Jay Johll

December 2003

Job Title: System Protection Engineer I
Employer: Alliant Energy



Job Description:
My job has many different responsibilities. My main responsibilities and duties are creating or modifying electrical prints and setting microprocessor based relays. I also help analyze all of the day-to-day operations that we have on our system to verify that our control schemes worked properly. In developing our control schemes, we keep in mind two main things; first, protect our substation equipment and power lines and second, keep power to as many customers as possible.


UWP Experience:
I had an exceptional experience at UWP although I started off with a rough start in the EE program. The EE program at Platteville is not easy, but the quality is second to none in my opinion. I can proudly say that I am a graduate of EE from UWP and I receive a certain amount of respect and recognition right from the start. I also developed many professional relationships and friendships with my professors. Even though the professors are the ones who make the program tough, they are there to help you though it. All it takes as a student is to show that you are making your best effort and they are willing to help you to whatever extent needed to make you succeed.

I also was able to get involved on campus which exposed me to variety of diverse ideas and people. I was involved in Residence Hall Council for 2 years, Student Senate for 4 years, Delta Sigma Phi fraternity for 4 years, IEEE for 4 years, and Eta Kappa Nu, the EE honor society for 2 years.

I believe that I was able to receive a well-rounded education and experience from UWP. From my time at UWP, I was not only able to earn my degree but I was also able to develop priceless leadership and communications skills from opportunities outside the classroom.


TYPICAL WORK DAY:
My typical work day varies depending on what phase of a project that I am currently working on. In the beginning of a project, my typical work day will entail creating new or modifying electrical prints to send to technicians in the field. In creating or modifying the electrical prints, I am either designing a new control scheme or modifying an existing scheme.

After that phase of the project, a typical work day consists of setting microprocessor based relays such as relays from SEL. A typical relay could have 600 to 1000 different settings to make. To set the relays, it entails using a short circuit analysis program to run various faults on our modeled system.

After relay settings are completed, a typical work day consists of helping technicians set and test the actual relays at the substation. If I am not at the substation, then I am available for questions and troubleshooting from my office.

Finally, after all of the actual work is done at the substation, I receive a copy of the prints that contain any changes made at the substation and I make sure that they get incorporated with our final prints.


Sample Project Description:
My favorite project so far has been helping develop and install a HMI (Human-Machine Interface) after I did the rest of the design work described above. The HMI is an Excel program with visual basic programming running in the background that is able to gather information from individual microprocessor-based relays and display it graphically on a computer screen. An example: