Mechanical Engineer

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Job Purpose:

Provide support for process improvements, performance monitoring, root cause analysis, engineering and construction activities, and operating and maintenance functions to ensure safe and efficient plant operation.

Emphasis:  Balance of Plant, PDM

Essential Functions:

• Provide direction to operations and maintenance departments to insure that plant equipment remains reliable. This includes both technical and financial decisions which impact the overall unit availability and cost control.
• Provide technical support, testing and inspection expertise within their assigned process areas to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient plant operation.
• Optimize station equipment operation to meet key performance indicators
• Develop O&M and Capital budgets for the process equipment. Assemble ten year plans and budgets for projects to establish accurate projected cash flows out into the future.
• Develop strategic plans for equipment overhauls to optimize equipment life and time between overhauls.  
• Develop outage schedules, coordinate and perform outage inspections for all process equipment.
• Utilize predictive and preventative maintenance (PM/PDM) techniques to monitor and improve equipment. Evaluate and analyze process variables to identify status and trending of key operating parameters.
• Conduct root cause analysis of equipment problems and provide recommendations to prevent future incidents. Assemble all equipment failure reports.
• Develop, review & revise station procedures & technical instructions and documentation of equipment testing and inspections.
• Provide engineering, design, economic justification, and specify parts and materials for projects and modifications. Implement projects and process modifications.
• Conduct or procure training as required within their process.
• Interface with outside engineering resources on an “as-needed” basis.

• Work effectively in a team environment as a leader, member and/or facilitator.
• Perform other duties and assignments as required.

Essential Functions for Emphasis:

Rotating Equipment:

• Overall operation and maintenance of large rotating equipment including but not limited to: bearing operation and maintenance, precision alignment of rotating equipment couplings, vibration analysis and balancing, and non-destructive examination techniques for materials.
• Knowledge of the operation and maintenance of large pumps and associated systems such as high volume/low head circulating water pumps, multi-stage vertical pit pumps, multi-stage high head boiler feed pumps, and other simpler pump applications.
• Knowledge and experience in performing vibration analysis on typical equipment used at a power plant.
• Experienced in collecting and analyzing thermography data on collected electrical as well as mechanical equipment and use analysis results to provide recommendations to repair/maintain plant equipment.
• Knowledge and experience in oil analysis, which includes lubricating oils used in power plant equipment, such as turbines, gearboxes, fluid drives and transformers.
• Must be able to collect and analyze motor current data and use the analysis results to provide recommendations to repair/maintain motors.
• Experience in rotating equipment balancing, which includes in situ balancing as well as component balancing using a balance stand.

BOP:

• Knowledge of the concepts, construction, and operation of the turbine process steam cycle as it relates to a fossil steam power plant including basic thermodynamics.
• Experience in maintenance and operation of all plant air supply systems, including station air, instrument air, and sootblowing air where applicable.
• Knowledge and experience of service water systems, including low pressure systems, high pressure systems, closed cooling water systems, domestic (potable) water systems and circulating water systems.
• Experience in the operation and maintenance of various fire protection systems used at a power plant.
• Knowledge and experience in facilities management, which includes station heating, cooling, ventilation, plumbing and building envelope repairs.
• Operations and maintenance of dust control technologies such as dust collection bag houses, dust transport systems, dust suppression systems, and passive dust control technologies.
• Experience managing small to large outages, including specification development, station representative during installation, coordinate start-up and testing.
• Experience in performing inspections on fans, pumps, ash handling systems, soot blowing equipment.

Boiler:

• General knowledge in applicable codes and repair methods on boilers and high energy piping (ASME, NBIC.etc.)
• Knowledge in Non-Destructive Examinations (NDE).
• Provide technical oversight on contractors during outages to ensure proper QA/QC procedures are followed.
• Knowledge in coal mill and boiler operation, inspections, maintenance and performance testing.

 QUALIFICATION GUIDELINES

Any combination equivalent to, but not limited to, the following:

Required:

Engineering or Technical Degree with a minimum of five years experience in technical support of plant processes. Extensive work related experience may be substituted for Engineering or technical degree.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Thorough understanding of Power Plant processes and equipment and the interrelationships between them.
• Ability to effectively supervise, train and direct others (peers, employees, contractors/vendors) in an understandable, clear and consistent manner
• Ability to read and understand technical information, prints and engineering data, interpret charts, graphs, and gauge scales. Ability to troubleshoot and repair equipment and systems.
• Risk management - able to make good judgment on utilization of sometimes limited resources.
• General to thorough knowledge in root cause analysis and proficient in technical report writing.
• Proficient in the use of PC, and Windows & Microsoft Office applications with particular emphasis on spreadsheet, scheduling, equipment performance and word processing programs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions:

• This position is a combination of work in office and industrial settings. 
• Must be able to wear required personal protection equipment (PPE) such as hard hats, safety glasses, goggles, face shields, hearing protection, respirators, fall protection harnesses, and other PPE as required.

• Duties require extensive manual dexterity in usage of computer terminal and keyboard, while sitting for long periods of time preparing budgets, work scopes, outage schedules, and other reports as needed.
• May be required to perform equipment inspections by climbing vertical ladders in excess of 20 feet and stairways in excess of 50 feet, using step stool, kneeling, bending, walking over uneven surfaces such as loose rock, open grating, up and down staircases.
• May also be required to operate mobile equipment such as zoom booms or scissor lifts to reach heights to inspect equipment, which includes pushing or pulling equipment into place, climbing into a basket, and riding in the basket while the equipment is operation.
• The compartments where certain equipment may be located may exceed temperatures of 130°F.

• May be required to prepare and conduct training, including mentoring individuals one-on-one.  In conducting training, the specialist may be required to carry training materials, and to stand for extended periods of time.
• This position may require some domestic travel.

(Management reserves the right to change, rescind, add, or delete the duties and responsibilities of positions within the job classification at any time.)

Salary offered will be commensurate with the successful candidate’s education and/or experience and consistent with the job location’s market pay rate.

NRG Energy is committed to a drug and alcohol-free workplace. To the extent permitted by law and any applicable collective bargaining agreement, employees are subject to periodic random drug testing, and post-accident and reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing. EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability. Level, Title and/or Salary may be adjusted based on the applicant's experience or skills.

Official description on file with Talent.