UI Provides Frontline Workforce with Hands-On Training in Renovated Substation Facility

Old Baird Substation, decommissioned in 2017, is a core element of improved training curriculum emphasizing hands-on functional training for UI’s Substation and Test departments
Photos and Video of the facility linked HERE

 

 


 


STRATFORD, Conn. — July 11, 2024 — Today, United Illuminating (UI), a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), announced the opening of a new functional training facility for its Substation and Test departments at Old Baird Substation, a Stratford substation that was decommissioned and deenergized in 2017. Trainees in both departments will use the deenergized hardware in the former substation, including breakers, circuit switchers, and transformers, to practice hands-on troubleshooting and problem-solving. By providing an opportunity to use real-world equipment and tools in a safe setting, the Baird Training Facility will be a foundational element of UI’s newly updated five-year training curriculum, a joint management-union initiative for workplace safety and skill development for members of UI’s Substation and Test departments.


“Here at UI, we know that training our front-line workforce in accuracy, precision, and efficiency is one of the most important ways we ensure our customers have access to the most reliable electric service possible,” said Frank Reynolds, President & CEO of UI. “Transforming Old Baird from a substation serving thousands of customers to a preeminent functional training facility was a strong team effort between UI’s management, our workers’ union, and our Avangrid colleagues, and this week’s successful opening could not have happened without the contributions of all these team members. I am proud of the hard work and dedication it took to bring this training facility to fruition, and I wish all our current and future students luck as they continue to hone their skills with this program as a tool.” 


In 2015, UI determined that Old Baird Substation, which had served customers for more than 50 years, needed to be replaced and rebuilt in order to ensure continued reliability and resiliency for customers in the Stratford area and beyond. In its December 2015 Application to the Connecticut Siting Council to build New Baird Substation on the adjoining lot, UI described plans to convert Old Baird Substation into a training facility. Much of the equipment in the Baird Training Facility, while deenergized, is still on-site and in its original placement in the substation. Practicing maintenance and troubleshooting on this deenergized equipment provides a key training tool for apprentices: the trainers can simulate an issue that would cause an outage, and apprentices learn to troubleshoot and resolve it on real-world equipment without the safety concerns of working with high-voltage electricity or risking any impact for customers.


“As a regulated company, one of our primary objectives at UI is to provide our customers with the best possible service at the least possible cost,” said Chuck Eves, Vice President of Electric Operations at UI. “When Old Baird had outlived its usefulness as a substation, we committed to reusing it for another immensely important purpose: making it into one of the best possible training grounds for our front-line workforce. The Baird Training Facility is a key example of what it means to operate an electric utility prudently, where nothing is wasted and virtually everything we purchase on behalf of our customers has many uses before it’s retired. I am glad to see this facility open after many years of hard work and preparation, and I look forward to seeing it used well by people across our company.”


The Baird Training Facility is a core part of the new five-year training program for apprentices in UI’s Substation and Test departments. The newly revised comprehensive curriculum has been a key initiative since 2022, when UI’s union and management leadership, including Electric Operations, Technical Training, Test, Substation Operations, and Union Stewarts, identified a need to develop a curriculum that covers our rapidly changing industry, emphasizing skills such as Digitalization, Automation and Electrification. The facility and curriculum will provide both a quality classroom and hands-on setting for our employees to learn. The resulting curriculum provides a comprehensive framework for all five years of the training program, with content-rich modules leveraging both classroom learning and hands-on demonstrations using hardware in the Baird Training Facility.


“Bringing the training program for the Substation and Test departments from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’ took deep partnership and collaboration between many teams at our company, and I am proud to finally see it unveiled,” said Monty Adams, Substation Electrician at UI, who helped lead the development of the new training curriculum. “Old Baird will be a fantastic home-base for all our trainees as we work to build their skills in safety, operations and maintenance, and problem-solving so that we can continue to provide all our customers with the top-notch service they expect and deserve.”

#  #  #

Media Contact:

Node: liferay-3:8080