Nicky Todorov: My First Ever Job Experience!

Hi, my name is Nicky Todorov, and I’m a senior at NC State majoring in environmental sciences and minoring in renewable energy assessment. This past summer, I worked at a solar O&M company called ACT Power Services as a portfolio engineer intern. ACT wasn’t the one building solar farms, it was the one fixing them, finding issues, keeping them efficient, and keeping their owners happy. I worked on the engineering team, but had the opportunity to meet with field technicians and people in the remote control center who operate and monitor the sites 24/7. My favorite part of my experience had to be befriending the other interns. It was nice being able to work with people my age who were entering the workforce like me. I got to learn how to do the job alongside them, and I got taught how to play pickleball by them!

One of my most important responsibilities was writing monthly reports to clients. When I started working in May, I had to look at a site’s data and work orders from April, report certain figures like how much power was generated, and write an executive summary detailing any significant events that occurred. I would do this for several sites each month, helping to get all of the reports to the clients before they were due around the middle of the month. I had to learn so many things in order to do monthly reports. For one, I familiarized myself with several SCADA platforms which would give me the data I needed to analyze. I learned how to interpret inverter and insolation data, format it, and extrapolate needed figures for the report. I came to understand so much more about the different devices at solar sites and how they operate by reading work orders and connecting them to the data. Most importantly, I developed writing skills so that I could communicate a site’s performance to the client in a concise way. This style of writing was completely new to me, as I had to take on a more corporate, direct tone and use all sorts of jargon from the solar industry.

While monthly reports were my priority for the first half of every month, there were several things that I would also do throughout and in the latter half of the month. For example, I would do a few site audits every day. This involved checking for issues at a site by identifying unusual or concerning data on our SCADA platforms. I would see if the site was online, that the devices were communicating, that trackers were at the ideal angle to capture the most sunlight, etc. Once I identified issues, I could let the remote control center know so that they could write a work order and figure out what is needed to resolve it. In the latter half of the month, I devoted a lot of time to reconfiguring alarms on our SCADA platform. A site’s devices report data to the SCADA, and when that data deviates from certain set parameters, an alarm will notify the company of the issue. For example, if an inverter stopped reporting data, the company would be made aware of it. The default settings on the alarms were not ideal, so I would go in and reconfigure them. Doing this helped to make us aware of issues sooner, better understand the severity of the issue, and it would avoid any unnecessary alarms. For example, an inverter may stop communicating at nighttime then resume communication during the day. There is no need to receive alarms about this every single night, so getting rid of these junk alarms helps the company address important issues more easily.

During my time at ACT Power Services, I was given the opportunity to learn about the solar industry and develop valuable workplace skills. Before applying for this job, I had no idea what O&M was, let alone how important it was. My supervisor told me that “O&M is the backbone of solar.” As an environmental science major, I put a lot of thought into sustainability and climate change. In my classes, much of the focus on becoming carbon neutral is about building more renewable energy sources and the difficulties in getting that done. What I didn’t feel very prompted to do was consider what would happen after all of these solar and wind sites are built. Keeping these sites running for as long as possible, and as efficiently as possible, is crucial to achieving carbon neutrality. This will only become more true as the solar industry grows. Getting to play a small part in that helped me to gain perspective. Personally, I also gained much needed workplace skills. This was my first ever job, and it was equal parts daunting and exciting. I became a better communicator by writing monthly reports, sending professional emails, and discussing with my coworkers. My supervisor even had me and the other interns collaborate on a presentation about our time working at the company. He had us give this presentation in front of as many people in the company as possible, saying that we would gain the skills to have our ideas be respected, even if we were just interns. Getting to work in an office, meeting deadlines on multiple projects, collaborating with my peers, and understanding the professional experience has helped me feel more confident for any future jobs I may have. I don’t know yet what specific direction I want to take my career, but I do know that I have the tools I need to succeed.