A substation electrician is a highly skilled professional responsible for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing substation electrical equipment. The common types of equipment they work with include oil circuit breakers, transformers, and insulators.
The typical workday of a substation electrician involves conducting maintenance checks, testing equipment, making any necessary repairs or replacements, and completing maintenance records. They may also be responsible for painting, repairing, and maintaining substation buildings, as well as pouring concrete footings for heavy equipment installation. As you would expect, this job requires a lot of physical activity, and substation electricians usually find themselves on their feet most of the time.
Besides a high school diploma, a substation electrician would need to complete an appropriate apprenticeship to qualify for this role. They would also need to have substantial hands-on experience working with substation equipment, as well as excellent knowledge of safety standards and protocols.
Since this job is inherently risky and mission-critical, substation electricians earn an average of $82,000 per year.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Substation Electrician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $27.98 an hour? That's $58,200 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 74,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Substation Electricians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Color vision, Communication skills and Physical strength.
If you're interested in becoming a Substation Electrician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 20.0% of Substation Electricians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.8% of Substation Electricians have master's degrees. Even though some Substation Electricians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Substation Electrician. When we researched the most common majors for a Substation Electrician, we found that they most commonly earn Associate Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Substation Electrician resumes include Bachelor's Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Substation Electrician. In fact, many Substation Electrician jobs require experience in a role such as Electrician. Meanwhile, many Substation Electricians also have previous career experience in roles such as Journeyman Electrician or Journeyman Wireman.