Innovation. Automation. Integration. To the average person, these words may appear unrelated. Glenn Pritchard, a project manager on Exelon's Meter Reading Technology team (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.), would beg to differ. Whether indulging his passion for trains or advancing his career in electrical engineering, these terms represent a recurring theme throughout this industry trendsetter's life.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Pritchard was drawn to the world of electricity from an early age. “My father and I built model trains as a hobby,” he says. “I remember being fascinated with constructing their various components, connecting all the wires and watching the trains go.”

Like many children growing up in the early 1980s, Pritchard also dabbled in computers. During his junior year of high school, he developed a software program that tracked student attendance. “My school actually used the program for several years, which was pretty cool to a kid my age,” says Pritchard.

Thus, it seemed only natural when he chose to pursue a degree in engineering. After graduating from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, U.S., with a BSEE degree, Pritchard headed back to his hometown and went to work for the Navy. Approximately 18 months later, he was offered a position at PECO, a unit of Exelon Energy Delivery, responsible for electric and natural gas distribution and customer service for residential business and institutional consumers in southeastern Pennsylvania.

“I had interned at PECO for several summers during college and realized this was an important opportunity,” Pritchard says. “Growing up, people told me ‘the utilities — that's where you want to be.’ They were right. I've been with the company for 15 years now, and I think I've been successful.”

Although he has spent most of his career with the same corporation, Pritchard has worked in a variety of PECO's business units. “Of all things, I started as a corrosion engineer,” he remembers. “I worked on automating the data-collection processes with data loggers and a portable computer to make the technicians' jobs easier. I then moved into an underground transmission group, where we brought in process control computers to introduce the digital world to these very old, labor-intensive practices.”

Next, Pritchard segued from underground transmission lines to substations. He led a substation automation project whose goal was to bring digital relays and equipment monitors into the substation. “This was the 1990s,” he says. “There were a lot of standalone systems, and each system almost required a full-support network. The theme I tried to introduce to the project was that we could integrate all of these components into a single solution, thereby reducing cost and streamlining operation. This idea was somewhat novel at the time.”

From there, Pritchard took on the role of reliability engineer at PECO. He introduced a monitoring system for the underground Center City network in Philadelphia. According to Pritchard, his work here gave him great insight into how the network was performing. Ultimately, however, the system was ahead of itself. “While it worked, it didn't meet the standards that the system operators had expected,” he says. “It's something I may come back to in the future.”

The engineer next transferred to a communications group and became involved with fiber-optic communications as well as broadband over power lines. Currently, Pritchard is part of Exelon's Meter Reading Technology group, where he successfully led the integration of PECO's automated meter reading (AMR) and outage management systems. He is now working to develop new methods for using AMR data to improve PECO's distribution system. “There is so much data out there that is not being used,” he says. “By finding ways to use this data, I can help our employees work smarter and make better decisions about how to operate the electric grid.”

Pritchard's experience at PECO has wound its way into his personal life. “I've brought computers and automation to my train hobby,” he says. Like his father before him, Pritchard enjoys involving his children, ages 10 and five, in his locomotive pastime. “It's multigenerational,” he says. “My father and I attend a biannual train show each April and October. My kids enjoy trains, too. Most of our basement is a train platform. The thing about a platform, whether for model trains or power delivery, is that it's never really completed — it's constantly evolving. There are always new technologies and products being introduced. And the Internet has completely changed the nature of my business and my hobbies.”

In addition to trains and his work at PECO, Pritchard has found success writing articles and speaking at events such as DistribuTECH and AMRA. Pritchard says his work is fun. No matter what project he is involved with at the time, he takes a similar approach. “It's about setting a goal, sticking with it, being patient and knowing that there may be failures. Because a lot of the work I do is experimental, I have to remember that it's OK to fail. Of course, I always want success, but sometimes part of a job is just the learning experience.”