r/SubstationTechnician

hows it going guys, I have had about 4 years electrical experience and just got offered a substation technician apprentice role in TX but not sure about leaving. Planning on it but how would one get into the apprenticeship in CA? would it take forever? or how hard is it to transfer hours from TX to CA after say 2 years? thank you for the help just want to clear my head a bit.

Entergy has an external candidate opening for an apprentice thru journeyman relay tech. IBEW 647 is the local. Journeyman right at $60/hr, comes with good benefits and a truck plus clothing. You will have to live within 50 or so miles to little rock.

Ive been with a Utility company for just over 2 years, I just recently went from operations and distribution design to the substations department. Its a humbling yet rewarding experience so far, mainly because of the depth of technical knowledge I can learn over time in this department.

I know my knowledge and confidence will grow with time and practice, however, I am wondering if there are resources where I can study or learn some of these things without the day to day experience when planning, designing or commissioning.

Paid resources might be a hard sell with the company, thats the only limiting factor I can think of. A lot of discussion teams have sound familiar to me because of previous education but I have been out of college since 2019 and only in this industry 2 years, so I am fairly rusty with the theory and technical aspects.

Anybody worked for or with Tennessee Valley Authority?
I’m considering an opportunity for a relay specialist (C) with them on the generation support side.
Currently an IBEW transmission relay tech but I started in hydro plants.

I was surprised it’s not an IBEW position but is instead covered by the engineering association union. Annual salary that I’m on my own to negotiate, as opposed to bargained hourly, but still with OT.
Sounds like a smaller service area from where I’m at and a bit more flexible, and some very nice people I’ve interacted with thus far.

What are realistic hours for Shermco field service techs in a day and throughout the week? If hired, I’ll be a level 1 tech. Trying to figure out how much OT new techs can pull

Hey guys new here to the field just trying to expand my knowledge, when testing vcb,ocb,acb how do I know what trip time is sufficient when testing trip coils is there a standar? same with ductoring how many mic ohm per hv for breakers/ contactors do u suggest, guys just say its time and being around the gear but is there a standard or guideline you go off for how quick something should open/close, what readings to look for any help would be greatly appreciated

Out of Australia any help is greatly appreciated cheers

I put in my application for the Lineman apprenticeship but I am intrigued by doing a Sub tech one. I have 2000+ hours in Local 111 doing underground and overhead but mostly overhead. My ultimate goal is to be a Lineman but my only concern is I feel like I may be waiting another 1 to 2 years before that happens. In the meantime I think a sub tech apprenticeship would be a great learning experiance with me and my goals. With that said have any of you switched one way or another?

Just curious what questions were asked and what I should be ready for at my interview in 3 days.

I’m looking to land a substation apprenticeship within the next year after I get my CDL. I was wondering what kind of experience you journeyman/ apprentices had before getting your apprenticeship? I’ll be applying to ALBAT. I don’t have an associates degree or prior professional electrical experience. If anyone would like to share some advice- or simply what their experience was landing an apprenticeship I‘d really appreciate it.

Ok so here's a interesting question for everyone. Our utility just received about 6 12kv breakers from ABB and they had slide links in the CT circuits. Our design spec calls for solid CT blocks. So we're having them come out to rewire and fix it. However, during a call where we informed them of this, ABB claimed that 20% of their customers actually order their breakers with slide links in CT circuits intentionally. Wondering if anyone else has heard this?

What are you guys using to discourage birds from nesting in the structures? We have one station that the starlings are having a orgy in. So far methods that don't work: Bird X hot feet

Plastic owl.

Bird X predator call box.

Rubber snakes.

Pepper balls for paintball gun.

Green lasers.

Inflatable tube Man screaming eagle.

We are scheduling a complete outage to remove nesting because the birds are so bad.

Thanks

For Medium voltage switchgear - Do you trip the breaker on Trip circuit supervision unhealthy and on Internal relay fault alarm?

For Low voltage switchgear - Do you trip the breaker on Trip circuit supervision unhealthy and on Internal relay fault alarm?