Operations Technician
Craft Career
Cassidy Chandler had planned on a different path.
With degrees in biology and chemistry, she thought she was bound for medical school.
But she began working at TVA as an operations technician at one of TVA’s combined cycle power generation plants. These plants use natural gas to generate electricity.
“It ended up being a great fit,” she said. She’s worked at TVA for 18 years.
A Day in the Life
A typical day for a combined cycle operations technician is not at all typical.
They can face any number of new challenges during a shift. They have to be nimble and have many skills.
“I’ve been doing this for 18 years, and I still manage to learn something new every outage,” said Chandler.
Operations technicians are responsible for starting up or shutting down the turbines that generate electricity. They have to carefully monitor the equipment and perform maintenance and repairs to make sure everything works.
Safety is part of every day on the job.
“We take care of each other to make sure that we all go home the same way that we came in” Chandler said.
Becoming an Operations Technician
TVA offers a training program for operations technicians for its 17 natural gas plants.
The program is open to people with experience as instrument mechanics, industrial electrician or power plant control room operators. Applicants need a two year technical degree, as well.
It uses both classroom instruction and on-the-job training to prepare individuals for the job.
Operations technicians in gas plants work full time and may be scheduled for nights, weekends or holidays.
The job does have physical demands, like lifting, and the operations technicians may work in extreme cold or heat.
TVA pays trainees while they are enrolled in the program, with a starting salary of $124,690. Pay increases to $130,300 after completing training.