Plant Technician - Diagnostic Specialist

NV Energy has served citizens in northern Nevada for over 150 years, and southern Nevada since 1906. Nevada Power, Sierra Pacific Power and Sierra Pacific Resources merged in July 1999 to create one of the fastest growing energy companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Serves as the primary plant contact for the Monitoring & Diagnostics Center (MDC) in support of production assurance. Reviews and evaluates data from the MDC remote monitoring programs to elevate operational and maintenance concerns in the generating fleet. Analyzes operational data and predictive model alerts to identify and categorize plant trends and abnormalities. Advocates for and owns the primary diagnostic tools utilized by the MDC.

Maintains and promotes the MDC diagnostic tools including predictive performance models (Smart Signal, et al) for condition monitoring and equipment diagnostics to improve generating fleet availability and reliability. * Supports safe reliable power generation by delivering MDC analytics, condition assessment, and risk analyses * Provides the “first pass” review of operational items flagged by the MDC for identification of severity * Provides recommendations to plant and asset management based upon review of diagnostic alerts and data * Appropriately classifies alerts using the correct importance and urgency status * Maintains and continually updates diagnostic tools to support Fleet strategy in response to outages, conditions, threats, competition, industry, technology, and fleet trends * Ensures MDC procedures and processes are followed * Engages customers in order to develop tools, products, and services that meet and exceed expectations * Ensure proper analytics are available to support the plant when valuing reliability and predictability * Champions the diagnostic and analytic tools across the Fleet * Identifies monitoring gaps and opportunities and develops alternatives to address * Advocates for changes in policy and procedures based on knowledge and observation of existing systems * Supports MDC engineering staff in developing additional diagnostic and predictive tools * Helps to develop and utilize pre and post-outage checklists to document performance changes and maintain diagnostic tool effectiveness Facilitates information sharing and diagnostic tool competency across the Generating Fleet. Participates in the collaborative, analytic, diagnostic service organization of the MDC in support of the Production, Asset Management and Engineering functions. * Supports and fosters the use of diagnostic tools for predictive, proactive, condition based maintenance supported by analytics * Elevates critical priority items to the Plant, Production and Asset Management teams * Engages Engineering, Asset Management, Production teams and external resources to refine existing and develop new monitoring plans * Reviews and improves the predictive model tools and methods as part of the continuous improvement process * Coordinates with external fleet Original Equipment Manufacturer MDC to track alerts, improve tools, and share best practices * Strives to achieve annual department goals and objectives. Adjusts and adapts to rapidly changing and dynamic environments * Adheres to and utilizes best practices and change management policies * Participates in Outage planning and reviews Effectively communicates MDC observations and analyses, including lessons learns, best practices, and root cause analysis. * Nurtures strong relationships with internal and external partners * Documents and follows through on all alerts through completion and closure * Coaches / advises plant personnel in diagnostic tool use Performs related duties as assigned.

**Education and Work Experience** * Bachelor’s degree and 6 or more years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience. **Specialized Knowledge and Skills** * Advanced knowledge of power plant operation and processes. Proficient at process troubleshooting through data and trend interpretation, including use of process information software. Working knowledge of and/or exposure to process control fundamentals such as loop design and tuning. Ability to read Piping and Instrumentation Drawings. Excellent oral and written communication skills. **Equipment and Applications** * Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite. Varied knowledge of technologies, analytic tools, process information software, data historian software, plant instrumentation, and condition based maintenance methods/systems.