Your opinions on Power Engineers

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>At my university, it seems like many students do not want to enter the power utility business. Why is this?</p>

<p>What confuses me even more, is that some engineers look down upon power engineers and do not call them real "engineers". </p>

<p>Based on the fact that...</p>

<p>1) Many students do not want to work for a power utility.
2) Sizable number of electrical engineers do not "respect" the power profession.
3) Power classes are disappearing from EE curriculums.</p>

<p>What is everyone's opinions on Power Engineers?</p>

2

<p>Power engineering is something that I actually want to do, and the fact that it is disappearing is concerning to me.</p>

<p>Schools which I am interested in, like Berkeley and UCLA, do not seem to offer many courses in power anymore, they all are now focusing on computers and solid state things.</p>

<p>What are some top ranked schools that still teach power engineering topics?</p>

3

<p>I’m a EE going to work for a utility after I graduate this semester. </p>

<h1>3 is due to #1. My school only offers 2 power classes (energy lab not included) because there isn’t the demand. To be fair, I go to a very research-heavy school.</h1>

<p>I’ve never heard #2 on your list. I’m probably the only person in my year going into power - the only thing I’ve heard from others is that they’re jealous I already have a job lined up. Imo, part of why a lot of EE students don’t look at it is because it has very little to do with computers/programming, which a lot of students are interested in now. But even if the “lack of respect” is true at your school - what does it matter? </p>

<p>Quite silly, if you ask me - it’s a stable field and quite high paying. And ground breaking if you go to certain utilities (with regards to smart grid and renewables). Plus, some 60+% of the industry is supposed to retire in the next 10 years - plenty of room for promotions in the very near future. I co-op’ed at a (different) utility and have family in the industry, so I already know that I like the work, fortunately.</p>

4

<p>@pioneer51. I don’t think the university matters as much as the power company in the local area. I’m not sure about other utility companies, but mine likes to hire/intern kids that go to the local university. In my situation, I go to one of the lowest ranked engineering schools in the nation but the utility company is one of the top 5 in the country (environment is friendly to our lines; therefore, we spend money on growing and buying new technologies rather than fixing things), and ALL 25 interns go to the same local university. Your situation may be different.</p>

<p>@Johnson181. Now that you mention it, I think the lack of computers, programming, and electronics is the reason why many students look down on the power industry. However, I spoke to some power engineers and two of them told me that once an EE enters power, it’s kind of hard for them to get out and explore other fields.</p>

5

<p>

This is very true - I know I won’t be able to remember small circuit analysis in a few years (just like most working engineers can’t do a lot of the math they did in school anymore). The power engineers I’m close with wouldn’t be able to get into electronics fields… but they don’t have any desire to. They all like what they’re doing - the people I know who want to change jobs want to do something like move from distribution into transmission (wildly different work/projects). I don’t think EE’s without power experience realize just how huge the power field is & the varying projects a power eng. can do.</p>

<p>Thinking about your original question some more, I might have some more insight. It seems to me that IE’s get a lot of crap for being the “business” engineers, at least on CC. My school doesn’t have IE, but we do have SystemsE, which overlaps a bit with IE and EE (op research & controls are the two tracks) - I’m actually a double EE/Systems major. At my school the systems kids don’t get crap because it’s very math intensive and by no means an “easy” engineering major.</p>

<p>My whole point for bringing that up - power engineers do a lot of design work obviously, but the work is often very group oriented, interdisciplinary (ie working with CivE’s on substation foundations), & project management based… Similar to how IE is very project management based. So that may be one reason why you’re experiencing this - it doesn’t fit the mold of a stereotypical engineering job.</p>

6

<p>Honestly, its because so few real engineers are actually NEEDED in the power generation industry. One demographic that the power companies love to hire, are Navy people. Whether they be navy nukes (trained to operate pressurized water reactors) or gas turbine systems electricians (trained to operate gas turbine engines and associated generation equipment), they’re all highly trained to industry standards to produce power. And whats more since they have 5+ years of real life on the job experience, they’re usually better at it than a fresh out of the dorms graduate. </p>

<p>Sure, these companies need real engineers for future project planning, but even then, any large scale construction project (new plant, etc) is going to be outsourced to a design firm anyways. The power generation industry these days, makes much better use out of the “engineering technology” folks than they do true engineers. </p>

<p>Take me for instance. I was a navy nuke for 6 years. Now that I’m getting out, even though I decided to go to college,I applied to a multitude of utilities just to gauge my prospects. I got 2 offers at a coal plant (supervisory position) one at a gas fire plant (again, supervisory) and 4 at a nuclear power plant (all in operations.) all of which would pay me in the high 80’s to low 6 figures my first year. All this with just a high school diploma.</p>

<p>The reason? On the operations side of the house, these utilities are looking for operators. They don’t have to be overly intelligent, just well trained, able to follow procedures and troubleshoot and perform maintenance. On the management side, these utilities are looking for people with MBA’s and shift management experience, to help them squeeze every last bit of productivity and profit out of each Mw produced. The only place they really need true engineers is for things like power line planning and such (and even then, an EE isn’t going to be their first choice). They don’t even need you to design new equipment. My best friend works on the plant batch project at Georgia Power. These days, when a utility decides they want to build a new plant, whether it be conventionally powered, or nuclear powered, when they reach out to companies like General Electric, GE doesn’t just sell them the turbines they want, GE sells them the whole power plant to run the turbines they want. GE then contracts out the construction from the foundations to the AC units on the roof. </p>

<p>So what it really comes down to is that these companies have to choose between hiring a fresh out of his cap and gown graduate who has all the theoretical knowledge in the world but no real life experience, or a Navy vet who’s been around the block, knows to operate real equipment and in the case of nuclear plants, already knows how it feels to have the department of energy breathing down your neck.</p>

7

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<p>Most of that work isn’t done at the utilities anymore. Most of that work is contracted out to companies like GE that sell utilities turn-key power plants.</p>

8

<p>

Yes, and a lot of that work is also contracted out to consulting firms. No one said power engineers had to work at a utility. I’ve interned at a consulting firm on a substation team - every single designer was an engineer (those fresh out of school making minimum 60k a year) - group had 8 people, only the boss was a PE.</p>

<p>I think you’re missing the big picture - sure, in a 10,000-employee utility only a few hundred will be engineers. Of course there’s a larger need for operators/linemen. But there is still a lot of room for design work to be done by engineers specifically, and engineers only.</p>

<p>

That’s not even remotely true - they won’t be applying for the same positions if that navy vet doesn’t have an engineering degree. No way is that company hiring a non-engineer for an engineering position especially if they want them to become a PE eventually. </p>

<p>For the record, the utility that hired me hires a minimum of 20 fresh grads every year specifically to train them. (To be fair, only those with internship/co-op experience are really considered). 20 is by no means a large number, but I don’t think you realize just how much work engineers do at a utility.</p>

9

<p>

This is true. But #1 is due to #0: it’s not worth doing. For whatever reason, students don’t think the effort of a Power Engineering specialty is worth the reward. It might be job conditions or prospects, but I highly doubt it’s simply because people don’t find it interesting enough to do.</p>

10

<p>In the 80s, utilities were downsizing and utility company salaries were already low for a EE. Then, in the 90s, higher tech engineers were getting phone calls weekly from headhunters and being offered bonuses and stock options. Not so with E-Pow guys. They worked long hours for not so good pay, sometimes nights and weekends. It was considered low-tech, similar to making batteries or winding resistors.</p>

<p>Now, the power guys seem to be doing really well. It is one of the few jobs that will be hard to outsource - seems like a good strategy. RPI had a good program while I was there in the mid 80s, still going strong from the looks of it.</p>

11

<p>Outsourcing may not be a problem, but the following can still exist:
Supply > Demand for power engineers
Hard to change jobs because there’s only a few power companies
Bad economy -> skimping on hiring
“Previous experience only” bias</p>

<p>I think all of these are good reasons to stay away.</p>

12

<p>There are probably more Power Engineering programs at the Masters level than at the bachelor’s. A my university, IIT, there is a significant power engineering focus with undergraduate elective courses and graduate programs associate with the [IIT</a> Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation](<a href=“http://www.iit.edu/galvin_center/index.shtml]IIT”>http://www.iit.edu/galvin_center/index.shtml) </p>

<p>See, for example [IIT</a> Armour | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Graduate Programs | Master of Power Engineering](<a href=“http://www.iit.edu/engineering/ece/programs/grad/ms_pe.shtml]IIT”>http://www.iit.edu/engineering/ece/programs/grad/ms_pe.shtml)</p>