Principal Power Plant Engineer

Job Summary

The Klamath Cogeneration Project is a 500 MW state-of-the-art gas-fired combined cycle cogeneration facility and a 100 MW Peaking Facility adjacent to the City of Klamath Falls, Oregon. These facilities operate as a flexible dispatch combined cycle merchant plant and a fast start peaking plant supplying power to California and the Pacific Northwest, as well as steam to the adjacent Collins Products manufacturing facility.

Key Responsibilities

• Day-to-day operations management of the facility in a safe, environmentally compliant, and fuel-efficient manner.
• Recruiting, testing, training, development and direct supervision of approximately 10 multi-skilled plant operations technicians.
• Covers coordination with Asset Management and Trading staff in Portland and Plant O&M staff in Klamath to implement daily and/or hourly production targets, and ensure these targets are achieved in a safe and environmentally compliant manner.
• Ensures a continuous supply of steam is safely delivered to host Collins in the most economical method practicable.
• Has a leadership role in plant safety program and at times participates in knowledge sharing with other operational groups such as the wind and gas storage businesses.
• Ensures the plant-wide computerized maintenance management system is utilized by plant operations.
• Covers coordination of plant staff, outside contractors and OEM's to minimize O&M costs and optimize plant availability and reliability.
• Responsible for operations coordination of scheduled and unscheduled outages.
• Assists in the planning and execution of the operations portion of the facility O&M budget and provides input to the plant maintenance budget.
• Responsible for the monitoring of facility heat rate, operating performance of plant equipment, and taking action when necessary to optimize overall facility performance.
• Responsible for identification and cost-benefit analyses of plant betterment projects that improve plant efficiency, reduce O & M costs, or both.
• Takes input for modifications and alterations that are required to conform to new or unique demands by corporate, plant requirements or regulatory agencies.
• Affords assistance in the addition or modification of computer controls to improve operational functionality of the facility.
• Plans, manages and executes the design, engineering, procurement and construction of new projects.
• Takes manager on call duties on a rotating basis.

Additional Responsibilities

• Perform as team leader and be responsible for the safe and proper operation of the plant.
• Some duties include: work order oversight, coordination of maintenance activity, efficient operation of the plant, maintaining proper water chemistry and supervising Operations Technicians.
• Responsible for the operations activities for environmental permit compliance.
• Continually evaluate and prioritize plant conditions (steady- state, transient, & upset) and act to control, contain, and restore plant operations in a safe, appropriate, and environmentally compliant manner.
• Maintain monitoring of plant emissions and discharges and act to maintain compliance with all applicable laws, permits, provisions and orders.
• Responsible for analyzing individual performance of Operations Technicians and providing guidance and feedback.
• Develop a fundamental understanding of the merchant power business, and utilize that knowledge in decision-making, suggesting changes, or improvements to the overall plant operation.
• Communicate regularly with Avangrid Power energy and asset management representatives, and on-site staff to optimize plant generation and achieve heat rate targets.
• Responsible for capturing, analyzing, validating, interpreting and reporting all production data and statistics, both internal and external, as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering is required.
• Minimum 3 years management experience in power generation or related field required.
• Experience in power plant combined cycle operations is required.
• Management skills including the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities, implement mission-critical programs, set expectations for and follow up with staff, recommend and oversee improvement of plant specific processes and systems.
• Ability to perform and coordinate root cause analysis of plant/equipment problems and to implement corrective action, in a timely, safe and cost-effective manner.
• Experienced in contract management and administration.
• Ability to fulfill all customer expectations in an economical manner.
• Ability to solicit and utilize 360° input, get buy-in, and, at times, be able to make decisions alone with the commensurate degree of urgency while maintaining an overall sense of ownership and teamwork within the organization.
• This includes being in the "Manager-on-call" rotation.
• Decisions regularly affect the achievement of plant objectives, efficiency, morale, and financial performance.
• Possess a high level of system and integrated process knowledge of power generation equipment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years power plant experience, 10 or more years is preferred.
• 10 years power plant experience.
• Computerized maintenance management systems.
• Plant and turbine distributed control systems.
• Boiler and Cooling Tower water chemistry.
• Environmental Permits, regulations and compliance reporting.
• Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Word, Access, Outlook).

Additional Success Factors

• Ability to foster and participate in a productive team environment by establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with co-workers, managers, customers, contractors, and vendors.
• Ability to analyze project risks and proactively identify solutions with a flexible, creative, and solution-focused outlook on problem solving.
• Maintains effectiveness during procedural/organizational changes and when dealing with varying personality styles and tasks.
• Effectively provides and receives information orally in individual and group situations.
• Written expression is clear, concise, and conveys the desired message.
• Ability to navigate and succeed in a highly matrixed reporting structure, preferably at an international company.
• Competencies Growth & Continuous Improvement Initiative & Change Focused on Results Customer Centric (internal and/or external) Communication Collaboration Leadership (people managers/leaders)