What's your job about?
Western Power is a State Government owned corporation that builds, maintains and operates the electricity grid, the South West Interconnected Network (SWIN) of Western Australia.
Western Australia is preparing for a climate-resilient and decarbonised future. Management of renewable energies being distributed into the SWIN has a critical role in reducing emissions and Western Power is actively investing in technologies needed to increase the share of renewables powering the community over the next decade.
I’m working in the Electrical Metering department in the technical services team, undertaking User Acceptance Testing for new Network Interface card firmware in power meters. I’m mostly involved with Advanced Metering Infrastructure projects, who are using cloud-based technologies to collect and transmit metering data to help manage the transition to renewable energy distribution into the grid. The technical requirements being met during these changes to metering is interesting because it involves knowledge of advanced metering operations and all the related cloud-based data management and data security systems.
What's your background?
I grew up in Kerala, India, with my parents. As a child I was fascinated by magnets and copper coils inside small DC motors from toys. It was fascinating to see inside the motor, even though I didn’t understand the science behind it, I did understand it only worked when there are two magnets. Once I reached high school, I started learning science and physics, and I came across the pictures of a DC motor in cross section. I loved learning that chapter, to finally understand how those motors worked and the part electricity played.
I did my Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation at the Federal institute of Science and Technology in Kerala, and after that I worked as a Service Engineer in fire alarm systems for a few months. Seeking a path that was closer to my ambitions, I came to Perth, Western Australia to study Master’s in Electrical Power Engineering at Edith Cowan University as an International student. Some subjects were really hard, but I did my best and I graduated with Distinction.
It was discovering my keen interest in the upcoming changes in energy, power and renewables that led me to Western Power. I applied to the Graduate Program at Western Power through the Careers page on their website and am now in my second of six rotations through different areas of the business. I’m really thrilled to be working on amazing upcoming projects with awesome people at Western Power.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
No. A degree in electrical engineering would be necessary to perform well as a Graduate Electrical Engineer at Western Power. For electrical design and calculation, it’s important to understand basic working principles and fundamentals of theories and standards. It also helps to have a keen interest and curiosity about the work being done by the organisation.
As an electrical engineer you need to have good communication skills as well as abstract reasoning skills. You need to be able to communicate complex ideas really well, so that team members and others have clarity around your information.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
Site visits are the most exciting part of my job. It can be for assessing the situation or can be for testing, both types of visits are interesting. I especially enjoy being able to work or test on assets that work 24/7 to power the lives of our community. Maintenance is essential for making sure they’re reliable to work efficiently for long periods of time. It’s hard to explain the satisfaction gained from working on huge, complex assets that you’d studied at university.
Some jobs, like system testing, which I’m doing on communication cards in meters, can be repetitive and that’s challenging sometimes. But when you finally get the solution, using a safe, reliable method, it’s the most satisfying moment. Patience and critical thinking are the attributes needed to accomplish these moments.
What are the limitations of your job?
Six-month rotations in the graduate program feels like it’s not enough time to experience a department. The rotation will almost always finish before you get the satisfaction of completing a project with the team. Also, work assignments neatly taking place within a project are unusual, because you might have not started the rotation at the beginning of the project. Adapting quickly is required to get involved immediately and not lose too much time in orientation. Familiarising yourself with unique systems and software usually requires some training and time from people on the project in the team. It can be tough to get all the knowledge you need from people busy with projects in a department. I’m getting the most out of this rotation by learning about different electrical departments of Western Power and hopefully that leads to opportunities to work with different teams and engineers here.
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