Description
Install, calibrate, troubleshoot, and maintain instrumentation and control systems that monitor and regulate power generation and auxiliary processes. Work with DCS/PLC, sensors, analyzers, and control valves to ensure safe, reliable, and compliant operation.
- • Monitor control system alarms, trends, and instrument readings to detect abnormal conditions.
- • Adjust control loop parameters or setpoints to maintain specified process and electrical outputs under guidance.
- • Operate and troubleshoot DCS/PLC, HMIs, and related control interfaces for boilers, turbines, generators, and balance-of-plant.
- • Configure and tune instrumentation to regulate operations based on field devices and control logic.
- • Perform routine checks and take corrective action using data from charts, meters, historians, and diagnostics.
- • Commission, start up, or shut down control systems, instrument air, and associated packages as required.
- • Review logs, CMMS work orders, and communicate with operations to assess instrument and control status.
- • Maintain auxiliary system instrumentation—pumps, fans, compressors, condensers, feedwater, filtration, and chemical dosing.
- • Clean, calibrate, and service sensors, transmitters, analyzers, control valves, and actuators to prevent failure.
- • Coordinate with system operators to verify signals, alarms, interlocks, and load-control interfaces.
- • Document calibrations, loop checks, as-found/as-left data, and maintenance activities in required forms and reports.
- • Stroke-test valves and operate isolation switches and bypasses in the proper sequence during maintenance.
- • Collect and handle samples or calibration media for online analyzers; verify analyzer performance.
- • Perform minor mechanical and electrical repairs on instruments, impulse lines, and junction boxes.
- • Scale and validate analog/digital signals so generator and process controls match required phase, frequency, and voltage feedbacks.
- • Test and maintain emergency generator, UPS, and battery monitoring controls; verify temperature, output, and lubrication interlocks.
- • Respond to callouts and coordinate with on-call personnel during alarms, outages, or emergencies.
- • Test power distribution instrumentation and protective devices using appropriate calibration and test equipment.
- • Install, operate, and maintain controls for distributed generation equipment such as fuel cells and microturbines.
- • Maintain and troubleshoot instrumentation for CO2 capture, compression, and pipeline monitoring systems.
- • Maintain and troubleshoot instrumentation on gasifiers and related systems, including coolers, quenches, shift reactors, and sulfur recovery.
- • Support IGCC and air separation unit control systems, analyzers, and interlocks.
- • Read and interpret P&IDs, loop sheets, wiring diagrams, and control narratives to analyze system function.
- • Diagnose and repair faults in gas collection and flare control systems, including pressure and flow instrumentation.
- • Periodically verify well field instrumentation, transmitters, and RTUs for proper operation.
- • Configure and maintain controls for landfill gas, methane, or natural gas-fueled generation systems.
- • Prepare and submit compliance, calibration, operational, and safety documentation per regulatory and QA/QC requirements.
- • Repair or replace tubing, fittings, manifolds, and control air piping; ensure leak-free connections.
- • Trace and update electrical and control circuits to ensure compliance with codes, standards, and cybersecurity policies.
- • Validate environmental and process monitoring data quality against applicable regulations and site procedures.
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Energy & Natural Resources
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Tasks & skills:
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
