Electric Distribution Engineer, Associate

Pacific Gas and Electric Company; West Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Pacific Gas and Electric Company in West Sacramento seeks an entry-level Electrical Engineer to join the DG engineering team. You will contribute to distributed generation interconnection studies (solar, batteries, EVs) and support planning, design, and maintenance for the distribution grid.

The role reports to the DG engineering team within Electric Asset Management and involves on-site work, collaboration with multiple groups, and exposure to project planning and protection coordination

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from ABET-accredited program.
• Professional engineering registration is desirable.
• Basic Microsoft Office skills are beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Submits long term and short-term reconstruction, capacity and reliability plan recommendations; manages projects within their local area of $100,000 or less; and reviews and recommends job estimates within DPA for capacity and reliability.
• Monitors area substation and circuit capabilities and track loads; prepares proposals with justification for corrective actions.
• Performs planning studies to model the distribution system; analyzes historical loads and projects growth; prepares long-term and short-term plans; reviews area distribution systems to maintain power factor and voltage.
• Prepares and initiates switching plans; prepares documentation about distribution needs for estimating; sets up load tap changers and line equipment; reviews requests for large customer loads and recommends actions.
• Initiates service dependability solutions; participates in reliability meetings; supports estimating and construction; reviews switching clearances and protective device settings.
• Prepare economic analysis for projects; provide on-call support and maintain equipment records.

Skills

Electrical Engineering

ABET accreditation

Python scripting

CYME

PSCAD

DG interconnection studies

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

CYME

PSCAD

Python scripting

Job description

Job Category: Engineering / Science

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Strategy & Growth

Work Type: Onsite

Job Location: West Sacramento

Department Overview

Electric Asset Management (EAM) Distribution Planning (DP) team ensures safe, reliable, and efficient operation of the electric distribution system by providing timely and innovative engineering and technical support associated with the planning, design, construction, and maintenance functions. EAM DP is part of the EAM System Planning and Reliability group and has overall responsibility for the utilization of area and equipment capacity, voltage and power factor support and the reliability of the primary electric distribution systems.

Position Summary

This entry-level job is represented by Engineers and Scientists of California (ESC), subject to collective bargaining.

This position will report to the distributed generation (DG) engineering team. The DG team is a centralized engineering team responsible for all DG interconnection studies for projects connecting to the PG&E distribution electric grid. The position will be responsible for distributed generation (solar, batteries, electric vehicles) interconnection studies among other tasks.

PG&E is providing the salary range that the company in good faith believes it might pay for this position at the time of thejob posting. This compensation range is specific to the locality of the job. The actual salary paid to an individual will bebased on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience,market value, geographic location, collective bargaining agreements, and internal equity.

The annual salary range is:

CA Minimum, $99,936

CA Maximum, $150,108

Responsibilities

• Submits long term and short-term reconstruction, capacity and reliability plan recommendations; manages projects within their local area of $100,000 or less; and reviews and recommends job estimates within DPA for capacity and reliability.
• Monitors area substation and circuit capabilities and track corresponding loads. Prepares proposals, including justification, for appropriate corrective actions to address deficiencies found.
• Performs planning studies to correctly model the electric distribution system and works with Mapping to ensure discrepancies are corrected in associated records system. Analyzes historical loads and project future growth. Prepares long-term and short-term plans to identify and correct area deficiencies. Prepares long-term and short-term plans to identify and correct area deficiencies. Prepares draft Preliminary Planning Reviews (PPR’s). Identifies alternatives to address deficiencies for Project Analysis (PA’s). Reviews and analyzes area distribution systems and takes appropriate actions to maintain power factor and primary voltage within established standards. Determines circuit and associated equipment capabilities within the assigned DPA.
• Prepares and initiate switching plans to alleviate normal and minimize emergency deficiencies. Prepares necessary documentation about distribution needs for estimating to complete job packages. Prepares settings for load tap changers and other line equipment. Reviews requests for new large customer load additions or increases in voltage and recommend actions to correct any deficiencies. Provides direction and reviews primary designs proposed by estimating to ensure adequate capacity and reliability. Prepares settings for distribution protective devices. Performs circuit protection reviews and makes recommendations for corrections. Determines protection requirements for rule 20, WRO projects and other major distribution projects which could impact the existing protective scheme. Prepares settings for Distribution Automation (DA) devices affecting distribution protection, voltage or emergency switching.
• Initiates service dependability solutions and actively participates in local reliability / root cause meetings. Works closely with construction to prioritize outage prevention work within DPA, addresses customer complaints (Help Tickets) for recurring outages as assigned. Prepares initial responses for CPUC complaints for recurring outages. Supports local DO’s, DEC, construction, or storm room in emergency restoration efforts as required. Provide technical, address’ customer voltage complaints caused by primary voltage problems. When requested, address’ customer EMF requests involving distribution facilities as assigned, assist E&M and OM&C personnel to address customer voltage complaints caused by secondary voltage problems. Supports estimating, construction, and other departments as required. Reviews, modifies, and recommends switching clearances for feeders, banks and stations as requested by DO’s. Address’ customer EMF requests involving distribution facilities as assigned. Reviews switching arrangements, equipment settings, voltage levels, power factor needs, etc. to ensure the distribution system is operated in the most efficient manner.
• Prepare EASOP (economic analysis) for projects in DPA. Prepare other engineering analysis as assigned. Provide supervisor on-call support as required; maintain equipment records as assigned.

Qualifications

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from a college/university accredited by Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET)

Desired:

• Professional engineering registration
• Basic Microsoft Office skills
• CYME experience
• Generation interconnection studies i.e., Solar, Battery, Electric vehicles
• Electrical Engineering Power emphasis
• Python Scripting experience
• PSCAD
• Microgrids
• Protection coordination studies as well as knowledge of AC/DC schematics