Operations interview prep.

System operators, dispatchers, plant operators, substation + field operators, outage + storm coordinators, operations supervisors + superintendents at vertically-integrated utilities, IOUs, public power, electric cooperatives.

What interviewers look for

  • Does the candidate carry a safety-first reflex - stop-work authority, OSHA 1910.269 + NESC, switching + clearance + tagging discipline?
  • Are they fluent in NERC standards (BAL / TOP / IRO / EOP / PRC / CIP) at depth appropriate for the role?
  • Can they operate the standard tool stack - EMS, SCADA, OMS, GIS, DMS - and read situational awareness from it?
  • Do they handle outage + storm + restoration cleanly - prioritisation, crew coordination, customer ETR discipline?
  • Can they run a shift - handover, fatigue management, 3-part communication, crew briefing, just-culture event review?
  • Are they reliability-metric literate (SAIDI / SAIFI / CAIDI / MAIFI) and link operational decisions to performance?
  • Long-game trajectory - operator / lead / supervisor / superintendent / operations manager + appetite for shift + on-call life?

Behavioural questions to expect

  1. Walk me through your background and electric utility operations experience.

    What it tests: Story arc - training + apprenticeship + ops career + safety + reliability exposure; why operations now.

  2. Tell me about a shift or operational event you've handled.

    What it tests: Situational awareness, safety reflex, decision-making under pressure, reliability discipline.

  3. Why electric utility operations vs other power-systems paths (planning, protection, engineering, generation development)?

    What it tests: Authentic alignment - real-time + safety + reliability mission + shift-work fit.

  4. Why this operations vantage - plant ops vs system / dispatch vs substation / field ops vs distribution operations?

    What it tests: Specificity. Plant ops, dispatch, substation, and distribution operations are markedly different jobs - generic answers fail.

  5. Why this firm?

    What it tests: Real homework - footprint, recent events, reliability posture, culture - not name-drop.

  6. What's your read on our footprint and recent operational events?

    What it tests: Industry literacy - territory, asset mix, recent storms / outages / restorations, reliability performance.

  7. Tell me what you understand about our safety and reliability posture.

    What it tests: Safety + reliability + compliance fluency on this firm's record - OSHA, NERC, state PUC.

  8. Walk me through a complex switching and clearance operation you've coordinated.

    What it tests: Switching + clearance + tagging discipline - safety, procedure rigor, field coordination, 3-part communication.

Technical concepts to master

Safety + standards discipline

OSHA 1910.269
Federal safety standard for electric power generation, transmission, distribution work.
Stop-work authority + just-culture
Every worker can stop the job for unsafe conditions; events reviewed for error / at-risk / reckless without blame for honest error.
3-part communication
Standard utility communication - sender states, receiver repeats back, sender confirms - eliminates ambiguity in switching + dispatch.
NERC standards literacy
BAL / TOP / IRO / EOP / PRC / CIP plus FAC / VAR / COM / PER families - operators must reference fluently.

Real-time operations + reliability

ACE + AGC
Area Control Error = (NIa - NIs) - 10B(Fa - Fs); AGC drives ACE toward zero via regulating units.
Frequency response - primary / secondary / tertiary
Primary = governor response (sec); secondary = AGC (min); tertiary = reserve + dispatch (10-30 min).
N-1 + N-1-1 + IROL / SOL
System must remain within thermal + voltage limits after the next single (and increasingly second) contingency; IROL is the SOL whose violation cascades.
Operating reserves
Spinning, non-spinning, regulating, supplemental, contingency reserves held against disturbances.

Switching + clearance + protection

Switching order + peer-check
Step-by-step procedure to isolate + ground equipment, prepared in advance + peer-reviewed.
Clearance + hold tag + LOTO
Formal authorisation to perform work on de-energised + isolated equipment - hold tag protects against re-energisation.
Protection coordination + relaying
Protective relays clear faults - operators understand zones, coordination, breaker-failure backup.
Synchronising + paralleling
Closing into energised system requires matched voltage + frequency + phase angle.

Outage + storm + restoration

EEA (Energy Emergency Alert) levels
EEA-1 (energy deficiency expected), EEA-2 (load mgmt + appeal), EEA-3 (firm load shed).
OMS-driven restoration prioritisation
Distribution restoration sequence - life-safety + critical care first, then substation > feeder > lateral > service.
Mutual assistance + storm school
Industry-wide mutual aid for major storms - crew sharing under EEI / APPA / NRECA protocols.
Black start + cranking paths
Restoration starts from black-start units (self-starting, no external power) energising cranking paths to other units.

Practical drills

  • A 230 / 69 kV transformer at a 3-transformer substation needs to be removed for a planned replacement. Two parallel transformers will remain in service. Walk through how you build, peer-check, and execute the switching + clearance.
  • A derecho passes through your service territory at 02:00. By 04:00 you have ~180,000 customers out across 35 substations - 3 substations off-line, 22 feeders open, 60+ broken poles reported. You have 120 internal line crews and have requested mutual aid. Walk through your first 12 hours.
  • RTCA flags that loss of the 345 kV line between substations C + D would cause a 138 kV parallel path to exceed its emergency rating by 9% within 5 minutes. Current flow on the 345 kV is 1,400 MW. Walk through your next 15 minutes.

Smart-question anchors

  • Footprint + registered functions - BA / TOP / RC / GO / TO / DOP role + territory + interconnections
  • Reliability metrics + recent events - SAIDI / SAIFI / CAIDI vs benchmark, major storms, EEAs, restoration learnings
  • Safety culture + human-performance program - OSHA recordables, stop-work authority, just-culture maturity
  • NERC + state PUC posture - recent audits + findings, CIP maturity, registered functions, FERC enforcement
  • EMS + SCADA + OMS + ADMS generation - vendor + age + RTCA + state estimator + ADMS / DERMS roadmap

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