Engineering Internships
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Job Description
About Tacoma Public Utilities Power Department:
Tacoma Public Utilities Power department is a municipally-owned public power utility, almost 100% hydroelectric, serving approximately 180,000 customers. It’s one of three operating divisions within Tacoma Public Utilities, alongside Tacoma Water and Tacoma Rail. The department is located in Tacoma, Washington, described as one of the most livable and walkable cities in the country.
Job Description: Engineering Internships
Tacoma Public Utilities Power department is offering several engineering internships for students pursuing Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical, Civil, Mechanical, and Computer Science Engineering. These are 40-hour-per-week positions, typically coinciding with the summer break. Interns will work alongside experienced professionals on challenging projects.
The available internships include:
• Generation Automation Engineering: This internship focuses on programming, designing, modifying, and maintaining industrial control systems at hydro power plants, dams, and fish facilities. Responsibilities include modifying PLC ladder logic and operator interface screens, troubleshooting alarms, performing virtual machine backups, creating drawings for electrical schematics and wiring diagrams, and updating/maintaining asset lists and procedures.
• Substation Engineering: Interns will assist experienced engineers working with major substation equipment (power transformers, circuit breakers, cables, etc.). Work includes design drawings, equipment specifications, crew support and troubleshooting, and procurement of components.
• Protection & Controls Engineering: This internship involves working with power circuit breaker controls, protective relays, and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). Responsibilities include design drawings, relay and IED settings, system fault studies, crew support and troubleshooting, and procurement of components. The focus is on protecting generation, transmission, and distribution equipment.
• T&D Innovation & Asset Management: This internship supports the modernization of the transmission and distribution (T&D) system. Responsibilities include research, data analysis, running models, and other tasks related to creating and implementing modernization strategies, asset replacement analysis, and performance improvement.
• New Services Engineering (NSE): This internship serves as the first point of contact for customers installing or upgrading electrical facilities. Interns will assist with engineering, design, cost estimation, work packet creation, and project management, working both in the office and the field with customers, contractors, and other utilities.
• Energy Management System (EMS) Engineering: This internship involves working with EMS engineers and system operators on projects related to real-time monitoring, control, storage, dissemination, and telemetry of field asset information for Tacoma Power’s generation, transmission, and distribution grid.
• Tacoma Power System Planning: This internship focuses on transmission, distribution, and operational planning. Interns will assist with projects improving power reliability and quality of service, including voltage optimization, phase balancing, and distribution protection analysis.
• Line Engineering: This internship focuses on all aspects of constructing, maintaining, and operating overhead and underground power lines (poles, wires, conduit, cable, etc.). Responsibilities include designs, hardware specifications, drawing creation, standards creation, code interpretation, permitting, contracts, field work, and construction support.
Qualifications:
• Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree in progress (in one of the specified engineering disciplines).
