OPG employee’s excellence in action helps keep Darlington Refurbishment on track
At a glance
- Eric LeBlanc is an Electrical and Control Technician currently working on the Darlington Refurbishment project.
- During Darlington’s Unit 3 return-to-service efforts, he came up with a new testing method that helped to avoid a challenge for the project.
- The experienced electrician is now set to share his knowledge with others as he prepares to take on a new role in training.
Every day, it takes the ingenuity, skills, and dedication of more than 10,000 OPG employees to generate low-carbon, reliable power.
Many times, these employees go above and beyond to get the job done.
People like OPG’s Eric LeBlanc, an Electrical and Control Technician working on the Darlington Refurbishment project, who recently used his intuition and insight to help come up with a new and beneficial testing method.
During return-to-service efforts for Darlington Nuclear’s Unit 3 last year, the project team experienced a challenge while testing the unit’s steam turbine.
“The first day we put steam to the turbine and it started spinning, it tripped off,” LeBlanc recalled.
LeBlanc, an electrician by trade, mulled over the problem before coming up with a new testing method.
During a night shift, he and his partner took the time to simulate testing the turbine without actually spinning it up. By taking data from the previous runs and incorporating it in his new manual test, LeBlanc was able to identify the culprit as a resistor module that needed to be sized more appropriately.
I’m a little more self-motivated, so I tend to dig into problems. I go home to think about an issue more often than I’d like to admit.Eric LeBlancElectrical and Control Technician
“Over the next couple of days, we were able to determine the appropriate size for the resistor, and the next time we ran the turbine we were able to get up to 1,800 rpm,” said the eight-year OPG veteran.
As a result, dynamic commissioning for Unit 3’s turbine was completed 13 days earlier than planned, which contributed to Unit 3 returning to service an impressive 169 days ahead of schedule.
The project team is now using this same testing method on Darlington’s Unit 1, which is nearing completion, and it will be used to validate Unit 4, the final unit undergoing refurbishment.
For LeBlanc, finding solutions to problems just comes second-nature.
Over his career, which has included a stint at General Motors as an electrician and a role in the plastics industry working with automation, LeBlanc has found joy in troubleshooting.
“I’m a little more self-motivated, so I tend to dig into problems,” he said. “I go home to think about an issue more often than I’d like to admit.”
After working his first four years at OPG in control maintenance, he has been enjoying his time in Turbine Generator Refurbishment at Darlington over the past three years.
The role has seen him work with other electricians to test newly overhauled control systems for the turbines at Darlington, ensuring the new equipment is working reliably and as designed.
Now he is hoping to share his expertise with others as he takes on a new role as a trainer this coming spring. In this position, he will be tasked with training and retraining other Electric and Control Technicians at Darlington.
Already used to mentoring others on the shop floor, LeBlanc sees this transition as a natural next step in his journey of learning from others and passing that knowledge on.
“The great thing about OPG is there is lots of opportunities, lots of people to learn from, and lots of different avenues to explore,” he said. “A year ago, I thought I’d never be a trainer. Now, in a few months, I’ll be a trainer. So, there’s definitely a lot of opportunities here. If you’re interested in learning and have a passion for it, this is the place to be.”
Related stories
Subscribe and stay informed
Sign up to receive the latest news, project updates, and event information from OPG.