Engineering Intern
Reporting Relationships: Reports to Engineering Manager
Students who are interested please send your resume along with a cover letter to hr@mewco.com
Summary Statement & Purpose:
The engineering internship is a temporary, paid position within the engineering and operations department of a small electric and water distribution utility in Spokane Valley, WA, originally founded in 1905.
The utility transforms, distributes and delivers electricity from the transmission-level to the customer premises. The utility also pumps, stores, treats, distributes and delivers water from an aquifer for domestic use in homes and businesses within our service territory. The engineering and operations department ensures safe, efficient delivery of power and water by planning, designing, installing, operating and maintaining various equipment and facilities utilized in that endeavor.
The intent of hosting an intern position is to expose interested applicants to the utility business and to aid applicants in developing key skills necessary for eventual professional engineering licensure. The intern will observe, survey, analyze, test, optimize and document various systems related to the utility's core electric and water operations.
Minimum Qualifications and Skills:
- Enrolled in or a graduate of an ABET-accredited science, engineering, or computer/information systems program.
- Solid understanding of science and engineering fundamentals
- Broad exposure to and comfort with data analysis and manipulation
- Comfortable accessing and configuring various intelligent electronic devices and computing systems
- Clear component-to-system level understanding of any 'technology-related' environment
- Willingness to learn, develop and champion new means and methods of measurement, communication, analysis and control for many types of technology systems used in the utility environment.
Technology / Systems Used:
- AMR/AMI (smart metering)
- Data / Analysis Systems (database queries, trending, forecasting, power quality, etc.)
- SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)
- GIS (geographic information system)
- Power System and 3-phase Motor Protection and Control
- Communications (Wireless LAN, radio WAN, antennae, fiber-optics, ethernet, serial, others)
- Video/Security/Access Control
Typical Duties:
- In addition to the engineering tasks listed below, the Company and intern will have the opportunity to experience the following:
- Introduce intern to the utility environment; gain real-world experience
- Gauge intern's knowledge set, career interests, technical strengths, educational focus (classes and projects)
- Tour/explain the facilities and components used (substations, lines, pump stations, metering systems, SCADA system, communications, data/computing systems, operator interfaces and input devices, record-keeping and documentation methods/means/lifecycle
- Allow intern to develop a project deliverable - report, product, application, procedure (possibly integrate with intern’s Senior Capstone Design Project)
Engineering Tasks:
- Integration - loading analysis, outage visualization/messaging, line fuse/tap load aggregation, SCADA/AMR data cross-utilization
- Planning/Analysis - maintenance and replacement plans, quick-turn project impact analysis, forecast models, settings and/or power delivery optimization, historical trending
- Policy Development/Documentation - standards, cost-of-service, tariff, customer applications/forms, etc.
- Documentation - system/facility descriptions, operating instructions/guides, network topology, mapping
- As-built Dwg Updates - wiring diagrams, one-lines, network routing, etc.
- Professional development road map; department goals/metrics, tracking
- Development of annual work-plan (long-range plan, construction work plan, power requirements study, integrated resource plan)
- Special Projects - remote site video (event capture, retrieval, etc.)