RIAN archive 362414 New upgarded boiler at Artemovsk thermal power station, Primorye

A stationary engineer (also called an operating engineer, power engineer or process operator) is a technically trained professional who operates, troubleshoots and oversees industrial machinery and equipment that provide and utilize energy in various forms. The title "power engineer" is used differently between the United States and Canada. Stationary engineers are responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of a wide range of equipment including boilers, steam turbines, gas turbines, gas compressors, generators, motors, air conditioning systems, heat exchangers,

heat recovery steam generator A heat recovery steam generator (''HRSG'') is an energy recovery heat exchanger that recovers heat from a hot gas stream, such as a combustion turbine or other waste gas stream. It produces steam that can be used in a process (cogeneration) or us ...

s (HRSGs) that may be directly (duct burners) or indirectly fired (gas turbine exhaust heat collectors), hot water generators, and

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

machinery in addition to its associated auxiliary equipment (

air compressor An air compressor is a pneumatic device that converts power (using an electric motor, diesel or gasoline engine, etc.) into potential energy stored in pressurized air (i.e., compressed air). By one of several methods, an air compressor forces m ...

s, natural gas compressors,

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

switchgear In an electric power system, a switchgear is composed of electrical disconnect switches, fuses or circuit breakers used to control, protect and isolate electrical equipment. Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to allow work to be ...

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they ...

s, etc.). Stationary engineers are trained in many areas, including mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, metallurgy, instrumentation, and a wide range of safety skills. They typically work in

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

, office buildings,

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...

s, power generation plants, industrial facilities, and residential and commercial buildings. The use of the title Stationary Engineer predates other engineering designations and is not to be confused with

Professional Engineer Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thro ...

, a title typically given to design engineers in their given field. The job of today's engineer has been greatly changed by computers and automation as well as the replacement of steam engines on ships and trains. Workers have adapted to the challenges of the changing job market. Today, stationary engineers are required to be significantly more involved with the technical aspect of the job, as many plants and buildings are updated with increasingly more automated systems of

control valve A control valve is a valve used to control fluid flow by varying the size of the flow passage as directed by a signal from a controller. This enables the direct control of flow rate and the consequential control of process quantities such as pressu ...

s and

distributed control system A distributed control system (DCS) is a computerised control system for a process or plant usually with many control loops, in which autonomous controllers are distributed throughout the system, but there is no central operator supervisory contro ...

History

The profession of stationary engineering emerged during the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

with the development of steam-powered pumps by

Thomas Savery Thomas Savery (; c. 1650 – 15 May 1715) was an English inventor and engineer. He invented the first commercially used steam-powered device, a steam pump which is often referred to as the "Savery engine". Savery's steam pump was a revolutionar ...

and

Thomas Newcomen Thomas Newcomen (; February 1664 – 5 August 1729) was an English inventor who created the atmospheric engine, the first practical fuel-burning engine in 1712. He was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He ...

which were used to draw water from mines, and the industrial

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

s perfected by

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...

. Railroad engineers operated early

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s and continue to operate trains today, as well as marine engineers, who operated the boilers on

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamship ...

s. The certification and classification of stationary engineers was developed in order to reduce incidents of boiler explosions in the late 19th century. Notable individuals who worked as stationary engineers include

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians In the history of the United Kingdom and the ...

, William Faulkner, and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

Power Engineering (Technical Regulators)

In Canada, power engineers are regulated by their respective jurisdictions. Each province has a safety authority that is granted power through "enabling acts" and overseen by the Canadian Standards Association. Examinations and licensing in all 10 provinces and three territories are regulated by the Standardization of Power Engineers Examinations Committee (SOPEEC) who receives recommendations by the Interprovincial Power Engineering Curriculum Committee (IPECC).

Jurisdictional authorities

Alberta Boilers Safety Association (ABSA)

Technical Safety British Columbia (TSBC)
* Office of The Fire Commissioner * Government of New Brunswick
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
* Northwest Territories * Nova Scotia * Nunavut
Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA)
* Government of Prince Edward Island * Régie du bâtiment du Québec and Emploi-Québec (RBQ, EQ)
Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan
* Yukon

United States regulation

In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

power engineers are governed solely by their individual states, or by their specific municipalities. Several States, such as

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

have opted to align with Canada's guidelines regarding power engineering education, however, this is not common. In the United States, stationary engineers must be

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

d in several cities and states. The

New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction ...

requires a Stationary Engineer's License to practice in the

City of New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

; to obtain the license one must pass a written and practical exam and have at least five years' experience working directly under a licensed stationary engineer, or one year if in possession of a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

. Holders of the Stationary Engineer's License primarily work in large

power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...

facilities, such as

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

power plants, peaking units, and large

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

and refrigeration plants (CHRPs). For the State of California, Stationary Engineers are the State of California Military Department's sole source of Airfield Lighting and Repair.

External links

The International Union of Operating Engineers

* ttp://www.asope.org The American Society of Power Engineersbr>The National Institute for the Uniform Licensing of Power EngineersNational Institute of Power EngineersStandardization of Power Engineer Examinations Committee

References

{{Reflist Plant operator Power engineering