What is the hype with Power engineering?

[Sledhead71]

Originally Posted by Sparx

Some people don't like to tinker and leave things as they are, I really enjoy trying to get the best out the plant reliably. When other's are happy pumping out 4000m3/day of product I'll strive to make tweaks and get it to 4200m3/day.
I treat it no different then tuning a sled, you either have that drive for perfection or you don't. Yeah some days I just wanna ride, and some days at work I would rather just coast on by, that's life.

I take pride when I can do something easy other operators sometimes struggle with. We all have our strengths and weakness'.

Working on the panel can be pretty intimidating to many operators, I like the challenge of plant upsets to keep me busy and help the shift pass on by. I would never have believed before working the panel that you could go home more tired then having done field work all day up and down stairs and ladders isolating valves all day. The mental stress and fatigue is surprising if you never have experienced it before. One thing to have alarms go off, but the ceiling tiles rattling as PSV's lifting sending out a 100,000 scfh of gas out the flare always gets the heart going pretty good. A lot of people panic and lock up not knowing what to do.

Pretty easy in field positions to be done your readings and put your feet up waiting for a call to come in. On the panel your always standing guard clicking the mouse away all shift trying to stay on top of the plant. It can be as simple as just starting and stopping fans all day or pushing the plant to it's limits and creeping processes until they become unstable to bring maximum efficiency of the equipment. Yet again, it's like being your own boss at times deciding when you wanna push the envelope or just to sit back and let the plant go through it's cycles and coast through.

Nice part about being a PE is all the different jobs you can do. Power generation, refineries, water treatment, list goes on. Big plants you can bounce through them all at times like I did at Suncor's Powerhouse like a rotation scheme which was a nice change.

Sparx, the way you describe your "pushing" the envelope in operating the iron is not optimization.. Lifting PRV's is not something to be proud of, these are the last line of defence to protect against over pressure situation... '

What do you do when you lift your PRV's ?

[Sparx]

Originally Posted by Sledhead71

Sparx, the way you describe your "pushing" the envelope in operating the iron is not optimization.. Lifting PRV's is not something to be proud of, these are the last line of defence to protect against over pressure situation... '

What do you do when you lift your PRV's ?

Totally taken out of context. There was a differentiation between operating and upsets I was talking about. Never ever do you operate until you lift a PRV. When your inlet/outlet valves slam in an upset due an ESDD from an improper card being pulled on a SIS system in a maintenance PM, that'll happen.

I'm confused though you say you hold a ticket but seem so lost in operations talk to think you would ever operate to a point of lifting PRV's? So many people with snarky remarks in here that talk like they have experience and some even with tickets seem so clueless somehow to me. Kinda scary like them guys putting in work orders cause the boilers sound funny? LOL

[Sledhead71]

Originally Posted by Sparx

Totally taken out of context. There was a differentiation between operating and upsets I was talking about. Never ever do you operate until you lift a PRV. When your inlet/outlet valves slam in an upset due an ESDD from an improper card being pulled on a SIS system in a maintenance PM, that'll happen.

I'm confused though you say you hold a ticket but seem so lost in operations talk to think you would ever operate to a point of lifting PRV's? So many people with snarky remarks in here that talk like they have experience and some even with tickets seem so clueless somehow to me. Kinda scary like them guys putting in work orders cause the boilers sound funny? LOL

You explain your upset above but not in the previous post, that one you blow your own horn and pat yourself on the back for your exceptional skills

You mind responding to the question I ask on the upset ?

[Sparx]

Originally Posted by Sledhead71

You explain your upset above but not in the previous post, that one you blow your own horn and pat yourself on the back for your exceptional skills

You mind responding to the question I ask on the upset ?

What are you getting at, be more specific. The PRV's are on a service scheduled PM. I mitigate the plant upset to allow the PRV's to close which is to rectify the over pressure situation. Have you ever worked with PRV's in an LNG process before?

If your asking if every single PSV is replaced everytime they lifted at every plant I ever worked at the question is no, not until they were scheduled to within the regulations.
Couldn't tell you how much I ever heard the 50# safety's lift in the Powerhouse at Suncor when I worked there. Everyone waiting up at admin for the buses would have a better idea. It wasn't an operational issue either, supply and demand issue.
Keep trying to knock me down a peg or two if that's what really toot's your horn. I think your better off looking at tags on safety's instead of operating at this point, please don't try and exercise your ticket anywhere near an LNG plant. You wouldn't have a clue what goes on in a plant like this, let alone how to operate it.

[Sledhead71]

Sparx,

No sense continuing with this discussion.

[Off in the Bushes]

Sparx,
If your personality is anything like it comes across in this conversation you must be a real gem to work with. I feel for your partner that has to work 12 hrs with you.

[ESOXangler]

He's basically the embodiment of every cliche we laugh about in lunchrooms across the province. We all need heros, for some its themselves!

[Sparx]

Funny part is from what was described in this thread not one of you guys are operators but all feel an entitlement to understand the position better than anyone that is and know me so well from a single thread.

I would honestly place a wager on that remark cause I get along really well with the majority of the operators and especially maintenance cause I have a clue with what I'm talking about. Millwright and I are always talking amongst ourselves when it comes to troubleshooting the mechanical upsets on equipment. I don't talk smalk about something that isn't my place unlike you guys.

This thread turned about job satisfaction, sorry if you guys took my pride in describing so personally like I think I'm king *****. I'm confident in my abilities but not afraid to ask for help and know better then to think I know it all.

It is however all your guys opinions to think as you wish, have fun with that and whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside at the end of the day.

[Off in the Bushes]

You truely don't get it.
It's not about the job satisfaction component of this thread its the way you talk to people. Telling them not to comment, that they have no idea, they aren't a Power Engineer. Evading questions asked etc, talking about things out of your scope, etc.

[Sparx]

Originally Posted by Off in the Bushes

You truely don't get it.
It's not about the job satisfaction component of this thread its the way you talk to people. Telling them not to comment, that they have no idea, they aren't a Power Engineer. Evading questions asked etc, talking about things out of your scope, etc.

And you guys don't get it either. To get respect you give respect. If you talk condescending to a person don't expect a polite reply back, simple as that.
If you want a question answered, ask it in detail, not so generically.
You know you guys were the one's complaining the lack in detail in work orders presented to you? Well you aren't doing much better when your asking me to reply in such a generic question. It's all in how you look at things, just letting you guys know it's okay if we don't see eye to eye. Lol

I don't avoid questions, I may forget to answer them. And when asked I tried to reply but you guys avoided to fulfill your end of the deal in providing more detail. You guys are simply kicking around trying to point out anything negative and wrong in anything I do, so I do agree this thread is done and going anywhere anymore.

[TBark]

Let's start a poll on who gets the last word in here.
Geesh.

TBark

[HeavyD111]

Probably won't be me, but I just realized it is Taco Tuesday! Good times for the hungry PE.

[sirmike68]

Its a great career if you can manage to get into it. Great pay and time off but dangerous as hell at times. My job satisfaction comes at the end of every shift when the crew walks out safely on the way home to their families and the company has made millions. The pay cheque that follows is nice to but well deserved. Ever seen a 2600 psi H2 let down valve positioner fail? Not a pretty sight when a 14" heavy wall alloy pipe is leaping around off the saddles, unnaturally snaking around and you have to go in and stop it or armageddon is going to start. Sure the day to day operations is for the most part routine but its the un-routine stuff that can destroy things and kill people and that's when you need to know your stuff and if you are a weak OP that is when it will show. Thank God or Allah or whoever that its not to often and to the tradesmen that build these places.

[58thecat]

Great trade to get into, can be used outside of the oil and gas sector. Stepping stone to get into a company and grow from there...

[HeavyD111]

Like has been said, he trick is getting in somewhere. Have read many times "get your 2nd and all is good"...true, but finding a place to get the necessary steam time much less finishing all the exams can be more than a little difficult. Hopefully things will change but now it seems the jobs want a ton of specific experience with a high level or are building op jobs. Nothing wrong with running a hotel or whatever, but most kf the time the steam time to climb the PE classes just isnt there, and all people considering this deal should be aware it can be a tough go.