Operations interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background and electric utility operations experience.
2. Tell me about a shift or operational event you've handled.
3. Why electric utility operations vs other power-systems paths (planning, protection, engineering, generation development)?
4. Why this operations vantage - plant ops vs system / dispatch vs substation / field ops vs distribution operations?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our footprint and recent operational events?
7. Tell me what you understand about our safety and reliability posture.
8. Walk me through a complex switching and clearance operation you've coordinated.

Technical concepts to master

• Safety + standards discipline

  OSHA 1910.269 · Stop-work authority + just-culture · 3-part communication · NERC standards literacy · Operator certification + ongoing training (PER-005)

• Real-time operations + reliability

  ACE + AGC · Frequency response - primary / secondary / tertiary · N-1 + N-1-1 + IROL / SOL · Operating reserves · Reliability metrics - SAIDI / SAIFI / CAIDI / MAIFI

• Switching + clearance + protection

  Switching order + peer-check · Clearance + hold tag + LOTO · Protection coordination + relaying · Synchronising + paralleling · Special Protection Schemes (SPS / RAS)

• Outage + storm + restoration

  EEA (Energy Emergency Alert) levels · OMS-driven restoration prioritisation · Mutual assistance + storm school · Black start + cranking paths · After-action review + EOP updates

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

Sourced from

NERC Reliability Standards (BAL / TOP / IRO / EOP / PRC / CIP / FAC / VAR / COM / PER) · OSHA 1910.269 + NESC (IEEE C2) · NERC System Operator Certification + PER-005 training program · FERC + ISO / RTO operating procedures (PJM, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO, SPP, NYISO, ISO-NE) · IEEE 1366 reliability indices + state PUC reliability reporting · NERC Event Analysis + DOE OE-417 emergency reports + EEI / APPA / NRECA mutual-aid playbooks