Modern wind turbines are massive, complex machines. While most can be expected to have 20-30- year lifespans with proper maintenance, from time to time, things don’t work the way they’re supposed to – and if that happens, hopefully Chris Lozano is around to help troubleshoot the issue.
Born and raised in Texas, Chris and his wife were high school sweethearts. “We both came from single-parent homes, and our families didn’t have a lot of money. From a young age, I was determined to work hard and make something out of myself,” he says.
That work ethic and desire to advance has guided him throughout his career. His first job out of high school was with Cargill in a meat packing plant, where he progressed from being a butcher, to working on specialized vacuum-sealing machinery, to the role of SPC Auditor, which is essentially quality control.
Chris leveraged the basic electrical skills he acquired at Cargill to land a job with Great Southwestern Construction, where he worked on substations and transmission lines as a Substation Groundsman. For more than two years, he and his wife, their two kids, and their pets lived out of a travel trailer and moved from job site to job site. “The shortest assignment we had was nine days and the longest was about seven months,” Chris remembers. “I worked in several states in the Midwest and southeastern U.S.”
The company did contract work for large utilities, so Chris gained a lot of on-the-job training. “It turned out to be great preparation for the wind industry because we were working with high-voltage systems, following electrical blueprints, and doing a lot of retrofits to substations,” he explains.
In early 2020, Chris and his wife were about to have their third child, and the couple was hoping he could find work back home in Texas. “We were in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the way to the delivery room when I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. I thought it might be an emergency, so I answered it.” It turned out to be a job offer from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE); a few weeks later, the family started to make their way back to Texas just as the pandemic began to hit.
“I tried to pick everything up as quickly as possible and run with it. In about a year, I went from maintenance to safety, and then I became a lead technician,” he recalls. ‘It was all on-the-job, get up and go!’”
A week after they’d arrived in Texas, Chris headed to New Mexico to start his new job with SGRE where, within the constraints of pandemic-related restrictions, most of his training was again hands-on. “They hired me to do general maintenance and I was fine with that – it was a place to start, and I didn’t know anything about wind. But I tried to pick everything up as quickly as possible and run with it. In about a year, I went from maintenance to safety, and then I became a lead technician,” he recalls. “It was all on-the-job, get up and go!”
Chris’s hard work paid off, and his next promotion was to Site Operations Manager – quite an accomplishment given that he had less than two years in the industry. He held this position at two wind farms before taking on the role of Traveling Troubleshooter, which is equivalent to his current role with EDF power solutions (EDFps). However, after just a few months as a troubleshooter, he left SGRE and took a position as a Senior BOP Technician with what was then EDF Renewables.
It’s typical for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manage the operations and maintenance (O&M) of their wind turbines for the first three to five years they are in service. After that, the wind farm owner may renew the O&M contract with the OEM, hire a third-party O&M provider, or perform the O&M in-house. Since EDFps is one of the largest third-party O&M providers in the U.S., the company almost always self-performs O&M for wind projects in which it has an ownership stake.
“The Senior BOP Technician job wasn’t my ideal role, but I knew that in a few months the O&M for the site would be rolling over to EDFps,” Chris clarifies. “It was an opportunity to get my foot in the door, and eventually I was able to transition to my current position and get back to working on turbines, which I love.”
Chris and his colleague, Evan Waters, who is also an Area Technical Specialist, work closely with their boss, Stirling Sanchez. “Stirling uses us kind of like Swiss army knives. We have broad skill sets, so he sends us to sites on an as-needed basis. Sometimes we fill in if a position is vacant or someone’s out on leave, and sometimes we help troubleshoot specific issues.”
Chris often draws on his experience as a site manager when monitoring the performance of the 12 wind sites and one solar + storage site in his region, which encompasses Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. “We keep a close eye on all the dashboards, and it’s not unusual for me or Evan to see something and suggest to Stirling that one of us should go check it out. We really work as a team.”
“Our work environment is what keeps us safe. Our tools are how we earn a living. We have to treat both with care and respect. If you don’t pay attention to the little things, it will catch up with you, and somewhere down the line you’ll have problems.”
Attention to detail has played a big role in Chris’s success. “Our work environment is what keeps us safe. Our tools are how we earn a living. We have to treat both with care and respect. If you don’t pay attention to the little things, it will catch up with you, and somewhere down the line you’ll have problems.”
“One thing I believe strongly is that a little bit of effort goes a long way. Sometimes that’s all it takes to open doors. That philosophy has gotten me to where I am today, and it’s something I teach my kids,” Chris reflects. This approach also comes into play on the job when he’s dealing with a wind turbine that isn’t cooperating. “I’m competitive, and I don’t want to let the turbine win!” he says with a laugh. “I will keep trying different things until I figure out what the issue is.”
