High Voltage Electrical Engineer O&M

Summary of Assignment

The High Voltage Electrical Engineer is accountable for the technical integrity, safe operation, maintenance strategy, and performance optimisation of the windfarm’s HV electrical systems during the operational phase. This includes the offshore and onshore electrical balance of plant as applicable to the assets, such as wind turbine HV interfaces, array systems, offshore substation, export system interfaces, protection and control systems, switchgear, transformers, SCADA‑linked electrical alarms, and associated safety documentation.

The post holder will ensure that HV assets are operated and maintained in a manner that is safe, compliant, available and commercially optimised, supporting turbine availability, export reliability, and long-term asset value.

The role sits within the operational asset organisation and acts as a key technical authority for electrical systems during the O&M phase. There will be a strong emphasis on:

• HV operational safety and switching governance
• Fault diagnosis and technical response
• Maintenance of switchgear, protection, transformers, and auxiliary systems
• Management of electrical asset integrity and risk
• Support for outages, campaigns, and offshore interventions, and
• Capability to work within or progress toward Authorised Person / Senior Authorised Person frameworks

Location

Montrose, 3 days a week in the office, 2 days WFH

Responsibilities

HV Asset Integrity and Technical Assurance

• Act as the asset’s lead or delegated engineer for the integrity and reliability of HV electrical equipment during operations
• Maintain engineering oversight of HV systems including switchgear, transformers, cables, protection relays, earthing systems, metering, control systems, and electrical interfaces between turbines, array network, offshore substation, and onshore connection assets where within operational remit
• Develop, review, and improve preventative and condition‑based maintenance strategies for HV assets
• Review inspection, test, alarm, and defect data and determine corrective actions, risk ranking, and repair priorities
• Lead or support root‑cause analysis for trips, failures, insulation issues, protection mal‑operation, recurring alarms, and loss of generation events
• Support life‑cycle planning, obsolescence management, spares strategy, and end‑of‑life decision making consistent with asset management good practice, including ISO 55001‑2024 principles

HV Operations, Safe Systems of Work, and Switching Governance

• Ensure that all HV work is planned and executed in compliance with site Electrical Safety Rules, permit‑to‑work arrangements, isolation standards, and control of hazardous energy requirements
• Prepare, review or approve switching programmes, isolation plans, sanctions for test arrangements, earthing arrangements, and return to service documentation, in accordance with authorisation level
• Provide technical oversight to Authorised Persons, Senior Authorised Persons, technicians, OEMs, and contractors undertaking HV work
• Support development and periodic review of Electrical Safety Rules, operational procedures, contingency plans, and emergency response arrangements
• Promote a robust safety culture with clear emphasis on competence, safe isolation, and work on dead equipment where justified and controlled under applicable rules. HSE guidance continues to emphasise competence, safe systems of work, precautions on dead equipment, and proper maintenance of electrical equipment as fundamental requirements

Fault Response and Operational Support

• Provide technical leadership during electrical faults, turbine trips, array issues, offshore substation alarms, and export related events
• Support incident response assessments to minimise downtime while maintaining safety and compliance
• Interface with the control room, marine coordination, OEMs, grid stakeholders, and contractor teams during planned and unplanned interventions
• Support major campaigns, including annual outages, HV inspections, statutory examinations where relevant protection testing, cable diagnostics, and retrofit activities

Protection, Control, SCADA, and System Performance

• Review and optimise protection settings philosophy within approved governance arrangements
• Support testing, analysis, and verification of protection, control, interlocking, metering, and communications systems associated with HV operation
• Work with SCADA and control‑system specialists to investigate alarms, electrical events, disturbances, and under‑performance
• Analyse trends in trips, faults, transient events, insulation condition, and availability losses to improve reliability and reduce recurring failure modes
• Provide input into cyber‑aware operational practices for electrical control interfaces where applicable under company policy and industry requirements

Contractor and Stakeholder Management

• Manage specialist electrical contractors, OEMs, framework partners, and inspection/testing providers
• Review RAMS, technical work packs, outage plans, and contractor deliverables
• Ensure high‑quality engineering records, defect closure, lessons learned, and audit readiness
• Support interface management with transmission, distribution, and other grid‑connected stakeholders where operational boundaries require coordination
• Provide concise reporting for senior management, lenders, insurers, Board committees, and shareholders on electrical risk, reliability, and mitigation plans

Continuous Improvement and Governance

• Drive improvements in electrical reliability, maintainability, spare parts resilience, and maintenance efficiency
• Support audits, certification interfaces, insurer recommendations, and compliance reviews
• Benchmark electrical performance and maintenance philosophy against prevailing offshore wind market

Skills

• Strong safety leadership and judgement
• Technical depth in HV operations and maintenance
• Structured problem solving and root cause analysis
• Clear written and verbal communication for board to field audiences
• Planning and coordination under outage and fault conditions
• Commercial awareness and risk‑based decision making
• Ability to influence contractors, OEMs, and internal stakeholders

Knowledge

• Offshore wind experience in O&M phase
• SAP/AP authorisation or demonstrable capability to achieve authorisation under windfarm HV safety rules
• Experience with offshore substations, array cables, export cables, turbine electrical systems, and SCADA‑linked operational diagnostics
• Knowledge of asset management systems aligned to ISO 55001
• Familiarity with DNV / IEC / OEM electrical standards and assurance practices

Qualifications

• Degree, HND, or equivalent higher qualification in Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Strong technical grounding in HV systems, protection, control, switching, and power system fault behaviour
• Demonstrable experience in offshore wind, utilities, conventional generation, marine energy, or comparable HV operating environments