EEak96:
I've been working in the utility industry in a variety of capacities over the past 10+ years. I'll give you a brief run-down of my experience in the industry, as it might help you make a decision, and perhaps help other people decide, too:
- Field work. The field is probably the best place to start one's career. You'll start testing equipment like circuit breakers, transformers, cables, and so on. It's a great way to gain intimate familiarity with the equipment before delving into engineering design. Eventually, you'll move on to relay testing. None of this work requires an electrical engineering degree per-se. In fact, most facility owners (utilities, industry, etc) contract this out to services companies. Those companies scramble a few technicians with the proper test equipment. It's pretty much all automated. Once you know how to connect the test sets and a few things to watch out for, you've got it nailed.
- Advanced field work. This is where you get to commission designs that have been engineered by you or someone else. This can get very tricky. You'll need to have excellent people management and troubleshooting skills. Some substation controls modifications are exceedingly complex, and you have to think not only in terms of a final design, but imagine a time axis where the wiring / settings are modified in steps. Those steps may require switching, PPE, and all other sort of precautions to ensure that you and your guys are safe and that there are no service interruptions. This work tends to pay best of all the work, but you'll probably be away from home more often than not. Also, in my experience, it is very hard on the body. Lots of time in hotels, behind the wheel, long days and nights, and high stress. However, it is a very thrilling job at times.
- Theoretical work. You might be lucky enough to find yourself in an R&D department at an equipment manufacturer. You'll be expected to have a strong command of power systems theory and programming knowledge. One company I worked for used an RTDS (real time digital simulator) which simulated power systems & control systems in real time. It's a real hoot - you basically build a power system like you'd draw it up in AutoCAD and simulate it. You'll connect these RTDS to relays, controllers, etc. in order to "fake" the devices into thinking they're on a real, legit power system. You might also be called upon to design protection algorithms, verify the theory in Mathcad, code it up, and beat the heck out of it in the lab. Again, this is all relatively theory, math, and computer heavy stuff.
- Consulting work. You might find yourself working for a consulting company that designs and commissions substations, power plants, etc. and modifications thereof. You'll learn a lot. You'll work your butt off. It seems like there is a high burnout rate in this field, but if you can find a company that balances work and play, this might be your cup of tea. You'll be interacting with customers in order to nail down requirements, provide cost estimates, do the engineering, and (maybe) you'll be commissioning the design implementation as well. Parts of this job can be extremely tedious, like drafting a few hundred schematics in AutoCAD because the drafters are too busy and the work simply has to get done. If you're good enough, you can work from home and simply fly out whenever you're needed somewhere. If you're so inclined, you'll get to do coordination, protection, stability and arc-flash studies. You'll have to build a model of the customer's facility, sometimes down to the gnat's ass. From there, you simulate faults in a static or dynamic realm to determine the system response and proper device settings. These studies can be incredibly detailed and frankly not many engineers know how to do it right (sometimes I'm that guy). There's a lot of handwaving, half-truths, etc. that get put into these reports in order to just get it in the customer's hands so the bills get paid. Anyway, I'll stop there ..
- Utility work. Utility work can encompass aspects of all the fields I mentioned above. Depends on the utility. Some tiny electric utilities don't even have electrical engineers per-se - everything is contracted out. At the other extreme, your larger utility companies like ConEd, FPL, Avista, etc. will have an engineer who specializes in, say, medium voltage circuit breaker maintenance. Super specific roles. It seems like there are really two tracks in a utility - technical and management. I am seeing an industry-wide push for curtailing staff technical personnel and relying more heavily on consultants like Black and Veatch. As a result, even the technical guys often find themselves simply managing projects at a high level while the consultants do the "dirty (fun?) work". Working for a utility can provide you with some interesting lifestyle opportunities - there are a lot of EEs (with experience) who decide to adopt a more laid-back lifestyle and get jobs with smaller rural utilities. You'll have a (relatively) well-paid job in a low cost of living area. Day-to-day, you'll be handling job orders, equipment purchases, large customer connection design, distribution coordination, maintenance schedules, etc. It's not terribly interesting stuff (in my opinion), but a lot of guys love that lifestyle.
- Self employed. If you can find steady work, you can (basically) double your typical power EE salary. Chances are, you'll be on the road and your stress levels will be higher. Eventually, if all goes well, you'll be able to hire some people to help pick up the slack. I could go into a lot more detail on this one, but it's getting late.
Well that's my quick summary of the industry. I'll be completely frank with you. There's not a whole heck of a lot of innovation in this industry. Sure, the relays get more bells and whistles every year, but we haven't seen anything revolutionary in quite some time. Generally as a power engineer, you're re-learning what has been lost through old-age attrition. Essentially maintaining a mass of relatively static tribal knowledge with a modern day flair. You'll never be unemployed, from what I can see. There is a scarcity of power engineers and it doesn't seem to be getting much better. A lot of countries (like Austria, to name just one) will give you citizenship if you work there as a power engineer, under certain conditions. But, it does get old. The field work, in my opinion, is the most enjoyable, but you'll take a hit in the lifestyle department. The theoretical work I mentioned above is also a blast, but these jobs are fairly rare. Plus, it seems like guys are often "promoted" out of that fun theoretical work.
The "office" side of power engineering is (generally) quite tedious. In fact, I'd say it ranges between tedious and outrageously tedious. For example, you might have to re-coordinate a small utility's entire system. You'll need to download / inspect all the relay settings as found, collect topological information (lines types, lengths, transformer & generator impedances), establish realistic dispatching scenarios, put the info into a database or spreadsheet of some sort, then put that into a system model, run your study, come up with "proper" settings (you'll never get two engineers to agree on the proper way to coordinate a system!), put those back into your spreadsheet / database for record keeping, then manually change the relay settings files, then upload those settings files to the relays out in the field. Oh, you'll need to write a weighty tome of a report, too .. all within budget!
That's how the sausage is made. Now I'm sure a lot of the guys reading this might love all the book keeping. I don't. Speaking of book keeping, you'll probably be faced with missing / incomplete / outdated drawings, perhaps into the thousands, that need to be dealt with somehow. Even with a drafter or two, this is a hellacious problem that a lot of smaller utility companies grapple with.
The close friends of mine who work in the industry, on average, tolerate the job because it affords them a good lifestyle. They neither love it or hate it, in general. It's a paycheck, and that's more than a lot of people have. Personally, I'm probably going to find another trade and continue to work part time in the industry until I can completely transition out. Hopefully this helps you make a decision, although I'm afraid it turned into a bit of a venting session towards the end - but hey, that's reality as this engineer sees it!
BB
