Christopher Van Valkenburgh
SAN DIEGO,CA
Summary
San Diego Gas & Electric Technical Support Technician, US Nuclear Navy veteran, electrical operator and supervisor, with over ten years of electrical background. Managed a team of electricians to ensure power delivery to the main bus of an aircraft carrier and handled communication and outage information accuracy and delivery in electric distribution operations.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Technical Support Technician
San Diego Gas & Electric
01.2023 - Current
- Provide technical guidance for unplanned electrical outages by providing real-time outage information and strategies to the Electric Distribution Operations and district leadership.
- Manage unplanned/forced electrical outages, emergencies, and system stress, to minimize customer impact and limit risk, including writing contingency plans. Support executive and customer communication for electrical outages.
- Review and edit outage documentation and reporting. Assist in post-outage reviews, unintended feeder operation analysis, and managing system enhancements. Assist in daily activities in support of Distribution System Operators.
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, San Diego Naval Base
01.2019 - 01.2023
- Maintenance lead: responsible for leading teams to conduct maintenance and repair of electrical equipment aboard a large assortment of Naval vessels.
- Multi-cable transit inspection lead: verifying cable transit between watertight boundaries, ensuring proper installation, routing, and support of wiring throughout the hull of the ship.
- Load testing lead: applying various resistive loads to 120V and 400hz electrical stations using a load bank to verify the station's ability to maintain relatively constant voltage, current, and frequency through a range of increasing loads.
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, USS Carl Vinson
07.2015 - 01.2019
- Experienced supervisor: Load Dispatcher in charge of a team of four electricians managing power generation and distribution to an aircraft carrier's main power bus. Supervised the troubleshooting, isolation, and restoration from ground faults, turbine generator failures, electrical fires, and many other equipment faults.
- Experienced qualifier: each watch station required on the job training, verbal knowledge checks for thousands of signatures and dozens of final boards with engineer trainers.
- Maintenance management: supervised thousands of planned and unplanned maintenance jobs. Completed essential emergency work ensuring propulsion of the aircraft carrier on shifts regularly exceeding 24 hours.
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, Nuclear Training Command
02.2013 - 07.2015
- Employed as a full-time student studying reactor technology, heat transfer and fluid flow, thermodynamics, mechanical and electrical fundamentals, mathematics, physics, materials, and other topics in support of building a comprehensive understanding of nuclear power and supporting systems.
- Qualification process included verbal and written knowledge checks with trainers to get hundreds of signatures, hours of on the job training, rigorous hand written examinations, and verbal final evaluation boards.
Education
Nuclear Power Plant Operator -
Nuclear Power Training Unit
Ballston Spa, NY07.2015
Electrician's Mate - Nuclear -
Nuclear Power School
Goose Creek, SC11.2014
Electrician's Mate -
Electrician's Mate Nuclear Field 'A' School
Goose Creek, SC10.2013
Associate of Arts - Math And Science
Allan Hancock College
Santa Maria, CA06.2010
Skills
- Electrical operations and supervision
- Vast danger tag writing and hanging experience
- Extensive experience qualifying in operations
- Comprehensive watch team experience
- Electrical and mechanical schematics
- Electrical troubleshooting
- Equipment maintenance and repair
- High voltage system experience
- Electrical safety performance and supervision
Timeline
Technical Support Technician
San Diego Gas & Electric
01.2023 - Current
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, San Diego Naval Base
01.2019 - 01.2023
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, USS Carl Vinson
07.2015 - 01.2019
Electrician's Mate (Nuclear)
United States Navy, Nuclear Training Command
02.2013 - 07.2015
Nuclear Power Plant Operator -
Nuclear Power Training Unit
Electrician's Mate - Nuclear -
Nuclear Power School
Electrician's Mate -
Electrician's Mate Nuclear Field 'A' School
Associate of Arts - Math And Science
Allan Hancock College
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