Position Summary

The Senior Power Systems Engineer is responsible for analysis of system events and disturbances on the Bulk Electric System (BES) to determine the cause and provide a comprehensive report that identifies and communicates recommendations and lessons learned. This position will also review the performance of protection systems and substation equipment during such events to determine if they responded appropriately. This position will provide power system support and training to both stakeholders and other MRO departments and functions as well as participating in related industry committees and working groups. This position collaborates with technical staff from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the MRO Reliability Advisory Council (RAC), the MRO Protective Relay Subgroup (PRS) and individual registered entities within the MRO region.

Competencies

Connection: Place importance on relationships within MRO, across the ERO Enterprise, and industry as we do our work. Connection allows staff to leverage the expertise of others and appreciate differences.

Curiosity: The foundation for innovation and creating alternatives by being interested and asking questions. Curiosity aids us in exercising the principle of independence and being objective. It is the antidote to bias.

Commitment: Support MRO’s Vision, Mission, and Core Principles that embody our accountability to maintain the public trust as we do our work and use our funding wisely.

Competency: Apply knowledge, expertise, and experience with integrity to produce excellent work while being a thought leader.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads the development of disturbance and event analysis reports to ensure the event is properly categorized, coded, and that any potential lessons learned are documented and shared within the industry
• Assists with reviewing protection system misoperations to determine if corrective action plans are adequate
• Provides power system input and engineering support and expertise to various industry committees and working groups as they are developing best practices
• Participates in NERC Transmission Availability Data System (TADS) efforts by reviewing transmission outages and causes
• Provides leadership to the MRO Protective Relay Subgroup (PRS) and outreach to stakeholders
• Overseeing identification of BES facilities and collaborating on decisions to achieve consistency across the ERO
• Support the Situational Awareness (SA) activities, specifically responses to NERC SA requests
• Prepares and presents reliability assessment data and reports for MRO organizational groups and NERC committees with suggested corrective actions to address various reliability issues
• Supports MRO’s Generator Winterization Program
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications, Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering or another technical area directly applicable to the reliability of the BPS is required
• Minimum of ten years of experience in the power industry is required
• Advanced experience and working knowledge of electric utility operations and planning is required
• Ability to assess and execute a wide range of complex electrical power system analysis reports and investigations concerning the operation and planning of generation and transmission systems is required
• The ability to effectively communicate both orally and in writing, to both technical and non-technical audiences is required
• Professional Engineer License is desirable
• Basic knowledge of engineering software such as power system simulation tools is desirable

Supervisor Responsibility

• Individual contributor role, no supervisory responsibilities

Physical Working Conditions and Travel Requirements

• Standard office environment, requires mobility and sedentary work
• The Senior Power Systems Engineer may occasionally need to be available outside of business hours to respond to corporate matters
• Travel Requirement: Approximately 15%; this position requires the ability to obtain documentation to allow for travel to and from Canada