Donnie Eslinger looks back at 50 years with Hoosier Energy
Donnie Eslinger began work at Hoosier Energy on March 29, 1976.
Digital Fault Recorders and Donnie Eslinger
Hoosier Energy has long been at the forefront of the energy industry. Donnie Eslinger looks back at his role in one standard of Hoosier innovation — digital fault recorders.
Donnie Eslinger celebrating 50 years at Hoosier Energy
Meticulous. Problem-solver. Easy going. Knowledgeable. Sharp. Generous. These are all words used to describe Donnie Eslinger. Add them all up, and after 50 years at Hoosier Energy, there’s just one word to describe Eslinger – golden. The Dugger, Indiana, native is celebrating a pair of golden anniversaries in 2026. He started work at Hoosier Energy in March of 1976 and married his wife, Linda, in July of ’76. “A lot happened in 1976, so that was a year of change for me,” Eslinger says with a chuckle. The ability to handle change, facilitate change and welcome change has turned out to be his calling card.…
Hoosier Innovation: Donnie Eslinger and Digital Fault Recorders
While the new Merom Plant was still in the commissioning phase in the early 1980s, Donnie Eslinger and Darrell Goodson often found themselves with downtime between tasks. It’s dangerous to give smart guys free time, but this duo was interested in improving the company. With Eslinger inspired in part by his father’s career as a lineman, he and Goodson began discussing how to better locate faults. At the time, locating faults was done using a light-beam recorder. Using a light film, similar to Kodak rolling paper, a light would shine down on the film showing sine waves and amplitude. Location was done by reading the film and measuring…