Plant Engineer - Boiler Specialist

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: Boiler and High Energy Piping Systems

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 steam cycle equipment.
• Utilize predictive and preventative maintenance (PM/PDM) techniques and non-destructive examination data (NDE) to evaluate boiler and piping repair plans.
• 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:

Boiler Engineering:

• Understanding of the boiler construction materials and inspection techniques as applied to reliable operation including ASME BPV code, ASME B31.1 etc.
• Develop plans using past inspections and recommendations from the boiler OEM, plant inspections and failure analyses.
• Support the ongoing inspections and repairs of the High Energy Piping and Flow Accelerated Corrosion programs.
• Verify boiler contractors welding processes and inspection requirements meet standards.

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:

• 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 and 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.