System Operator I, II or Senior

  • Full-time

Company Description

About Us
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Wabash Valley Power is a not-for-profit electric cooperative and wholesale provider of reliable, affordable electricity to our 23 electric distribution member cooperatives. These cooperatives in turn serve more than 300,000 homes, businesses, and farms in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.

As a not-for-profit co-op, we do things a bit differently—and that’s the point. Because we aren’t influenced by shareholders, we make our decisions with our members in mind. That means we value things like teamwork, and putting families first. It also means a business model that’s designed for stability and growth. It’s a Deliberately Different approach to the energy industry, and that’s great news for the people who count on us.

What You'll Get
We believe what benefits our employees benefits our company. That’s why we put employees first—your health, your family, and your development. These aren’t just slogans: We offer continuing education, flex time, health benefits, a 401(k) match and pension plan, and much more. Here are just a few of the things that make our company culture unique:

•  No Sweat  - We offer a wellness program that includes a payroll credit for medical insurance, an on-site fitness center for your convenience and extra vacation days for participating. We’ll even throw in a fitness device reimbursement to keep you on track!
•  Flex Time  - Our flexible schedule means you can work in your appointments or family events and maintain a comfortable work-life balance.
•  Stay in School  - We value employees who have a desire to learn, so we provide funds for continuing education. We also offer in-house training and ongoing development through our internal GROW program.
•  Keep it Casual  - When you work for us, you work in comfort.  Blue jeans are the norm in our office and we make them look good!
•  Work Hard, Play Hard  - We reward our employees with generous vacation time, to the tune of up to five weeks off a year. Even our new employees receive credit for prior work experience.

Job Description

Facilitate aspects of WVPA’s operations center, including communications between the Investor Owned Utilities (IOU) and WVPA’s members, the safe and reliable delivery of energy to WVPA members, coordination of those activities with the members, support of system operators, and utilization of complex monitoring and control systems.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

  • Establish and maintain professional communications with transmission owning IOUs, REMC member staff and WVPA personnel, for planned and unplanned outages.  This includes normal, abnormal and emergency operations.  Utilize three-part communication as required by operational activities.
  • Be motivated to be a best-in-class NERC Certified operator.   
  • Monitor transmission and distribution systems via the Energy Management System (EMS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems.
  • Be a single point of contact for IOU/member outages and communication of activities by all entities to assist in the restoration of service as safely and quickly as possible.
  • Develop and implement operational procedures based on defined operational boundaries with member distribution cooperatives and/or IOUs, as necessary. 
  • Ensure all activities are performed in compliance with regulatory requirements such as NERC reliability standards, National Electric Safety Code and Good Utility Practice. 
  • Coordinate with the IOUs and members to monitor and/or direct the operation of the WVPA system within acceptable limits to ensure reliable service to member systems.
  • Coordinate outage schedules and switching requests, where applicable.
  • Monitor equipment and coordinate appropriate responses to the IOUs and/or members as necessary for equipment malfunctions
  • Assist SCADA Field Techs with the checkout and calibration of SCADA points for new installations or modifications
  • Assist EMS/SCADA System Administrators in developing graphical interfaces and models to be used in the Operations Center
  • Track protection relay system operations and evaluate causes of protection system mis-operations.
  • Monitor transmission service to member delivery points and notify members of transmission outages.
  • Coordinate operational activities associated with placing in and removing from service mobile substations for planned and emergency events.
  • Monitor storm activities and provide additional support to the Operations Center as needed.
  • Monitor and manage facilities within the PJM control area per respective PJM Manuals.
  • Follow the directives of PJM for facilities under PJM authority. If such action would result in safety violation, damage equipment, or violate regulatory or statutory requirements, immediately inform PJM of the inability to perform the directive so that PJM can implement alternate remedial actions.
  • May be required to perform other duties as assigned.

 

Qualifications

  • Associate Degree in Engineering/Technology field or equivalent combination of technical education and work experience.
  • Minimum of one year of Operations Center experience operating or directing operation of transmission or substation equipment required.
  • Knowledge of and direct experience with electric power system reliability standards is required.
  • NERC Certification at the Transmission Operator or Reliability Coordinator level required.
  • Obtain PJM Certification at the Transmission Owner/Operator level within 6 months of starting employment and maintain PJM continuing education requirements.

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.