David Lerbs, Operation & Maintenance bei der TRICERA energy GmbH

David, Operation & Maintenance

David and I have a Teams appointment for an employee interview. We wanted to do it in person, but David was late back from the construction site again.

So David, are you looking forward to the Christmas season when things are a little more relaxed?

In principle: yes. Spending time with the family is nice. The year was very turbulent, major projects like the one with STEAG took a lot of time and energy. There were many challenges that we successfully brought to a close, and an important acceptance is due shortly before Christmas.
However, as I’m now primarily in charge of Operations & Maintenance, I won’t be able to avoid taking a virtual look at the plants over the holidays and between the years.

How is it that you end up in Dresden from the navy in northern Germany and in project management after studying mechanical engineering?

Back then, I suffered an injury in the German Armed Forces, which made the career as an officer that I had been aiming for impossible. So I made the decision to study. Halle and Dresden were my choices. As I have friends and family in Dresden and Dresden is a beautiful city, the decision was easy for me.

To the second part of the question: My goal was to study chemical engineering, but unfortunately my NC (numerus clausus) was not sufficient for me to be accepted this year of all years. So I reoriented myself and ended up studying mechanical engineering.

I then also completed compulsory internships in this field, at Belectric at the time. The focus was on developing a protective housing for the battery management system (BMS). During this time, my superiors apparently realized that I was relatively good at dealing with other people. So they brought me into the project support team. I was already very close to the product. That sparked my interest in electrical engineering, which I hadn’t really excelled at during my studies. It all became clearer with the practical relevance.

How did it come about that you are now focusing on Operation & Maintenance (O&M)?

Right at the beginning of my career, I was also involved in after-sales matters at Belectric and RWE. My area of responsibility was at the interface between O&M and implementation. As a result, I also went to maintenance, the activities in realization and the work for O&M ran in parallel.

When TRICERA was founded, the question of how we wanted to handle O&M was already on the table. Six months after the company was founded, we decided that we wanted to cover maintenance internally. So I helped to set up this area and my previous experience meant that I was practically predestined for it and was a permanent fixture.

The O&M division is therefore relatively new at TRICERA. Are you actively involved in shaping the area?

As the division has not existed since it was founded, there is a lot of creative freedom and therefore a great opportunity to steer things in the right direction together with my colleagues. We have a really cool team with committed people who also know their way around the respective area. One example is Lennart, who is responsible for reporting and data mining. Like the others, he does a fantastic job.

What do you do all day in O&M?

We wait until the alarm goes off, put the Mau Mau cards to one side and take a closer look.

All joking aside. O&M is a very broad field. On the one hand, there is system monitoring and data evaluation, where we document battery degradation in real time, for example, as this almost always deviates slightly from the forecast. We create reports internally for ourselves and, above all, externally for the customer so that they don’t have to look after the system and still have a very good transparent insight.

On the other hand, it is about maintaining the system. It is crucial that the system runs as expected and that faults are rectified as quickly as possible. At the same time, support is provided for implementation when synergy effects arise, for example when you are on site at a plant (see picture). The great thing about O&M is that we have interfaces to all relevant areas of the company, such as software, electrical engineering, materials management and realization.

This is particularly important because the Operation & Maintenance department is the last link in the chain of a battery storage process and we document the knowledge gained in every project. Our Quality Manager Paul and I have regular “lessons learned” meetings in which documentation and quality assurance take place. We then share these with our colleagues and gradually build up a knowledge database based on what has already been implemented.

In a nutshell: Why TRICERA and what motivates you?

Also in a nutshell: the interface function I mentioned. I enjoy working with this great team and the collaboration with the other teams is also productive and efficient.

I also appreciate the corporate culture. Everyone can contribute their strengths and grow. I was originally in Project Development, then I went back to Project Management and now I’m in Operations & Maintenance. At the same time, there is a great team spirit: everyone works with passion for the big picture, nobody is bigger than TRICERA.

All of this sounds like an enjoyable but also challenging working day. How do you balance this out in your free time?

Sometimes I only work half days (8 hours) 😉.

Of course it’s stressful. I draw a lot of energy from the fact that I enjoy it, even though it’s exhausting. In all this time, I’ve never once had the feeling that I didn’t enjoy going to work.

I find balance with my family, most of whom live in Dresden. I also play soccer in my free time. A very large part of my time is also reserved for Dynamo Dresden. I’m an active part of the fan scene and go to almost every away game.
I’ve also developed a large circle of friends. It’s just like in the company. Completely different characters come together. We are united by maximum support for our shared passion, everything comes together naturally, each in their own way and with their own skills.

That’s how evenings like tonight (29.11.) come about, where I’m sitting on the couch because I’m going to Sandhausen for an away game at 4 a.m. the next morning.

Finally: Who do you nominate and why?

Maria from the software team. I took a look at which departments have already answered my questions. In my opinion, software and administration are still missing. It’s about time that changed. Maria can certainly tell us a lot about programming our systems.