Principal Substation Engineer - Power Plant; Juno , FL

Job Overview

Employees in this role make decisions and recommendations having significant impact on extensive engineering and related activities for the company. This position negotiates critical and controversial issues with top level engineers and officers of other organizations and companies.

Substation & Electrical Design

• Engineer and review plant switchyards and substations (typically 13.8 kV, 18 kV, 22 kV, 34.5 kV, 115–500 kV) supporting natural gas generating units.
• Design and review GSU configurations, including bus arrangements, grounding, protection zones, and insulation coordination.
• Develop single line diagrams, three line diagrams, schematics, wiring diagrams, and equipment layouts specific to thermal power plants.
• Specify and apply:
  Power transformers (GSU, UAT, SAT);
  Circuit breakers, disconnects, CTs, VTs, surge arresters;
  Station service and auxiliary power systems.
• Write, conform and adapt Engineer of Record (EOR), Engineering Consultant, Early Stage Engineering, Construction, Engineer/Procure/Construct (EPC) and Owner furnished equipment specifications and other technical contract documents as needed for each project to put contracts in place.
• Review engineer and contractor deliverables for contract compliance, adequacy, and completeness; coordinate with internal guidance and third party engineering consultants when necessary.
• Work with the purchasing department to ensure purchase orders define the specified requirements and contracts are in place.

Power Plant Integration

• Coordinate substation interfaces with gas turbine generators (CTG), steam turbine generators (STG), HRSG auxiliaries, and balance of plant systems.
• Support generator grounding, neutral grounding resistors/transformers, and plant grounding studies.
• Interface substation protection schemes with plant DCS, SCADA, and plant control systems.
• Support black start, fast start, and grid support operating modes where applicable.
• Coordinate and support islanded/behind the meter power supply to data centers in combination with BESS.

Protection, Control & Studies

• Review or develop protection and control philosophies applicable to plant substations: generator, GSU, and bus protection; breaker failure and transfer trip schemes.
• Review or support electrical studies including short circuit, load flow, arc flash; insulation coordination and surge arrester selection; grounding and step and touch analysis.

Interconnection & Compliance

• Support ISO/RTO and utility interconnection requirements (e.g., NERC, regional transmission owner standards).
• Coordinate with transmission owners, EPCs, OEMs, and commissioning teams.
• Ensure compliance with electrical standards and design criteria as applicable (EEE, NESC, NEC, NFPA 850, NERC PRC).

Construction & Commissioning Support

• Provide engineering support during construction, testing, and commissioning.
• Review submittals, RFIs, design changes, and as-built documentation.
• Support energization, synchronization, and outage planning activities.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of substation engineering experience, with direct experience on natural gas power plants.
• Demonstrated experience with GSU-based substations for thermal generation.
• Strong familiarity with plant electrical systems and operating constraints.
• Working knowledge of applicable electrical codes and standards.
• Ability to interface with EPCs, OEMs, utilities, and internal plant stakeholders.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license.
• Experience with combined cycle plants (1×0, 2×0, 2×1, 3×1, etc.).
• Experience supporting existing operating plants (brownfield modifications, uprates, retrofits).
• Familiarity with NERC compliance as it relates to generation and substations.
• Experience with outage work, reliability improvement projects, or fleet standardization.

Key Differentiators for This Role

• Power plant centric substation experience (not utility only or renewable only).
• Direct exposure to dispatchable generation, GSUs, and plant auxiliaries.
• Comfort operating in environments where availability, start time, and grid support are critical.

• Demonstrates a high degree of creativity, foresight, and mature judgment in planning,…