Power engineers are responsible for the community’s electricity supply. This includes creating and managing the infrastructure required to supply power to major cities, regional and rural areas, railway lines, homes and businesses. They also conduct research into fine tuning smart grid intelligence and developing alternative power sources such as solar and wind energy.
This degree program includes foundation studies in physics, mathematics, computer science and basic electrical engineering principles, on which further studies in electrical circuits, electronics, computer systems, signals and communications, power transmission, distribution and use and management are based. You’ll gain a deep understanding of power engineering at both system and device levels.
The program was designed in consultation with key industrial partners, and is complemented with real-world project work. The projects include the protection of industrial and power plants, transmission and distribution networks.
Areas of study include:
- design of electrical grids
- advanced monitoring
- diagnostics technologies
- renewable energy systems, such as wind and solar
- electronics associated with energy conversion and integration with the electrical grid
- smart grids.
As a power engineer you might choose to work in government or industry, managing the electricity supply in Australia or overseas. Australia has a very high demand for power engineers as major improvements to the power infrastructure are planned over the next decade. Also demand overseas is high as developing countries rely on power infrastructure for their growth and development.
As a power engineer you might choose to work in:
- power generation, transmission and distribution
- grid maintenance and stability
- power electronics
- electrical grid maintenance and protection
- research into intelligent smart grids
- renewable energy systems
- power plant operation and control
- industrial plant management and construction