r/SubstationTechnician

Anyone ever worked for/taken a call for Dacon? How are they as a company to work for?

Anyone in this apprenticeship program right now? The guy at my hall told me if I was interested to just apply without the Groundman hours, I just signed the books about a month ago. I'm about to start driving a dump truck in the meantime. But I'm very interested in getting started ASAP.

Just curious what it's like, what your hours are like?

How long did it take you to get in?

Hi all,

I'm a Master's student in Electrical Engineering doing independent research on fault analytics and protection engineering for grids with heavy distributed energy resource (DER) penetration. I'm building a small bench setup with real relay hardware instead of leaning only on simulation.

I'm hoping to find:

• SEL protection relays — decommissioned or surplus is totally fine (SEL-351, -451, -411L, -751, etc.). Any cosmetic condition, as long as it's practically working.
• An SEL-4000 AMS (Adaptive Multichannel Source) for injecting test currents and voltages into the relays — this is the big one on my wishlist.
• Any test switches and terminal blocks you'd otherwise scrap.

Donations or a discounted price both work for me, and I'm happy to cover shipping or arrange pickup. I am located in Southern California — feel free to DM.

I’ve got about a year or so being with a NETA company in the MidWest. Trying to thrive in this industry, came in pretty green when I started. Doing splices/terms now been testing power systems for the majority of my time with this company. I see and hear so many people in my industry leaving their company and getting paid way higher with around the same experience as me. I also have been studying heavily as much as I can whenever i’m off to hopefully take my NETA ll end of this year. Kind of torn in between if i should ignore the outside noise, and stick it out with the company i’m currently with and get my ll or start looking elsewhere for a bigger pay bump. I’m currently in my early 20’s! Thanks in advance for any advice.

TLDR: Currently a NETA tech unsure if I should stick it out with my current Utility company and hopefully get my level ll cert or look at joining another company for a bigger pay bump.

quick question for my ibew sub techs, if you’re on a P&C crew working inside a control house terminating , would those hours spent doing P&C also count for a state electrical license or no? Don’t strike me down for asking , just curious.

thank you guys for your time !

What are you guys using to block off holes in HV transformers when doing maintenance. Like when replacing bushings and doing all the prep work on the flanges what are you using to prevent air and debris to get in the transformer. Currently we’re making covers with gasket material and using tape. But I feel like there is something better out there.

Associates in Electrical Technology. TDLR Journeyman License. 4+ years as an electrician and ready to get into more of a technical role. Any recommendations on how to get into a utilities role. Also is there any kind of schooling / certification I should get before applying? Is there a lot of traveling involved in utilities? Based in Houston. Thanks

Getting out of the military after 10 years and looking into substation technician positions. How is the quality of life, daily working hours, overtime, travel etc. Is it different during the apprenticeship vise a journeyman? Getting out of the military due to being gone so much and it taking a toll on family life.

Hello,

I am looking for a voltage applied input to be held for at least 10ms before moving on to the next state. Is there a way to set a minimum assertion time for the inputs in RTS state sequencer? I tried putting in the SENSE_DUR = 10 in the pre defines, but I didn't have any success.

Has anyone ever worked for power group solutions? From what I see they do a lot of industrial electrical work and techs are NETA certified.

Does neta mean anything of worth?

Can you go from power solutions group to working for a utilities company?

For context I'm about to turn 30 Male with a wife and 2 boys 4 and 8 months old.

So I'm looking to become a Groundman right now and eventually become a lineman(current plan). Just got my CDL A and First Aid/CPR done heights don't really bother me and I love building things out. I've been to my local(111 Denver) twice and both times they said if I wanted to be a substation apprentice that it would probably happen a lot faster right now and that they really need people for it. I guess my questions are, do any of you regret not going lineman?

Is this a stable job? How much traveling do you do?

One of the main reasons I'm leaning towards lineman still too is because of the prospect of so much OT and storm work down the road. Do you guys get a lot of opportunity for OT?

Do you guys make great money regardless?

I know this is a ton of questions but it's been a bit of a mental battle figuring out what move to make. Any help or resources would be so awesome thanks!

Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anybody here has gone through the SSVP through Selcat. If so, how was your overall experience and would you say it’s worth the opportunity? Backstory, I am currently serving active duty and have about a year left and am considering getting into the trade upon separation.