Electrical Engineer - Substation Project Development

Company Summary Statement

Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve more than 1.3 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 334,000 natural gas and 433,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 569,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. LG&E and KU are major employers and active supporters of the communities they serve. They empower employees, community members and initiatives across their service territory through volunteerism and investments in organizations that support education, sustainability and wellbeing.

Overview

The Substation Project Development Engineer is the single point of accountability for applying technical expertise during development of LG&E and KU Electric Transmission Substation projects. The position is responsible for applying value engineering principles while developing a scope of work that resolves the problem while evaluating opportunities for long-term system improvements. This position applies physical, electrical and relay design strategy, assignment, and oversight of internal and external engineering resources, and establishes the budget, schedule, and deliverables for assigned work. Position regularly interfaces with asset management, project managers, project controls analysts, engineers, and contractors, and educates project managers in support of their assigned programs. This Engineer must be capable of coordinating and influencing a wide range of functional organizational leads and subject matter experts throughout electric transmission.

This position will be filled based on the successful candidates experience level.

Work location will be determined by the candidates preference and will be in either Louisville, KY or Lexington, KY.

Responsibilities

• Reviews requests from Asset Management to validate scoping requirements and evaluates for technically correct and cost-effective designs. Provides recommendations that solve reliability and maintenance problems. Understands electric substation engineering responsibilities, ranging from distribution to transmission voltages, 12kV/14kV, 69kV to 500kV.
• Provides engineering expertise and technical support during the planning phases of large, complex substation design projects, and assists with constructability reviews and outage sequencing preparation.
• Develops technical expertise with the design of substation equipment, including but not limited to power transformers, circuit breakers, disconnect switches, AC and DC systems, microprocessor relays, and protection schemes.
• Works with the Central Engineering organization to develop engineering requirements across multiple disciplines and work groups, including but not limited to Standards, SCADA, Protection, Civil, and Design Engineering. Builds relationships that will facilitate knowledge transfer, cross functional knowledge of related work groups, and ability to present work products effectively.
• Identifies all project requirements through collaboration with functional groups across the organization. Works with all project stakeholders to establish an executable project plan, meeting all project requirements and opportunities for improved design recommendations for the assigned project and associated scope of work.
• Assists with a variety of initiatives, including: developing innovative procedures, improving design recommendations, and recommending new or better equipment purchases.
• Provides technical review of financial authorization documentation, including Investment Proposals.
• Ensures that the contractor services and deliverables for all functional groups and project requirements are of the proper quality and obtained in a timely manner to support the required in-service dates.
• Ensures project documents are complete, current, and stored appropriately.
• Educates the business and technical community on Project Development processes. This includes mentoring Project Managers who support substation investment initiatives.
• May be assigned an emergency and storm role. This is a special assignment that comes into play during storms and other emergencies when the company needs to restore power or respond to other issues affecting customer service. This role may necessitate the need to work after-hours, outside of your normal schedule.
• The company reserves the right to determine if this position will be assigned to work on-site, remotely, or a combination of both. Assigned work location may change. In the case of remote work, physical presence in the office/on-site may be required to engage in face-to-face interaction and coordination of work among direct reports and co-workers.
• All other duties and projects as assigned.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

Education

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from an ABET accredited college or university.

Experience

Engineer I: Bachelor's degree in EE.

Engineer II: A minimum of two years’ related experience. Prior experience with engineering in an electric utility.

Engineer III: A minimum of five years’ related experience and a working knowledge of the electric utility industry and regulations. Prior experience with engineering in an electric utility.

Principal Engineer: A minimum of ten years’ related experience and a working knowledge of the electric utility industry and regulations. Prior experience with engineering in an electric utility.

A valid driver's license is required.

Preferred Qualifications

Engineer I: Prior experience with engineering in an electric utility. Engineer in Training Certificate.

Engineer II, III, Principal: Professional Engineer License or Engineer in Training Certificate.