Job Descriptions
Powerplant Control Room Operators
How can you 'run' a river without using a boat or getting wet?
By working in a Reclamation hydro-plant control room, of course. For us, "river running" is serious business. As an operator in a control room, you must balance operations to ensure water and power are delivered to the right customers at the right times in the right amounts. Operators don't just work for Reclamation; their customers also include municipal and industrial water suppliers, power contractors, farmers, residential water users, recreationists, fish and wildlife species, and many other entities that rely on the water and power supplied by our dams and their hydro-facilities. Can you imagine opening up spillway gates to create a "man-made" flood through the Grand Canyon, or scheduling hydropower generation each hour to ensure that water sent through turbines gets delivered in 2 days to an irrigator 300 miles downstream? It is these kinds of challenging activities - and more! - that will make opportunities as a hydro-powerplant control room operator exciting and limitless.
