Planning Engineer Responsibility 3

[sobeys81]

Hi All,

I am sure there are people on the forum working in utilities. I was wondering, if any one of you could kindly put a word for the job responsibilities for a planning engineer.

I am trying to find out if I am a fit for this kind of position.

Thanks

 

[magoo2]

We put some words together on this question some time ago. See if this helps.

Planning is an art that requires much more than excellent technical expertise and knowledge of the distribution system. A planning engineer, while having top-notch engineering skills and analytical skills, must also:
• Understand project management, and probability and statistical analysis.
• Understand the behavior of government and business and their impact on utility operations.
• Have good communication skills. They will be required to educate and influence other utility personnel.
• Be motivated champions of their plans. They need to speak out clearly on issues of importance.
• Be well trained in the management of their resources.
• Be willing to compromise. There are non-engineering factors that sometimes outweigh pure economics and dictate changes to the plan, however perfect, it’s engineering.

The distribution planning engineer has two primary functions:
• to develop a program which provides for orderly and timely modifications to the electric system to insure an adequate, economical, reliable and universal supply of electric power to all customers.
• to maintain a substantial level of involvement in the operation of the installed system to insure the maximum asset utilization and return on our existing facilities.

Hopefully we'll get some feedback from other companies to see if they agree with what I wrote.

 

[slavag]

Magoo. !!!!!!!
GREAT.
Best Regards.
Slava

 

[sobeys81]

Magoo2,
Great explanation. I wonder I have all these things. I just have few years after school.

Thanks.

 

[magoo2]

soybeys81,

I should have said these are our expectations for planning engineers that have been in the job a few years. It also gives you a feel for the nature of the work involved.

If you have a desire to make use of your engineering background, like to work with people and enjoy variety in your work, I'd encourage you to pursue it further.

 

[sobeys81]

Thanks Magoo2.

 

[QBplanner]

Planning engineers in the old time did't have to deal with these thing mentioned above especially for bulk transmisison planning.

• Understand project management, and probability and statistical analysis. (The least useful tool for planning and actually none of the transmission project can be justified by P&S. However, these became a tide in North America and I saw almost every utility has some many so called themseleves "planning engineers" talking about P&S everyday without knowing how the system works)
• Understand the behavior of government and business and their impact on utility operations.[Nuisness destroy the planning and make north America had the third world class transmisson network]
• Have good communication skills. They will be required to educate and influence other utility personnel.[THis no -doubt a fact since I saw a lot of planning engineers with excellent communcation skills but don't know what tey really talk about every time when they give out the presentation]
• Be motivated champions of their plans. They need to speak out clearly on issues of importance.[Now s days with non-experts lead experts, engineers are not allowed to speak out otherwise....]
• Be well trained in the management of their resources.[Agreed]
• Be willing to compromise. There are non-engineering factors that sometimes outweigh pure economics and dictate changes to the plan, however perfect, it's engineering. [This only apply to some B.S. issues for major concerns you should never compromise.]


From what I can see these must be the requirements from a manager level of people which don't really know what planning means.

 

[getshorty]

The vast majority of the system expansion alternatives that you pour your life into studying and developing never get built. This is due to many factors such as costs, obtaining rights-of-way for lines, getting permits or maybe the project driver (such as integrating a new generator) goes away. So if this part of the job (fully developing system expansion alternatives that don't move forward) is a problem for you then seriously re-think a "career" in planning.

Capacity margins have been shrinking over the years and while the transmission lines keep the system out of much trouble planning AND building new lines is extremely challenging.

 

[QBplanner]

Planning means iteration otherwise it is design.
Some projects planned never get built some planned may take 10-20 years to build.It is very common in planning career.

in the past 30 years e.p.in North America, no major transmission upgrades have been done. So the people in the past 30 years lacked the real experiences of how to develop the system. "extremely challenging", you bet. cause nobody really understand how to plan the system.The very best people who developed the WECC/NWPP or others area were either passed away or more than 75-80 years old.Young engineers talk about probability and statistical analysis everyday.
People are more like market, business.
"system expansion alternatives " u are right, because it is always easy to expand a system other than build a system from scratch.