HV tranmission line and substation design to oil & gas industry 2

[mrmojo]

Hi,

I have the opportunity to work for a small consulting company that does HV substation and transmission line design to connect industrial customers to the grid. However I would like to end up working in the oil sands industry (higher pay) where as far as i know most of the electrical work is at lower voltages and is 'in plant' rather than connecting the plant to the grid. How translatable is the HV transmission line/substation work to the type of electrical experience the oil and gas industry demands? I have a bit of electrical experience, but really not much at all so going to the HV stuff would be quite a transition for me in the first place.

Here's a description of the software I'd be using and the tasks I'd be doing in the HV position:

software:

pls cad
skm
arc flash
ps cad

tasks:

all aspects of hv substation design
single line
three line
ac and dc schematics
protective relay coordination & related scada
equipment specification
plan and profile structure and bus layouts

 

[rcw retired EE]

All the refineries and petrochemical plants I worked in had high voltage switchyards and needed someone who understood that equipment.

The software you listed and the experience could be put to use in the oil and gas industry.

But if your next boss in the oil field only needs someone to fill out panel schedules and layout MCC's for a new process plant, your experience may not be applicable.

My experience indicates you would be paid more for the HV substation work than for the MCC work.

Good luck!

 

[cherry2000]

Frankly speaking, your experience will be quite useful in Oil & Gas, provided you choose to work in a firm which executes bigger projects ($2 billion and up). Such plants require extensive system studies, higher voltages and stuff that you would be conversant with. Relay coordination, Arc Flash studies etc are routinely done in such projects. But definitely it will be a mix and match; you will end up with some plant distribution too.