All about the profession of relay protection and automation engineer

An engineer for relay protection and automation (RPA) is one of the most popular modern professions and is in high demand in the labor market. Despite the rather complicated training, more and more applicants to technical universities choose this specialty.

Thanks to the rapid transition of electrical systems to automatic control, the profession of relay protection and automation engineer is becoming more and more relevant. A specialist in this profile is responsible for the operation, maintenance and repair of relay protection and automation equipment, without which the functioning of modern electrical installations is difficult to imagine.

Applicant for this position must be well versed in organizational and administrative, normative acts and methodological documents affecting the selection, installation, configuration and testing of relay protection and automation equipment, and also know the subtleties of the rules for the technical operation of power plants and electric networks. Despite the technical orientation of the specialty, an RPA engineer must be able to get along well with people and have organizational skills.

According to the job description, the RPA engineer has a number of functional responsibilities, the performance quality of which depend on the performance of electrical systems and the safety of personnel.

• Calculation of values ​​of currents and short circuit voltages (CI) and determining, on the basis of the obtained results, the type, algorithm of operation and placement of relay protection and automation systems with subsequent verification of operation.
• Accounting and analysis of relay protection and automationchecking their work for compliance with the requirements of regulatory documents with regular recording of results.
• Participation in the preparation of technical specifications and initial data in the design construction of power facilities, as well as in case of their expansion and reconstruction.
• Participation in the work of the commission to investigate the causes of emergency situations and other technological violations functioning of electrical installations, as well as checking equipment facilities taking into account seasonality.
• Preparation of annual reports Relay Protection and Logging.
• Regular check of staff qualifications (electricians, technicians, installers and adjusters) and taking measures to increase it.
• Drawing up applications for the purchase of spare parts and consumables, monitoring the timely replacement of parts with an expiring service life.
• Conducting routine testing of relay protection and automation equipment followed by analysis of the results.
• New Tracking in the field of relay protection and an automated dispatch control system, their implementation at an energy facility.
• In addition, an RPA engineer must have clear understanding of the fundamentals of the economy and organization of production, management and labor in the energy sector, know the articles of labor legislation and strictly abide by labor protection rules.

In the event of emergency situations resulting in harm to the health of employees or damage to the tangible property of the power facility, the RPA engineer may be brought to administrative, disciplinary, material, and in more serious cases, criminal liability.

You can get the profession of an RPA engineer in many universities of a technical orientation or secondary vocational schools, but in the latter case, you can only rely on the position of technician. After graduation, graduates can be accepted to the position of engineer without presenting requirements for seniority.

Relay protection and automation engineers are required to be part of the staff of power plants, substations and other energy facilities, as well as serving the distances of power lines, underground cable communications and control centers of power supply and distribution organizations.