#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This specialty requires complete dedication, discipline, and concentration. The profession with a masculine character submitted to the former primary school teacher and, to some extent, became her destiny at TPP-2.
Elena Sichkar has been working as a boiler-turbine shop block control system operator for 30 years.
“It wasn’t me who chose power engineering, but power engineering that chose me. My father and brother worked in this field, but I didn’t immediately come to production, although I regularly visited the TPP”, Elena Sichkar shares.
At first, the Talnah resident worked at a school, taught children, but the harsh 90s made their adjustments to her teaching routine, and one day the former teacher crossed the TPP-2’s threshold. As a persistent and inquisitive person, she began to learn the specifics of the thermal power plant’s operation and eventually realized that her future was there.
“This is truly a man’s profession. Its difficulty is that it requires complete concentration, a large amount of knowledge about the units and mechanisms of the TPP. Training in the specialty goes from simple to complex. I started as a tracker and gradually improved my qualifications and learned the nuances of the enterprise’s work. In fact, I walked it up and down, learned from the inside, accumulated the necessary knowledge and experience and moved on to managing all this equipment”, said Elena Sichkar.
Today, she is a machine operator of the block control system of units, and her task is to ensure the efficient and safe operation of the boiler and turbine unit, as well as generators. She says that it can be psychologically difficult, especially if there is a force majeure or other non-standard situation. Fortunately, this happens rarely. Elena says that she is very motivated and disciplined by the fact that any shortcoming can lead to the absence of light and heat in homes and factories.
“My computer monitor displays the parameters of pressure, heat consumption, temperature, and such environments as water and steam. Work experience, which is accumulated practically from scratch, helps me not to get lost in all this information. When a person begins to learn a poem, he imagines images, and then, as he memorizes, he begins to talk about the picture that has formed in his head. I form a picture in my head in the same way and, seeing some parameters, I understand what is happening with certain units”, explained Elena Sichkar.
Her story about work is fascinating, and at some point you want to try to understand the huge number of icons on the monitor.
“The TPP is life for me. I first found myself here as a little girl. I visited TPP-1, TPP-3, and then TPP-2. I didn’t think that I would connect my life with energy, but when I came here at a conscious age, at 25, I realized that this was mine. A lot has been lived here, and we are like a big family”, noted Elena Sichkar.
Elena proudly says that she knows the entire plant like the back of her hand, and not many people aspire to take such a responsible position as hers. She was not afraid to retrain from scratch and, thanks to persistence, became a true professional in her field.
“When I went to this position, I was very afraid. I was afraid of responsibility, computerization, letting my colleagues down, but I am of the opinion that a person should develop and move forward at least in small steps. If a stream stops, it turns into a swamp”, said Elena.
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Text: Maria Sanina, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
