Future electricians are learning from our tutors

It is a program that E-Distribuție Muntenia launched in 2018, in partnership with the Bucharest Technical College of Power Engineering. The Ministry of Energy and other distinguished guests in the energy field attended the launching event of this program, for the very reason that training young people in various trades is very important for the whole system, for the country. At the end of the three years of school, graduates obtain the qualification of “power station, electric substations and network electrician” and they can immediately start working in the field. In 2019, we have also expanded the program in Hunedoara County, where E-Distribuție Banat will support a dual class at “Dragomir Hurmuzescu” Power Engineering High School in Deva.

The dual class is a form of training expanding over 3 years, where the number of practical training increases every year – during the first year of training, it represents 20%, while during the third it can reach 70%. The company’s support means that the state scholarship is doubled and that the pupil’s other needs are funded – equipment, meals, travels and so on. However, the part that most involves our colleagues is the practical training - hours of tutoring throughout the school year and an intensive period of exercises and presentations during the summer holiday. Yes, we’ve shortened their summer holiday a bit, but we hope it was worth it and that they forgave us for it!

How much can you learn within three weeks?

The practical training of the 28 audacious students was set by the project management team, made up of Laura Burcuș and Camelia Dumitru, from the company’s human resources department, and Raluca Cocuz, Sustainability Department, alongside the technical department specialists who agreed to join the program. Of course, form master Carmen Anghel didn’t desert the youngsters and accompanied them in some of the activities. They also had the support of the partners who offered other training perspectives, such as the Alternative University and Young Engineers.

The apprentices visited the training station (the “polygon”) in Chitila and other units in neighboring areas (Obor, Snagov), even the headquarters, where they attended quite untechnical activities – they thought about what questions they’d ask an electrician as part of an interview and they passed a lot of personal development and team work exercises. On the technical part, first and foremost, they received the safety training, because safety is extremely important in our company. They even tested the VR (virtual reality) simulator we use, so as to render risk situations as realistically as possible, an excellent learning opportunity. They talked about an electrical plant wiring diagram, they observed and practiced various maneuvers that the intervention teams perform and they became acquainted with all sorts of pieces of equipment – e.g., they had the opportunity to analyze a dismantled MV/LV transformer and could thus see what it is made of and how it works.

Who are the tutors training the apprentices?

Virgil Octavian Roșca is one of the engineers involved in the selection of the activities meant to inspire future electricians. He also is involved in the training of the electrician teams representing the three E-Distribuție companies in the most notorious competition of the type in Romania, “Electrician’s Trophy”. He is really happy to be part of a team alongside the best electricians in the company and build together strategies to win the competition, successfully passing the complex national level practical tests. Without great teams that work good together, it would have been impossible for us to actually win the great prize, the Electrician’s Trophy in the past two years (2018 and 2019), in the electricity distribution category, wouldn’t it? There’s a long way between the first dual class year and the Trophy, but the ambition to get there is a first step!

Other colleagues who devised or coordinated activities were Jean Anastasiu (tutor), Gheorghe Eduard Constantin, Vincenzo Di Luozzo, Costin Alexandru Gheorghe, Emil Iancu, Giovanni Iavarone, Aurel Ilie, Ștefan Mircea Iliescu, Ionuț Isopescu, Lucian Lupulescu, Cristian Lilian Miu, Dan Miu, Mihai Pârvu, Răzvan Pislaru, Vlad Plaiasu, Carmeno Savu, Mihai Stancu, Bogdan Teleaga (tutor), Octavian Mihai Vangu. We would like to thank them and all those whom we might have failed to mention.

The story of Lucian Lupulescu, a young engineer who became a tutor

Lucian first met the students last year, when they visited Chitila station, before the start of the school year. He was taken by surprise – “Lucian, why don’t you deliver the presentation!”, but it was no problem for him to present the installations, because he knows them all so well.

This summer he returned with them in the same location, but this time, the students were already informed. They ended up answering themselves most questions they had for Lucian. He explained the more complicated things, gave them a detailed presentation of the installations and introduced them to the equipment we use in our company. There were two practical exercises: earth plate measurements and medium voltage cell maneuvers – with no hazards associated, because the equipment is not energized, it is only there for training purposes. This is a place we use to train new, current and third party (contractor) employees operating on our networks.

Lucian was impressed by the interaction he had with them and thinks some of them should actually continue their training and become foremen or even engineers. So he hopes he will get to work with them in the future, as electricians. If so, when employed, they will first go through an accommodation phase, which applies for all our new colleagues – they are first observers and accompany the teams on-site to watch and learn. The next step is to become an maneuver operator, in which case they go to the intervention site alongside a team leader and then they can become team leaders themselves. Lucian has accepted the tutor role because he is aware of the need for young people to join the experienced electricians.

What else does a good technician need, in addition to technical knowledge? In the young engineer’s opinion, two things are essential: ethics and safety. After school, you learn a lot at the workplace. It is very important that one has sound principles, to help you resist, for instance, proposals such as repairing the client’s indoor equipment during work hours, in exchange for an amount of money. Such practices are not tolerated in our distribution companies. And in so far as the compliance with the safety rules is concerned, Lucian insists on the safety culture. It is not enough for an electrician to repair something or replace a meter, he has to do that using the suitable safety equipment and procedures – and requesting his colleagues to do the same (helmet, gloves etc.). Imposing this culture was not at all an easy tasks; it is quite hard to change people’s ways, but things have developed gradually with the help of our new colleagues as well. The safety we are talking about does not only concern our employees, but also our customers. Electricians learn to delimit the works area, so as to make sure that as few pedestrians as possible are affected or to inform if they notice broken cables, for instance, when such faults are caused by storms, snow or other extreme weather conditions.

The stages of the workflow in the case of faults. A very important piece of equipment in the case of faults caused by weather or various other factors, which Lucian has presented to the students, is the remotely controlled separator. It is one of the reasons why our distribution companies have the best SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) performance indicators in the country, always scoring below the national average over the recent years. He explained them the role this equipment plays in “removing the incidents” for medium voltage. Before, someone had to go actuate the separator, but now that can be done remotely, with a click. The effect is that you isolate the affected area from the fault and you can reenergize the equipment, so that customers are almost entirely unaffected by the consequences of the failure, and then you can remedy the whole thing, without the pressure of time. This is possible and frequently happens in Bucharest, where there is a loop electrical network and these supply route changes are feasible.

Problem-solving passion. Lucian is 30 and he’s been working with E-Distribuție Muntenia for 7. He got a job here after he graduated from The Faculty of Power Engineering within the Politehnica University, during his first master’s study year. He was trained here and, in time, he changed positions, this already is his fourth.

His first job was within the Inspection Department, where he calculated the quantities of energy to be recovered following losses (energy theft, faulty meters and other causes). Initially, he went on the field with his colleagues, and then he became a team leader - he replaced meters and constantly drafted findings reports when he noticed irregularities, while other times he worked behind a desk and made energy recovery calculations.

He then became part of the Network Department, as engineer, in a unit in Ilfov, where, for almost 3 years, he coordinated electricians and foremen who also were into the metering business – meter installation and reading and so on. Later on, he was offered a management position in Buftea, as center head. This center manages a clearly delimited part of the network. He coordinated the activities corresponding to a network that comprised about 700 transformer posts and covered Buftea, Corbeanca, Snagov, Mogoșoaia and other neighboring areas, serving about 70,000 customers. A beautiful area, which he very much enjoyed, especially in spring, when everything was green and he had to go perform the inspection and acceptance of a new installation. He was 26-27 at the time. How did he manage to be taken seriously? He relied on collaboration – he is not the bossy type, but, instead, always finds a way to get along well with the people he manages, 30, at the time.

Good teamwork is essential in crisis situations. Surprising or not, these were the situations he most enjoyed, because that’s when he learnt most. Once the problems were solved, he calculated the number of faults and the time it took to remedy them, so as to be able to improve in the future, and then talked about them with his team. The strategy one chooses for interventions is very important – for instance, he knows that you waste most time on the road to the fault site, so that is why he used to group his teams as efficiently as he could. These are stressful times, because many households are affected, being left in the dark for a certain amount of time. In order to make sure they get their power on as quickly as possible, you have to work as efficiently as feasible. “Here’s how I see things: if there’s a challenge, you’ll most certainly learn something out of it. Without challenges, there’s nothing to learn from.”

He was then transferred to another center, this time in Bucharest North. Things are quite different here – he coordinates the team and manages a network supplying more than 200,000 customers. The network also is different – while Buftea had overhead cables, here, most of them are underground. Greater responsibility is involved and there’s a large number of new installations, new assemblies that are connected to the network and have high energy demands - office buildings, residential projects. In an ideal scenario, if he knew what the development plans in the area are, he could know the power demand for the future. But that’s just wishful thinking.

There is, for instance, the matter of the customers who purchased apartments in the newly built buildings, where developers have not completed the connection process, but instead, maintained the “site organization” status and use temporary meters for the dwellers. This is a risky situation, because fires may occur, and when the teams notice such irregularities they must disconnect the customers.

The shapes of the passion for the trade. If as a child, the second day after he received a toy he dismantled it to see how it works and he had a whole collection of watches he’d dismantled and was unable to repair, during his high school years, he participated in the electronics school competition. And now that he’s been an engineer for almost 7 years, one might think he’s found some better uses for his spare time than to think about cables, transformers and other such didoes. Well, guess what? He hasn’t. When I’ve asked him about his recent trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam his answer was: “Energy-wise, you mean?” It seems that even when on holiday he takes pictures of the electrical equipment he sees, because he can’t but notice them; it happens to him on all trips, it’s the curse of the job. In Thailand he saw overhead transformers very close to office buildings, which is both risky and unaesthetic. He believes the network lagged behind the urban development, while, in our case, things are different. Even if it is an incremental process, the electrical network E-Distribuție manages is constantly upgraded.

Our choices inspire people? Whether we are engineers or dual class freshmen, a carrier in the energetic field might bring us a lot of joy. We would like to wish the best of luck to all of those who are training to become part of a community of people with a passion for the trade, witnessing the result of their work each and every day!