People

【 Dajia River Hydroelectric Power Plant Manager 】 【 Docent of Taipower Exhibit Center in Northern Taiwan 】
 【 The Director of Nuclear Power Plant 1 】 【 Wind Power Patrolman 】 【 Thermal Power Boiler Director 】【 Substation Maintenance 】
【 Power Saving Promotion Staff in North District 】 【 Director of Power Distribution 】 【 Taipower Spokesman 】

We investigated the workers of different units about working experience and content so that we could understand Taiwan Power Company more.

Substation Maintenance
Interview：Shih-Huang Li
Date：December 22nd, 2018
Place：Taipei North Service Office in Taiwan Power Company

Q1: Could you tell us your title, work experience and content?
A1: I have been in Taipower for 27 years. I am the foreman in outside work. My job is maintenance such as replacing the old poles and old transformers near home.
Q2: How did you get into Taiwan Power Company?
A2: I was from Kinmen. When I graduated from high school, it was not easy to get a job. Therefore I went to Taiwan. I had been admitted to Oceanology College and I had also been admitted to R.O.C Naval Academy, but it was big spending on studying to family at that time. I can make money after I have been admitted to the power company for half a year, so I chose to work for Taipower. I entered Taipower at the age of 18 and have been serving until now.
Q3: What qualifications or expertise do you have?
A3: Early employees had to graduate from high school. We are trained for six months after entering the company and learn a lot of skills. We have to climb the pole every day. There are excellent coaches to teach new staffs, and help them to pass the C-level personnel of the external technical license because Labor Standard Laws requires at least with C-level license to work in an elevated position of more than two meters. After distributing to other units of Taipower, they must take the B-level and even the A-level license by themselves.
Q4: What level did you get?
A4: I am A-level.
Q5: How long do they get an A-level license?
A5: The previous regulations are stricter. At that time, they had to wait for 2 years after getting C-level, so they could take B-level exam. And they still needed to work for 4 more years, and then they were just allowed to take A-level exam unless they have bachelor degrees. Otherwise, they would take much time.
Q6: What situation do you usually repair in work?
A6: There are types of units and they are different. One is working whole days without break. My job belongs to the other one which works from eight a.m. to five p.m., and I will arrange the schedule to repair. For example, when equipment is out of order or too old, we will arrange the power failure and we have to fix or renew the equipment during the time. I used to stay in another unit for ten years. It is a 24-hour service. Just one call (1911), no matter how late they will help you.

Q7: How many people to go to repair at once?
A7: It depends on the manager. Sometimes, he appoints five to six people. If it is a construction at night, he has to consider one more person who directs the traffic, so he will ask more people to deal with it. Thus, the number of people involved in the repair is not necessarily the same.
Q8: How long do you spend on repairing?
A8: Each time is different. We would try to finish our work before six o’clock in the morning, and we start from one o’clock in the morning. If we work from nine a.m. to twelve p.m. or from one-thirty to four p.m., we would try to finish in three hours.
Q9: Is there any risk around your working place?
A9: My job is really high-risk because I often climb up the utility pole which is eleven thousand voltages. I also have to climb up high more than two meters. To protect myself, we will fasten the belt and rope. Even I might inhale the toxic gas when fixing the subway cables under manhole cover.
Q10: How do you reduce risks?
A10: We have plenty of safety garments, and pay more attention when climbing the utility pole. When we have the power failure, we would connect the ground wire.
Q11: What is the challenge when working? How do you dealt with it?
A11: The most challenging thing is to train the recruit, and our role is like a teacher. It is easy to teach smart student because they can learn fast; however, it is much challenging to teach students with common grades. We usually have much sense of achievement when latter ones get good grade. By the way, we also have female maintainer twice a year, even they have Second license which many of the male colleagues cannot pass the exam. The range of the age is also wide, which from twenties to forties, etc. My challenge is to teach them with various ways, which is the best way for only themselves, though I have to teach thirteen to fourteen students at the same time, especially the company asks all the staff must have the Second license.
Q12: Is there any gap year among the maintenance staffs?
A12: It is a very serious huge gap. Like our unit, Except for two of us, all other work experience is worse than us for more than 20 years. Thus, we have to train the new recruits well as soon as possible.
Q13: What is your sense of accomplishment during work? Why?
A13: It should be that we tried our best to repair the electricity in very short time after the typhoon. Although many unexpected problems would happen, we did not only overcome them but also fix them well. In the beginning, the users would blame us why we hadn’t solved problems yet. The thing we could do is only saying sorry to them. However, their acknowledgment is the biggest comfort for us!