine performance characteristics of systems, or to evaluate effects of system modifications.
• Notifies facility personnel of equipment shutdowns.
• Opens and closes switches to isolate defective relays, performing adjustments or repairs.
• Repairs, replaces, and cleans equipment and components such as circuit breakers, brushes, and commutators.
• Runs signal quality and connectivity tests for individual cables, and records results.
• Maintains inventories of spare parts for all equipment, requisitioning parts as necessary.
• Constructs, tests, maintains, and repairs substation relay and control systems.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Lighting is either extremely bright or inadequate
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Seeing clearly at a distance
• Seeing clearly up close

Work Hours and Travel

• Overtime work
• Rotating shift work