but I like most about my job is I will
get to work with some extraordinary
people on a complex system it's a
challenging job every day it's something
new feel like a part of something I feel
like that I'm needed because I'm helping
the community out in the city out of the
providing power for pretty much
everybody in the college for a marriage
when I hire a plant system operator or
plant system operator apprentice at
Martin Drake the things I look for are a
strong mechanical aptitude guys
understand whole system pictures as well
as being able to get into the details of
equipment look for possible past
experiences in heavy industry it's also
very helpful people that have had
military experience in particular Navy
nuclear operations Air Force power
production those types of individuals
have a pretty good head start when they
come to the power plant to operate our
systems I'm a plant systems operator at
Martin Drake facility our routine during
the daily basis is we come in for a
shift turnover for the first 15 to 30
minutes of the day we go over the past
shifts major issues or major happenings
that happen during the day just to make
sure we're caught up and our
understanding and everything that's
going on then the first actual things we
do in the plant we go out and make our
original first set of rounds they're all
pretty detailed set of rounds you want
to make sure you're putting hands on all
pieces of equipment when you check for
oil flows for temperature for pressures
for vibrations and then after our first
set of rounds normally we have
clearances come in which is our lockout
tagout process and then once the
clearances come in we normally it's
about lunchtime we set out for lunch and
the rest of the day is just solving
issues and problems that happen in the
plant
the things you'll experience on the job
definitely extreme working temperatures
whether it's real cold outside or real
warm up in the steam drum we'll get a
couple hundred degrees in there um as
far as other hazards and then there's
definitely electricity that you got to
be aware of steam high powered steam
high pressure high temperature there's
also a lot of hot noises and a lot of
loud noises around the plant we have to
wear protection you have to be able to
deal with the loud noises you have to be
able to communicate on your radio
concisely to make sure everybody can
understand what you're saying
working in high elevations working and
confined spaces to where you're in small
areas lots of tools that we use on this
job would be small hand tools up to
rather large pipe wrenches helping
mechanics NC Tech's out what I like
about my job is that it's different
every day when you come into a power
plant especially a combined cycle power
plant recycling all the time so there's
startups and shutdowns there are
different things going on all the time
that's what I love the most about my job
one of the best things I like about my
job is that I feel like I've
accomplished something at the end of the
day most rewarding thing is is basically
that we're able to power you know be a
part of power in our community and you
know we are a municipality and you know
a lot of us live in Colorado Springs so
we're all kind of on the same team and
it you know it feels good to be you know
a person that helps produce that power
that's so essential for everything else
that drives our community
you