Robert J. Slebodnik, PE

Biography:

Robert J. Slebodnik, earned a BSEE from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975 and started at Allegheny Power (AP), a major electric utility, until a 2011 merge with FirstEnergy. He worked in engineering and management positions until retiring in 2018 as Supervisor of Substation Engineering & Design leading design teams on substation projects. His extensive 42 years’ experience is in high voltage substation design and equipment specification from 12kV to 765kV. He coordinated the siting of 65 new substations and designed 35 new substations along with numerous substation upgrades, additions and expansions. He assisted in implementing systems for CAD, grounding design, cost estimating and project management. He instructed Substation Design for PSU’s Advanced School in Power Engineering and AP’s Training Center, and authored, published and presented related papers to utility industry groups. Bob has been a licensed professional engineer in PA since 1986. He has been an IEEE member since 1989, a Senior Member in 2007, belongs to the PES, and was Tutorial Chair for the 2008 IEEE PES General Meeting. He has been a CIGRE member since 2011 and served as a full member of WG B3.43 “Contemporary Design of Low Cost Substations in Developing Countries”. Bob’s most recent major assignment was reviewing consultants’ engineering on the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) megaproject, a $1B expansion in PJM for reliability with a 210-mile 500kV line across 3 states, a new 500/138kV substation and 500kV line terminals at existing stations – all in-service in a 5 year schedule. His last design was a new 138-34.5kV, 35MVA industrial customer substation supplying a treatment plant for wastewater from hydraulic-fracture drilling of natural gas wells.