“No one was left without job opportunities or options. I thought I was going to go to Unit 2. In fact, I was selected and when we were going to start training, an opportunity opened up for reconversion to the world of renewable”
This is how he started his insertion into the world of renewable energy generation, in his case, in wind power operations as the Electrical Coordinator. As opposed to his previous positions as boiler and turbine operator at Bocamina, this new job involves a lot more field work.
“In general, I leave at 6am on Monday morning to arrive at the park around 8,” he says about the weekly trip he makes from Concepcion to Angol, his new routine and commute as a result of his new role within the Enel Group. “So, I stay in Angol all week, and I return to Concepcion on Fridays to be with my family.” He says that while the change was hard at first, his person efforts and that of his family have been fully compensated knowing that he is part of something bigger, “I arrive and I see more than 90 aerogenerators at the park, and I know I made the right choice. There's also growth and, frankly, I feel like I participate more in all of the processes. When there's a mistake, it hurts, and when we do things right, joy overflows. It's something new. It's immense and challenging.”
Renaico Wind Farm
Trained to change the world
One of the things Pedro highlights about his new career path is that it is totally new to him. Today, he says that he has more contact with people external to the operation, basically referring to the locals, the neighboring communities around the plant he is now a part of. In short, the people who have inhabited the area since before there was a wind park. “The social component is also important. In the areas where we operate, there are communities and people who have lived there long before we arrived, and in that sense, community relations are extremely important, because we have to know how to talk to them and explain what we do and how we are planning our networks, for example,” new steps and experiences that he is now placing at the service of renewable generation and that, according to him, have turned him into an all-terrain electrical coordinator.
This is how Pedro managed to reconvert his job and make a smooth transition from thermal power to wind power generation. “These are new options, because you have to commit to changing the world. This is how the world is now. It's not about establishing one thing for years, but you have to change by phases, by periods. You meet people and gain new experiences, and you have to be prepared for all of that,” he says enthusiastically, remembering his training process to become the electrical coordinator of Renaico, but without failing to recognize his experience at Bocamina 1.
“While there was training, my years of experience in thermal power generation helps a lot, because it's not only important to understand what it means to generate electricity from coal and all that it implies, but it's also extremely important to understand, for example, how an electrical substation is managed, how a transformer is cooled, to name a couple of things you will definitely encounter in a renewable operation like Renaico, for example.”
