2010-08-17 - Long-time Grid Systems and HVDC engineer is still enjoying his work with ABB and has no immediate plans to retire.
Little did Christer Eriksson know when he started his professional career as an apprentice in Sweden in the fall of 1960 at the age of 18, that he would still be alive and well and living in the United States, and still with the same company 50 years later.
Christer – now 67 and living near Portland, Oregon – started in the apprentice training program of ASEA in Ludvika, Sweden, where he was assigned to a testing lab developing rectifiers for high voltage DC transmission (HVDC) systems. After a short stint with the Swedish army, Christer returned to the ASEA factory, where he earned minimum wage but also completed his diploma in electrical engineering.
After time in Sweden, Denmark and Japan, Christer visited the United States to work on the Pacific Intertie Sylmar Converter Station in Los Angeles, California and has lived in the United States ever since. He met his wife, Gail, while on assignment in Minnesota in 1974, and started a family. He now has three grown kids: Chris (now in Seattle, Washington), Maiken (La Jolla, California) and Mai-Lee (Honolulu, Hawaii). Maiken and Mai-Lee were adopted as baby girls from Korea.
In 1980, Christer and his family moved to Corvallis, Oregon to work on various upgrades to the Pacific Intertie HVDC System ordered by Bonneville Power Administration, and eventually in 1985 to The Dalles, Oregon, along the Columbia River near the Cascade Mountain range. Today they reside in nearby Hood River.
The Pacific Intertie Expansion Project was completed in 1988 (about the time ASEA merged with Brown Boveri to become ABB), and Christer has since worked in various after-sales and business development leadership roles related to HVDC technology for ABB’s Grid Systems business.
Christer today serves as a director of business development within ABB’s Power Systems division, helping to oversee several projects with utilities on the West Coast and in western Canada. He continues to work closely with the Los Angeles City Department of Water and Power. “I’ve worked with these good folks since 1970,” he said. “That’s extremely helpful when you’re talking with them, or any customer, on how to modernize facilities and whether to repair or replace certain components.”
Christer is still enjoying his work with ABB and has no immediate plans to retire. “If ABB will have me and my wife will let me, I’d like to continue on for a few more years,” he said. “I just want to keep on doing what I’m doing. I still look forward to waking up every morning and coming to work.”
“It’s been a good ride so far, but there’s so much more to get done.”
Inside ABB spoke briefly with Christer on his 50 years with ABB and asked him a few questions.
Q. Christer, what kind of technology advances stand out to you since starting with ABB in 1960?
Christer: “Most of today’s popular Grid Systems solutions offerings, such as High Voltage DC (HVDC) and Flexible AC Transmission systems (FACTS), are light years from where they were when I started.
For example, HVDC has evolved since it was first introduced in 1954. What started with mercury arc valve rectifiers/inverters, with its many problems, were soon replaced by solid state valves based on thyristor technology. Thyristors created the equivalent of switching capacities at that time. This allowed us to build even larger capacity converters.
Also, the controls for these HVDC converters have evolved from vacuum tubes to transistors to micro processors to today’s state-of-the-art, computer-based control and protection systems.”
Q. What about underground cable technology?
Christer: “Underground and undersea cable technology that were unthinkable in 1960 have also significantly evolved, I’d say. Submarine cables used to be very impractical, inefficient and costly. Eventually, new power electronic devices were developed, such as IGBT. This led to ABB's pioneering work with voltage source converters which eventually supported development of ABB’s HVDC Light® underground/undersea transmission systems. This allows utilities today to efficiently move large amounts of power from an off-shore wind farm undersea to the mainland grid, or to transmit power underground over long distances and thus avoid dealing with siting and other political issues.”
Q. With age and experience comes wisdom. What words of wisdom might you impart to the next generation of engineers?
Christer: “First and foremost, to me, is the importance of building trust in your customer relationships. You can’t put a price on the value of long-term relationships. Over time, our clients would come to me not as a salesperson but as an old friend seeking some honest advice. The value doesn’t always show up in immediate order intake but over time it pays handsome dividends.”
Then and Now
1960
First Day: Oct. 3, 1960 (Age 18)
First Job: Apprentice, HVDC Test Lab
First Site: Ludvika, Sweden (ASEA)
US President in Office: Dwight Eisenhower
2010
Current Job: Director, Business Development, ABB Grid Systems/HVDC
Current Site: The Dalles, Oregon, USA (Age 67)
US President in Office: Barack Obama