Each February, we celebrate National Engineers Week to recognize the innovative ideas and dependable solutions set forth by our engineering team to provide safe, reliable electric service to the customers and communities we serve. 

Caleb Wells is a Distribution System Analysis engineer associate in Beckley, W.Va. A lifelong learner of electrical power systems and a graduate of West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech), Wells now plays a key role on a team that helps provide reliable energy to more than 1.1 million Appalachian Power (APCo) customers.

Learn about his engineering journey through the questions and answers below.

Question: Can you tell us about your education and background? 

Wells: "My name is Caleb Wells, and I’m from Fayette County, W.Va. I’ve been with APCo now for nearly four years — about two-and-a-half years as a full-time engineer and one-and-a-half years as an engineering intern. I earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Power Systems from WVU Tech in 2023."

Question: What interested you most about electricity and engineering?  

Wells: “I’ve been interested by electrical power systems ever since childhood. My Papaw taught me how to build circuits in his basement using leftover wire, switches and fixtures. Since then, I’ve been hooked. He loves to tell the story of how he lost me in a gas station once, only to find me in the back studying a breaker panel. He would also drive me around so I could look at substations and power lines.

I loved drawing my own pictures and diagrams of what I saw, and later, as I got older, I even mapped out the entire grid in my hometown to understand how the electricity traveled from the substation to my house. I believe I was drawn to the power grid because of its sheer scale. It is truly the world’s largest, most complex machine, and the nature of the work required just to keep the lights on has always been fascinating to me. That curiosity became a career, and eventually, I decided I wanted to work with power systems for a utility company."

Question: As an engineer associate, how does your work support our customers?

Wells: “I perform many tasks, such as modeling and analysis of the distribution system, investigating and resolving customer power-quality issues, analyzing outage data and developing targeted reliability improvement projects, programming and troubleshooting protection and control devices on the system, and supporting field personnel and dispatchers during storm restoration efforts. I love my job and enjoy both the technical challenges and the human aspect of the role — it’s deeply fulfilling to know my work directly impacts and improves reliability for the communities that are closest to me.”

Building and maintaining our power grid requires engineers like Caleb and so many others to work together to bring projects across the finish line. We’re thankful for Caleb and his fellow engineers for their commitment to our customers and communities we serve.