Electrical Engineer Operations Engineering jobs in Chicago, IL

Walk me through how you'd analyze a relay event record after a collection feeder trips at a wind or solar plant.

What they are checking: Whether they can read event data, sequence what happened and judge whether the protection operated correctly.

How does protecting inverter-based resources differ from protecting a plant with synchronous generators?

What they are checking: Whether they understand that inverters supply limited fault current, which changes how relays must be set and coordinated.

How do you develop and check relay settings and coordination for a substation and gen-tie line?

What they are checking: Whether they follow a disciplined process with studies and peer review, since bad settings cause trips or damage.

Tell me about an outage investigation or abnormal equipment behavior you helped resolve. What was the root cause?

What they are checking: Whether they have real troubleshooting experience and dig to root cause instead of resetting and moving on.

A battery storage site keeps tripping offline during grid disturbances. How would you approach it?

What they are checking: Whether they can separate protection settings, inverter ride-through behavior and grid conditions as possible causes.

How do you write an event report so site technicians and managers both understand what happened and what to do next?

What they are checking: Whether they can communicate technical findings clearly to people with different levels of expertise.

Which relay platforms and software have you worked with, such as SEL or GE tools?

What they are checking: Whether they have hands-on experience with the equipment they will be supporting across the fleet.

A site manager wants to put a unit back in service quickly, but you haven't found why it tripped. What do you say?

What they are checking: Whether they protect equipment and people under production pressure while still working toward a fast answer.