Turbine Technician
The job
Turbine Technicians are responsible for the maintenance of power station turbines, including, fuel injection system and all the other components. They have a thorough knowledge of mechanical engineering and the relevant systems to help them do this. They're usually on the look out for innovative methods of managing the turbine.
To be a Turbine Technician, you'll need to:
- possess a strong mechanical aptitude
- become familiar with operating principles of gas/wind/other turbine engines
- demonstrate competency working with hand tools
- communicate effectively
- learn how to read power meters and diagnose electrical problems
- work in various locations.
Turbine Technicians are able to start work from various levels, although a degree would be useful.
Transcript
A Turbine Technician works on mechanical equipment from the power stations.
They send their mechanical equipment into the workshops. It could be a turbine, gearbox, could be a pump. We will work on a variety of equipment and send it back to the power station as quickly as possible. We machine parts on the turbines, we machine the bearing areas, we do the tip seals, we do absolutely everything on it.
The steam goes in one end and the electricity comes out the other. They all work on the same principle, whether it's nuclear, whether it's coal fired.
The lathe - we set up a clock on the bearing areas. The needle will tell you that the shaft is running true in the bearing, so once it's running true all along the turbine we can start making adjustments, we might need to take some more off the tips to give us some more clearances.
Efficiency is everything - the more efficiently we can do the turbines the better it will be for everybody.
At the moment we're expanding and working on wind turbines. We have had a team from here go up to Cumbria and maintain their turbines. A wind turbine works on the same principle; obviously the wind turns the blade which produces electricity through a gearbox and it's on the tallest mast that you can find. There's a lot of initiative needed in the job, a bit of hand-eye co-ordination. It's manual labour a lot of it, but you can get from the heaviest job to the lightest job and the most skilful job. Normally it takes four years to train the apprentices. We train them up on a variety of equipment so that they gain the confidence, they learn how to use hand tools and making progress to become a technician.
A lot of measuring is involved in a technician's job, we measure lots of parts, pieces of metal, we have to fit pieces/keys into cup lings, so you need to measure, you need to use science as well for expansion purposes so you can definitely use someone's hand in maths in our job.
These turbines are spinning around at 3,000 revs a minute, so there's lots of considerations with heat-obviously a big factor, bearings which you have to monitor on a daily basis these all come under the consideration of health and safety.
I think if you had to sum it up it's very similar to being a car mechanic, you can work on various equipment, it's very varied: no two days are the same and that's what I enjoy about it, our job is so important it basically keeps the lights on and that's our goal to keep it going.
"It's very varied. No two days are the same and that's what I enjoy about it. Our job is so important. It basically keeps the lights on."
Andy Conway, Turbine Technician
You can find out more about E.ON's Generation programme for graduates and its Generation Apprenticeships in the E.ON careers section.
Fact file
- Minimum joining age:
16 - Qualifications and skills:
4 GCSEs grade C or above, including English, Maths and Science / a Technical subject. Manual Dexterity (assessed in a practical test) - Training on the job:
You'll have everything you need to gain a Technical Certificate up to NVQ Level 3, approving you as a CORGI qualified engineer - Salary:
£8,410 - £9,804 while training, £20,500 - £22,000 when qualified - Benefits:
Pension scheme, contribution towards driving lessons (up to 10 lessons), at least 26 days' holiday (plus Bank Holidays), protective work clothing and equipment
