Description
Install or repair cables or wires used in electrical power or distribution systems. May erect poles and light or heavy duty transmission towers.
- • Adhere to safety practices and procedures, such as checking equipment regularly and erecting barriers around work areas.
- • Open switches or attach grounding devices to remove electrical hazards from disturbed or fallen lines or to facilitate repairs.
- • Climb poles or use truck-mounted buckets to access equipment.
- • Place insulating or fireproofing materials over conductors and joints.
- • Install, maintain, and repair electrical distribution and transmission systems, including conduits, cables, wires, and related equipment, such as transformers, circuit breakers, and switches.
- • Identify defective sectionalizing devices, circuit breakers, fuses, voltage regulators, transformers, switches, relays, or wiring, using wiring diagrams and electrical-testing instruments.
- • Drive vehicles equipped with tools and materials to job sites.
- • Coordinate work assignment preparation and completion with other workers.
- • Inspect and test power lines and auxiliary equipment to locate and identify problems, using reading and testing instruments.
- • String wire conductors and cables between poles, towers, trenches, pylons, and buildings, setting lines in place and using winches to adjust tension.
- • Test conductors, according to electrical diagrams and specifications, to identify corresponding conductors and to prevent incorrect connections.
- • Replace or straighten damaged poles.
- • Install watt-hour meters and connect service drops between power lines and consumers' facilities.
- • Attach cross-arms, insulators, and auxiliary equipment to poles prior to installing them.
- • Travel in trucks, helicopters, and airplanes to inspect lines for freedom from obstruction and adequacy of insulation.
- • Dig holes, using augers, and set poles, using cranes and power equipment.
- • Trim trees that could be hazardous to the functioning of cables or wires.
- • Splice or solder cables together or to overhead transmission lines, customer service lines, or street light lines, using hand tools, epoxies, or specialized equipment.
- • Cut and peel lead sheathing and insulation from defective or newly installed cables and conduits prior to splicing.
- • Clean, tin, and splice corresponding conductors by twisting ends together or by joining ends with metal clamps and soldering connections.
- • Pull up cable by hand from large reels mounted on trucks.
- • Lay underground cable directly in trenches, or string it through conduit running through the trenches.
- • Cut trenches for laying underground cables, using trenchers and cable plows.
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
