As a substation maintenance engineer at FirstEnergy, Bob Sicker had attended six Finepoint Circuit Breaker Test and Maintenance Training Conferences to learn more about his field of expertise, transmission substation maintenance. But last year he was on the other side of the podium as a speaker at the conference.

Sicker’s topic was an “ITE Type 362GA Breaker Failure Investigation,” recounting an event at FirstEnergy’s D.B. Mansfield 345kV yard. Sicker offered the topic to the organizer of the conference, Bill Myers, after the event at one of FirstEnergy’s power plants. Sicker said. “It was fairly involved and it turned into a root cause report for the company.”

Sicker does not usually do presentations at conferences, but he likes the focus of the Finepoint conference.

“Bob is another great example of an electric utility participant ‘stepping up to the plate’ by becoming an active participant. Admirable conference participants like him make the conference special,” Myers said.

Sicker started out as a substation maintenance engineer in 1980 at The Ohio Edison Company now a part of FirstEnergy. He spent a lot of time in the field, and eventually progressed to supervisor. He supervises nine or 10 engineers, who provide the field support for substations.

His company, FirstEnergy, is headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and is the nation’s fifth largest investor-owned electric system, serving 4.5 million customers within 36,100 sq miles of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  The location of the Finepoint conference is helpful to Sicker as it often takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The specific focus of the conference is also helpful to Sicker and other substation maintenance engineers. “My area of specific interest is substation major equiment, particularly breakers and transformers, and this is one conference geared specifically to that equipment,” he said. “Probably 80 % of the topics are circuit breakers, and the rest are transformers or related equipment.”

He said that a lot of times broader-based seminars try to “be everything to everybody,” and so there will always be several subjects there that don’t interest him. He can maximize his time more at a conference like Finepoint because the vast majority of the topics are on target, and the vendors are all focused on these same subjects.

“It’s where I generally update my card index every year because the majority of the breaker manufacturers are there--and the related companies or test equipment and services are all there at one place at one time,” Sicker said.

One of the most beneficial aspects of the conference for FirstEnergy engineers has been the half-day training seminars. Each year the conference features two half-day training seminars at no additional charge.

“These seminars are more detailed than you get quite often. We have always benefited from it because whatever topic that half day was on, we have that equipment,” Sicker said.

Sicker said overall, the week flows well, with the half-day seminars, the Factory Tour, the presentations and the evening expo.

“I recommend this conference to anyone in the utility industry that has involvement with the transmission substations, because it is focused on that--and because of the utility people that you will meet,” Sicker said.