Daniel and his team work 24/7 to ensure Hydro is able to reliably deliver power to our customers.

Tell us about yourself.

I live in the St. John’s area with my wife, April, and am a father of two young boys who are into all kinds of sports. I spend most of my time taxiing my kids between outdoor and indoor fields throughout the summer and winter.

When I’m not taxiing the kids around, I’m usually trying to make my way over to Costco to beat the rush!

Tell us about your role with Hydro.

I have been working for Hydro for over 21 years and have been in my role as Team Lead of an incredibly talented group of individuals that make up our Operational Technology (OT) team for over two years. One of our team’s biggest responsibilities is to ensure the computer systems our Operations teams use to control the provincial power grid are always working. This means managing the core Energy Management System and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for Hydro and Churchill Falls – these are essentially computers and infrastructure used to remotely control and retrieve real time data from the interconnected systems throughout our province. We ensure the data coming from our assets throughout the province is available, reliable, and secure, as this information is used by departments all across our organization.

What is something you love about working for Hydro?

I consider myself lucky to be working here today, especially around so many fantastic individuals. I love coming into work every day and working amongst an amazing group of people. Being able to see others succeed as of result of the services that our team provides is an extremely rewarding experience. Through my work, I feel I’m able to provide direction and be a part of positive change as we continue to grow as an organization.

What is something people may not know about your job?

I wear many hats working to plan and prioritize the incoming capital and operational work requests from across the company. People may also be surprised to learn I’m part of an on-call rotation to provide 24/7 support for the many services we provide.

As the long-term asset planner (LTAP) for our Energy Management System, I continuously work with our OT Cyber Security Officer to strengthen and protect our operational networks and technology to continually evolve our infrastructure to protect our assets against any current and future threats. I am focused on continually developing our OT roadmap to outline the direction of our infrastructure, including hardware and software, for the road ahead.

What role do you play in ensuring Hydro can provide safe, reliable power to our customers?

Our primary role in OT is to protect the technology required to control our provincial power grid. This includes ensuring the computer systems and infrastructure used to control the power grid are readily available, especially in the event of inclement weather. Our team is tasked with ensuring these systems remain protected from any attacks by foreign and domestic threats. Together, we ensure our assets are available to reliably deliver power to our customers 24/7.

We also help Hydro respond quickly to any unexpected outages and safely complete maintenance to provide the best service for our customers and to help ensure our coworkers make it home safely to their friends and families every day.