Local People – Adam, Power Line Technician, Brooks
Jan 10, 2025, 17:24 PMAdam, a Power Line Technician (PLT) out of Brooks, recently took the time to chat with us about his day-to-day work and how our technology ensures the best possible service for our customers.
How does the work you do make a positive impact on FortisAlberta customers?
Our maintenance and general work practices help make our system very reliable. My kids are in a lot of sports and when getting to know some parents on the team better, some of which are farmers, they always praise FortisAlberta compared to other utilities with our general response times and overall reliable service.
What’s something surprising or unique about your job that people might find interesting?
Our technology is always evolving. One thing that comes to mind is the implementation of automation on our system. We have live visibility and info of our system devices during trouble scenarios. It helps minimizes the number of customers that are impacted during a trouble scenario and helps us identity the issues quicker. Our automated system can even isolate a fault and feed power from another direction automatically.
Is there something that stands out to you during your time with FortisAlberta as a key memory or success?
Key memories for me are all the storms we respond to, the pride we have as PLT’s making sure we can help get power on for people whenever or wherever the call comes from. I’ve been involved in helping up north, near Drayton Valley and west towards Canmore and Crowsnest Pass.
How have you seen FortisAlberta’s service progress or improve since you joined the company?
Again, it would go back to our technology. Our service progress has improved based off our technology and how we're able to monitor our system in real time, whether that be from installed devices reporting back or meters right at a customer's site. With more technology scheduled for rollout just around the corner, what we can do as far as monitoring and maintenance is only getting better and will improve our service even further.
How has that progress or improvement led to better service for customers?
It improves our overall reliability and gives us more detailed information to help customers that are having power quality issues or concerns with their power systems.
Before heading out to the field each day, what’s one thing you do to prepare for a challenging job?
I always check the weather. Weather in southern Alberta can change without a moment's notice so I always try to be prepared whether that be for cold, wind, heat or rain.
Can you speak to your favourite part of the work?
My favourite part of the work is that every day is different. I enjoy doing a variety of tasks throughout the day, seeing new places and meeting new people regularly.
What do you consider the most challenging part of the job?
Winter weather. BRRRR....
When you're not at work, what might your community members find you doing?
They'd likely find me volunteering on various sport boards or coaching my boy.
Anything else to add about your role or something customers should know about FortisAlberta’s work?
I'm not sure people truly realize the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep our system reliable. People might think that if they don’t see us directly at their house that the work that we complete doesn’t affect them. We pride ourselves on our reliability and the low impact our work has on our customers. Sometimes outages can’t be avoided but we try our best to make sure the power stays on, whether we feed the power from alternate directions or perform live-line work to ensure customer's lives go uninterrupted.
