OREANDA-NEWS. The competitions of professional skills of crews for repair and maintenance of 35-110 kV substation equipment of IDGC of Centre ended with the victory of "Bryanskenergo".

At the training centre in the city of Rostov the Great from 27 to 30 June 12 crews IDGC of Centre competed for the right to be called the best specialists for repair and maintenance of 35-110 kV substation equipment: one from each region of the company’s service area plus the crew from the city of Sevastopol. All participants previously won awards at the qualifying rounds that took place in each of the branches.

The competition program consisted of seven stages, which included a number of competitive tasks: repair of a power transformer; repair of a 10 kV vacuum circuit breaker; repair and adjustment of a 110 kV disconnector; repair of a 110 kV current transformer and its recharge with insulating gas; release of the victim (the dummy) from the action of electric current and first aid to the victim; fire fighting; test of knowledge of existing norms, rules and regulations.

All these tasks, with the exception of fire-fighting and release of the affected victim with electric shock, power engineers had to deal with on a daily basis both as planned activities and in the aftermath of adverse natural phenomena. Reliable and uninterrupted power supply to consumers depends on how timely, quickly and qualitatively experts for repair and maintenance of substation equipment will perform their work.

In preparation for the competition all crews did a great deal of work: they studied the documentation, learned the instructions and carried out practical exercises. They practiced all to the details, because any mistake, even a small, cost the crew lost points. The judges evaluated the correct execution of tasks in accordance with the technological map and normative documents on labour protection, technical operation and fire safety. All the tasks were performed against the clock.

"I want to mention the stage to repair the 10 kV vacuum circuit breaker. This equipment has the advantage in a very large resource with minimal maintenance. In order to hone the skills of electricians to work with it, at first we had to thoroughly examine all technical documentation, and then improve the action of the crew while passing the stage. As a result, we have seen, at what level in the branches now the work on training and mentoring is and how well employees are able to learn new technologies in the short term," said the chief judge of the competition, Deputy Chief Engineer - Head of Safety and Production Control Department of IDGC of Centre Alexander Zamotay.

The crew of "Bryanskenergo" coped with all the stages best of all, earning 1,213 points out of 1,270 possible. The Bryansk crew learned about the victory a couple of hours before the ceremony.

"We even did not come to the competition table," admits the team’s master Oleg Silaev. "The head of the team after the stage said how many points we scored, we scored and scored, nobody either wrote anything, or calculated. We just kept working."

According to the team, psychological stability and cohesion of the crew helped them win: "We worried as well as all, just made the effort, overcame ourselves and showed what we can do, what we prepared and trained for."

The head of the team Fedor Kapshukov does not see any special secrets in the preparation of the crew and agrees with his team’s members that it is the crew discipline that allowed to show the maximum result. But he recognizes that every night we all gathered together and worked through until one o'clock every action to pass a stage, practiced all possible new points.

Second place went to the team of "Yarenergo", which lost only 7 points to the Bryansk crew.

"All the technical steps we have at a high level, some, for example, we completed the repair and regulation of the 110 kV disconnector with the maximum number of points among all crews. We did not have a few points to achieve the victory - I think that was the excitement," explained the head of the team of "Yarenergo" Roman Titov.

The team of PJSC "EC "Sevastopolenergo" was impressed with the competition. Sevastopol power engineers, work closely with colleagues from IDGC of Centre, came to the competition in the first instance for a new experience. Sevastopol power engineers noted the well managed training centre, excellent organization and high level of the event.

"It is evident that the company spends a lot of time and money on the training of employees. It’s nice to watch how crews work well and smoothly. We will also try to strive for this," said the head of the Sevastopol team Mikhail Shishkin.

Third place in the competition went to the crew of "Belgorodenergo", which scored 1,193 points.

The chief judge of the competition, Alexander Zamotay noticed that all the crews scored over a thousand points: "Yaroslavl, Bryansk, Belgorod, Kostroma, Voronezh crews excelled. If we look at the results of the last few years, we will be able to trace the trend - they always show good results, indicating the well managed work to educate and train staff in the branches. I also want to note the increased in recent years overall level of all the teams without exception - today, no one had obvious failures, all scored big points."

A similar opinion was expressed by Deputy General Director - Director of the branch "Yarenergo" Alexander Kornilov: "Intrigue in the competition was until the last minute - literally at the last minute results were checked, scores were calculated. In any event, all the participants received a great experience here, which will be applied in practice.

The competitions of professional skills of power engineers are held as a form of training, dissemination of best practices of work at power facilities. In addition, they raise the interest of employees to improve their skills, motivate to achieve collective outcomes and identify the most competent employees. An important fact is that such events also increase the prestige of the power engineering occupation. At the ceremony of summing up Deputy Chief Engineer for Operations of IDGC of Centre Anton Gerasimov concluded that such competitions are one of the possibilities to analyze and make decisions that will allow everyone to work more efficiently:

"It’s nice to see that our experts do not stand still and constantly hone their skills. In the current competitions as well as in their daily work, along with the strict rules and regulations, there is room for engineering thinking. Performing all the requirements of technology, safety, stage conditions, while applying the experience, their developments, and somewhere ingenuity is one of the conditions for success. The judges repeatedly pointed out original solutions of the crews. Thus, when we say "the team", we are talking not only about those who are at the site. The preparation for the competitions involved dozens of colleagues from the branches, and in the performance of the teams we see their many years of work, knowledge and experience," said Anton Gerasimov.