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Well, Ketchikan has lived up to the rain forest assignment cause it is raining again. I figure we haven't been by my work yet so we should stop in so they can see where I work and what I do.
Off to the Bailey Power House. I am a Sr SCADA Technician here. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. Sounds complicated, huh? It can be but most times it isn't. This is the kind of job where most people don't want to know you exist until it hits the fan. We have sensors and controls throughout the power grid and in each of our hydros and dams. My job is to read data from these devices, bring the data into our system, scale the values to reflect what we want, and then display it in a manner the operators and management can use to control our grid.
I show off my crappy hallway office and introduce everyone to my coworker, Justin and to the operator on duty, Joe. We look at the old style diesel engine controls which are still in use and then the new computer controls I work on. I even took everyone out on the "floor" to see the diesel engines we use for backup power if we use up all the water in the lakes too fast or we have a power outage, which we have fairly frequently. We have four diesel engines and each is almost the size of a small house and in constant need of maintenance. This facility is manned twenty four hours a day, every day so we have all the comforts of home except a bed here.
A little last minute shopping and back home for a hearty lunch in preparation for the long flights home. We snap a couple of pictures on the porch as proof they actually came and we load all the bags into the car. I am still not sure how they got everything into the suitcases but they did. I even used my scale to verify the weights of the bags were okay and they were.
Since it is raining, I have decided to drive the car onto the ferry and make it easier on everyone walking up the gangway at the other end since it is also low tide which will make it even steeper. Quick good byes and they are headed for check in. Since this is Ketchikan, we came over with only an hour before the flight. I made it to the ferry in time but they ran out of space. I had to sit and watch it leave and return a half hour later. I headed home to the now quiet and near empty house. This was a very fun visit and one to remember. I think Tammy and I need to plan a trip down to Texas in winter next!
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