Interview With an Engineer: Celebrating National STEM Day

Delaware Electric Cooperative owes a great deal to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) field. Thanks to continued advancements in equipment and technology, the Co-op is consistently upgrading our methods and capability to provide members with reliable power. Without the ideas generated by the STEM industry, DEC, as we know it, would not exist. But more important than the ideas are the people who dream big enough to bring them to life, the people who design and build them into the real-life products and systems we use to improve lives every day. Fortunately for us, our Cooperative family is overflowing with just such people, and this National STEM Day, we celebrate by spotlighting one of our many innovative team members: manager of system controls and dispatch Brittany Wagner.

Growing up, Wagner says she was interested in how things were built and how they worked, sparking an interest in applying to Polytech High School, where she selected the school’s electronics program as her focus of study. The program gave students practical experience with hands-on learning activities such as fixing equipment around the school, as well as offering them the opportunity to impart what they had learned to younger students through electronics and robotics demonstrations. Wagner says her time at Polytech helped her recognize her passion for the electronics field, which she continued to pursue when she went to the University of Delaware (UD) for college.

“After Polytech, I knew I wanted to stay in the computer and electronics world, so I selected engineering as my major due to the wide variety of paths I could take,” Wagner says. “I also decided to get one of my minors in sustainable energy technology and took extra classes in motors, generators, electric power and other renewable energy.”

As luck would have it, the classes Wagner took as part of her minor would fuel her curiosity about a career in the electric utility industry. After accepting an internship opportunity at the Co-op, Wagner says her interests were solidified.

“After taking the extra power classes at UD, I decided to apply for an internship at the Co-op,” Wagner says. “I knew it would be close to home and give me experience in the field. I was hoping the internship would help me decide if I really wanted to do this for the rest of my life, or if I enjoyed the power classes as more of a hobby. Turns out, I loved it!”

Following her internship, Wagner was hired to work in DEC’s operations department, under the heading of system controls. Wagner quickly learned that her real education had only begun – while the classroom had taught her everything she knew so far, the job of an engineer, as with many occupations, proved to be largely taught in on-the-job scenarios.

“Nothing compares to real life experience,” Wagner says. “You can theorize all day, but until you dive in, you have no idea all that is entailed.”

The work also gave Wagner an appreciation for the importance of the service DEC provides for its members: electrification. It wasn’t until she was working in the field herself that she recognized the impact she and other Co-op employees had in the lives of the people they power.

“We want power to be more reliable for the consumers, which means less outages, more affordable costs and that is a huge undertaking,” Wagner says. “I also appreciate that, because of the diversity in this industry, every day is something new. When I first started here, I expanded our communications to the substations from phone lines to fiber. And just this past week, my team and I programmed and tested all the new communications devices needed to bring a new substation online.”

Over the course of her career at the Co-op, Wagner says one of her most fulfilling experiences has been building DEC’s current version of its SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system - the communication component of the overarching D.A. (Distribution Automation) system. D.A. remotely detects and isolates faults on the lines, ensuring that the majority of members remain unaffected if an outage occurs. Then, through SCADA, the D.A. system communicates data about the functioning of Co-op field equipment – for example, substations – in response to the fault. At the time of its redevelopment, Wagner says she was charged with co-creating the system “from scratch” with the vendor, while her counterpart at the Co-op maintained the existing system.

“It was an amazing experience – long hours and a long year. But in the end when we turned it on and completed the testing, it was an amazing feeling,” Wagner says. “I was proud of the work I had done. To know I had played a huge role in building this system that most operations staff use on a daily basis, the nervousness over every detail being right and knowing my contributions would be here at the Co-op until the next new SCADA system was designed – possibly 20 or 30 years from now – it was really amazing.”

While the accomplishments have been many and great, that is not to say Wagner hasn’t faced challenges along the way. In school – both high school and college – Wagner says she was one of only a few women that she knew in her field, compared to the hundreds of men she saw pursuing the same field of study and career. That significant difference in numbers motivated Wagner to strive to be the best at any project she took on, in the hopes that she would garner the same respect as an engineer that her male colleagues received.

“It was high stress, trying to prove yourself and complete the work to the best of your ability. I wanted to be recognized as an engineer. When I first started at the Co-op, I was an intern with hardly any work experience, and I felt I had to prove to myself and others that I was competent and confident,” Wagner says. “And here I am ten years later as the manager of my department, getting to make decisions on new technology and what new devices the Co-op wants to utilize going forward. I never stop trying to be my best and help others get there with me.”

As part of her advice to the future generation of STEM enthusiasts, Wagner is quick to emphasize the “help others get there with me” aspect of the work, along with urging the necessity of not shying away from different or unconventional pathways when pursuing your goals.

“Don’t be afraid to explore all avenues – you never know what paths are out there without exploring, and no matter what discipline you choose, you can go into almost any field. I never would have known power was an option until I tried it,” Wagner says. “And even if you fail or make a mistake, learn from it and help others along. A strong team and leader go far. We don’t have to compete with each other or tear each other down. The more we grow as a team, the more we can accomplish going forward.”