Electrical Engineering Intern, Taylor Demick, has spent his summer transferring PI tags from the distributed control system (DCS) to the programmable logic controller (PLC) interface.
Taylor has been working very closely with the engineering team on numerous projects dealing with protective relay systems, PLCs, transformers, wiring, and much more. Most of these projects have been completed or will be completed by the end of the summer. One project that is likely to not be wrapped up by end of summer is the project related to PI tag transferring. In this project, there are about 40,000 points to go over, with each point needing to be looked over slowly and carefully to ensure that the tags get implemented correctly. While he may not finish this himself, Taylor has created a procedure on how to do this transferring for the next person that takes over.
At Prairie State, Taylor has learned that teamwork is a huge factor in getting things done right. He says, “I was able to see that not one person gets the job done, but all departments have to come together to get the job done so the plant can operate successfully.”
Taylor has enjoyed getting to work and connect with the engineers and seeing work in the professional field compared to what he learned in class. He says, “I have also enjoyed being able to observe and participate in all the different types of electrical engineering work, which has been helping me decide on what I like most about this field. I look forward to coming into work each day, excited to see what the next job is. My favorite part has been working with one of the electrical engineers on wiring a test stand with a variable frequency device (VFD) and a motor; this is to test and simulate different types of trips on the units and incorporate automatic resets on the test stand, to simulate the unit restarting within a certain amount of time after a trip. Perfecting these simulations can help us to implement this on the actual units in the field.”
This internship has shown Taylor that he has picked the right major. Working at Prairie State helped him decide that he wants to focus his future career goals on the power generation and energy industry. His plans have not changed because of this internship, but he is now greatly looking forward to his future career. After graduating from Southern Illinois University (SIU) with his bachelor’s degree, he still plans to pursue a Master of Science in electrical engineering from SIU, with hopes to find himself a career in the field of power generation.