Regional Engineer of the Year 2015

Written by: Lisa Navarro

Bau Yang Chang and Reg. Dir. David Murillo – Photo credit: Winetta OwensCongratulations to Bau Yang Chang, the Mid-Pacific Region’s Engineer of the Year. Bau is an Electrical Engineer in the Central Valley Operations Office. Her engineering achievements have contributed to electrical safety, successful commissioning of new equipment, and reliability compliance. Arc Flash analyses identify arc-flash hazards in powerplants and help workers choose appropriate personal protective equipment when working on/around energized equipment. Bau completed Arc Flash analyses in both the Mid-Pacific and Lower Colorado regions. Where the analyses were contracted, she helped collect data and peer review the contractor’s work. She helped commission new equipment such as exciters, protective relays, and specifically the double bus double breaker switchyard configuration at the Shasta Powerplant. For commissioning new equipment, she prepared and modified multiple facility drawings, wrote test and energization plans, and coordinated the effort from beginning to end. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) was created to ensure the reliability of the bulk electric system (BES). Bau helped identify the protective devices that affect the BES at the Mid-Pacific Region’s NERC powerplants and reviewed maintenance of those devices to ensure their operability. She also worked closely with the field technicians and Regional Protection Engineer to correct or improve equipment settings to ensure reliability. In addition, she coordinated with Western Area Power Administration engineers to jointly test-share protective devices and circuits. She scheduled outages, wrote test procedures and performed the testing, which helped the Region be NERC compliant. Congratulations on your selection as the Mid-Pacific Region’s Engineer of the Year, Bau!

Published on November 13, 2015