System Operator Apprentice

Come join us at Bandera Electric Cooperative (BEC) and BEC Fiber, where we are lighting the grid to empower our members!

Help us Reimagine Rural America!

Bandera Electric Cooperative proudly distributes electricity to members across seven counties in Central Texas. The BEC Fiber division, began offering 100% fiber broadband in 2017 and currently provides fiber internet service to members and subscribers in eight counties in the Texas Hill Country.

We offer Highly Competitive Wages and a Generous Benefit Package!! (no waiting period – benefits start on first day). Paid time off and ten paid holidays.

Our Energy Operations team is looking for a System Operations Apprentice. Under the Supervision of a System Operator this position is responsible for coordinating and directing all distribution electric outage restorations. This includes issuing all necessary clearances and switching orders to field personnel, creating, verifying, and monitoring of associated switching and tagging orders following BEC’s current Lockout-Tagout procedures and protocols, creating detailed logs of all daily activities, emergency restoration, and associated events for the electric distribution system, and when required, assist BEC personnel when conducting switching activities with LCRA System Operations Control Center.

Essential Job Duties

Electrical Services

• Assist department with supporting 24/7 real-time control system integrity to ensure the highest operational reliability and system availability.
• Provide efficient and safe direction of restoration activities during assigned shift.
• Gain the knowledge and training needed to serve as switching authority as assigned by the BEC Manager of Distribution System Operations.
• Responsible for proper adherence to cooperative policies, operating instructions, and procedures.
• Responsible for accurate, safe, and current switching and tagging instructions for assigned operations.
• Respond to system operation failures or abnormalities, creating and assigning Service Orders to the appropriate team for corrective action.
• Tracking, documenting, and assigning all errors found within the OMS (Outage Management System) mapping software.
• Daily communication across multiple departments including Member Relations, Engineering, Operations, and Technical Systems.
• Perform trouble shooting, problem analysis, and resolution.
• Analyze and validate data to maintain system integrity and power restoration.
• Develop, approve, analyze, and generate daily reports.
• Under supervision utilize SCADA software and equipment to control and monitor the cooperative distribution grid. This includes the opening, closing, and changing of normal configurations to all SCADA controlled devices.
• Validate crew work locations with closest upline protective device. Accurately place protective devices on hot-line tag or non-reclose setting to minimize adverse effects on equipment and/or personnel should a fault occur.
• Utilize one lines diagrams and system maps for the creation and issuance of switching procedures.
• Proficiently utilize all software to minimize outage durations. This includes but not limited to, pinging meters, on-demand meter reads, SCADA alarms, fault magnitude, probable fault location generation, lightning strike data, proper crew assignments, transformer loading, and creating switching orders to minimize the number of members affected.
• Initiate CVR (Conservation Voltage Reduction) as directed by management or 4CP probability alerts.
• Monitor conditions which could negatively impact reliability.
• Monitor two-way radio communication for all BEC personnel.
• Prepare and approve switching orders that will isolate work areas without causing power outages.
• Receive power outage notifications, via telephone calls or smart application, dispatching personnel as necessary. Maintain outage, substation and system records, and provide to other departments as needed.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Knowledge of systems operations and maintenance
• Knowledge of electric utility transmission or distribution system operations
• Knowledge in the use of systems operations software and tools
• Strong knowledge of safety protocols and regulations related to systems operations
• Proficient in the use of systems operations software and tools
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong attention to detail
• Decision-making and judgment skills
• Highly reliable and dependable

Qualifications and Requirements

Education:

• High School Diploma or Equivalent

Additional Requirements:

• Valid Texas Driver’s License and Related Insurance
• Must pass background and drug screening
• Maintain a flexible schedule that allows for adherence to a rotating shift
• Complete Northwest lineman college Year 1 System Operator Certification Program course of study within first year of employment and continue work to achieve Coarse completion