Power System Engineer (Distribution Reliability)

About This Position   The Distribution Reliability Power System Engineer is responsible for ensuring the reliability, resilience, and maintainability of distribution systems and equipment. This role focuses on minimizing downtime and preventing failures through proactive maintenance strategies, system performance analysis, and risk management practices. The engineer supports key initiatives within the Electric System Resilience Plan (ESRP) and contributes to customer service, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence.

Key responsibilities include evaluating under-performing feeders by analyzing ADMS outage data and supporting the Energy Control Center through the development of switching instructions for load transfers during emergency conditions. The engineer conducts circuit lockout investigations, power quality assessments, and analyzes data from power quality meters to recommend solutions to issues such as harmonics, transients, and voltage variations.

Additional responsibilities include providing engineering support during operational events, assisting with customer escalations, participating in root cause analyses, supporting planning and field operations, evaluating new distribution equipment, and ensuring effective use of tools and applications that enhance outage analysis and distribution system performance. Job Description: Power System Engineer Purpose: Under minimal supervision designs, and assists in the design of electric utility system facilities, including: generation, electric substations, overhead and underground transmission and distribution lines, network systems, protection systems, supervisory control systems (SCADA), market operation and settlement systems, street lighting, and other electric system facilities.

This position exists only in the Power Production and Electrical Services Delivery department of Austin Energy. Duties, Functions and Responsibilities: Essential duties and functions, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, may include the following. Other related duties may be assigned. Prepares standards, equipment specifications, design procedures, test procedures Performs power system studies such as protective relay coordination, fault studies, load flows, service reliability, power quality, voltage stability, power system market operations and settlement studies, etc.; Prepares engineering design and develops drawings and other documents for generation, transmission, distribution, substations and SCADA/EMS.

Prepares circuit maps, control diagrams, charts, data bases, and plans for different electrical facilities. Provide assistance to all classes of customers, developers, and to other City Departments on technical matters relevant to electric utility services Provide technical and financial inputs for projects in electric utility planning and budget process Investigate and analyze engineering design problems; develop appropriate solutions; draft reports and make presentations Prepares safety procedures for electric facilities Assist in efforts to keep up with the latest developments in the utility industry, to meet North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Texas Public Utility Commission (TX PUC) standards and regulatory requirements.

Work closely with field personnel to support project energization. Responsibilities - Supervisor and/or Leadership Exercised: May provide leadership, work assignments, evaluation, training, and guidance to others. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Must possess required knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience and be able to explain and demonstrate, with or without reasonable accommodations, that the essential functions of the job can be performed.

Knowledge of engineering design principles applicable to electric utility operations such as, generation, transmission, distribution, market operations and other related fields. Knowledge o