As a Technical Training Specialist for HSI, Nancy draws on her experience as a NERC Certified System Operator to provide and reinforce training concepts for system operators. In addition, Nancy is a huge advocate for simulation-based training to enhance retention and strengthen performance. “The real-time system operation position is a very intriguing, prestigious, and challenging position. Effective training is instrumental in ensuring operators can perform on the job,” she explains.

Helping System Operators Ensure Reliability Transmission & Distribution World

T&D visited with DeLeon on helping system operators ensure reliability.

Helping current and future system operators improve or reinforce their knowledge of system operations is the reason Nancy DeLeon is a trainer. DeLeon develops online training, which enables training to be possible when it might not otherwise be, reaching more system operators.

DeLeon is a NERC Certified System Operator with over 25 years of energy industry experience who provides insight into the planning and organizing of training and compliance consulting for HSI. She is one of the lead analysts for the design, delivery, and implementation of training to support education and compliance needs of customers. She manages development of service and product lines for training/consulting services related to PER-005 and training consulting.

She started out at Duke Energy, holding positions of progressive responsibility, including:

• System Operator
• Technical Specialist
• Reliability Operator
• Lead System Coordinator
• Technical Trainer

“When I was a trainer for a large utility, I trained on basic power system fundamentals, advance simulations, and restoration drills,” DeLeon said. As an HSI trainer, she also teaches system operator certification courses, effective communication for operations, contingency analysis courses, and continuing education courses, such as voltage control.

Her current position as a Technical Training Specialist exposes her to different business models. Each is designed to ensure reliable system operations while meeting the business needs of the organizations. This exposure to a variety of processes and procedures is taken into account when presenting a course or training session.

Her past experience as a system operator for a large utility also greatly enhances her ability to relate to the students in the classroom or online.

When she first started her career at Duke, she supported the operations group with short-time planning. At that point, she decided she wanted to understand and experience real-time operations. “The real-time system operation position is a very intriguing, prestigious and challenging position.”

As a trainer and a system operator, she said she has learned a couple of old clichés that are true and part of her philosophy:

• There is never a stupid question: If there is confusion or conflict in your mind, you must clear it up to enable understanding and learning to take place.
  
• Knowledge is power: There is power in understanding and in being empowered to help others to learn. This applies to any career field.

When DeLeon is not teaching system operators, she clears her mind by being outdoors. “It helps me and reminds me that we (the human race) are trying to capture and recreate forces of nature. Formulas are just mathematical ways to explain relationships and cause and effect. Mostly, being outdoors is an escape of the modern (electricity demanding) world,” she said.

For HSI, Nancy is one of the subject matter experts for the design, delivery, and implementation of training.

Previously, Nancy was SERC’s Program Manager where she led the SERC System Operator Conferences and Restoration Drill and the Operating Committee and its subcommittee.

In her time at NERC, Nancy was the Personnel Certification Manager where she managed the:

• NERC Exam Development Process
• NERC contracts and deliverables
• The Exam Working Group and Personnel Certification Governance Committee

Recent HSI Projects

Nancy taught closed instructor-led courses such as:

• Analyzing and Mitigating Contingencies: Operational Situational Awareness
• Effective Communication for System Operators
• Voltage Control 1 &
  

Nancy has taught NERC Certification: Exam Preparation instructor-led at the following organizations:

• Southern Company
• New York Power Authority (NYPA)
• Detroit Edison (DTE)
• American Transmission Company (ATC)
• Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO)
• Fortis BC, Inc
• Valley Electric Association (VEA)