Growing up, Ethan Gurecki dreamed of being an archaeologist like Indiana Jones, while Danielle Phillips had ideas of being a doctor or a nurse.

Like so many childhood career aspirations do, they changed course. Luckily for us, grown-up Ethan and Danielle studied engineering and landed at Consumers Energy.

As we celebrate World Engineer Day, we salute Ethan, Danielle and the hundreds of engineers that our family, friends and neighbors count on to keep the power on. Whether through work to fix challenging issues or developing smart technology, engineers are at the core of our mission to deliver reliable energy.

CSI Work Fixes Failures

For eight years, Ethan Gurecki has called the Trail Street Lab home. His role is akin to the popular show, CSI. But instead of searching for evidence of a crime, Ethan spends his days looking for hidden clues that will point to the cause of unexplained problems.

“It’s not routine and that’s what I love about it. You get to see what happens behind the curtain,” said Gurecki, who graduated from Michigan State University. “One day I can be working on a piece of pipe and the next day I’m working on an engine or an I-beam that acts as a brace for a building. We analyze bearings from turbines and nuts, bolts and valves. Anything that has the potential to break, we examine. Our work is diverse.”

He remembers one particular job at J.H. Campbell Complex when 15 steam pipes in the boiler failed.

“The primary job was to sort out which tubes had failed originally versus which ones were steam washed because of the failure,” he said.

Using a microscope and other tools, he was able to narrow it down to one tube that caused all the others to break. The steam intake was blocked, causing the tube to overheat and fail, and like a domino effect, caused the other 14 to do the same.

“We replaced all the pipes and made sure they weren’t blocked again,” he said.

This kind of excitement on the job goes above and beyond what Ethan was expecting when he joined our team as an engineering intern. And Danielle has a similar story.

Becoming a Leader

Danielle Phillips’ journey to Consumers Energy started with a quiz during her second semester at Central Michigan University.

“It told me that engineering might be an area of focus for me,” she said. “And I thought…interesting.”

She took the recommendation to heart, declaring an engineering major and later landing an internship at Consumers Energy.

After graduation, she hit the ground running with a full-time job in our Engineer Entry Program, rotating through three departments before receiving a final placement as a project engineer within Transmission Enhancement for Deliverability and Integrity.

The group provides engineering support for the integrity, modernization and deliverability of regulator stations across the state.

“I just couldn’t imagine being in a different profession,” Danielle said. “I love the work and how we impact the communities we serve. We build and maintain our systems to deliver reliable power to our customers. I’m glad to be a part of it.”

For the past two years, she’s led our Gas Engineering Intern Council, and the irony isn’t lost on her.

“I’ve come full circle,” she said. “When recruiting, I let potential interns know that it isn’t easy, but worth it in the end. Put in the hard-work now and learn from others. This career is a challenging but rewarding one.”

Today we recognize and thank Ethan and Danielle, and the hundreds of other engineers who deliver the energy that powers so many lives.