Eugene - Graduate Engineer (Completed a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons) and a Bachelor of Commerce)

5:45am

Buzz… Buzz… Buzz… What’s happening? This pillow doesn’t feel like mine. This bed doesn’t either! Oh yes, that’s right, I’m on site today. Let’s get going, it’s going to be a big day!

6:30am

Everyone’s standing by the car ready to go in their orange cotton shirts and PPE. Breakfast time – we are off to the bakery!

6:45am

Hmm, one or two sausage rolls? Or do I want the bacon and cheese rolls instead? No, no treat yourself. I’ll have one sausage roll, one bacon and cheese roll, one brownie and a chicken focaccia. I just want to be clear that the chicken focaccia is for lunch.

7:00am

Aaand we’re off! What a beautiful morning in the Atherton Tablelands. Driving along a ridge line, we can see clouds resting on the sweeping valleys beside us. Out on the horizon,
you can almost make out the silhouette of a wind turbine.

7:45am

We check in at the security gate and I get handed the UHF radio to make the call outs as we drive through the wind farm project site. Our own construction work is situated on the other end of the project site. As we drive through we get to see trenches getting dug, cables being laid and on a lucky day, a wind turbine being assembled.

8:00am

We’ve rolled up and parked in the site office compound. Time to dig out my hard hat in the back, sign in and get to work! My first task today is to get an update on the work our contractor has been doing over the last month. We walk around with the site supervisor and they point out the work that has been completed and the tasks that are still ongoing.

Today they have a huge 100 tonne crane on site that is going to be used to assemble a transmission line tower in the afternoon.

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8:45am

We have finished our tour with the site supervisor, so I now go and have a chat with a few of the crew and ask them what they’re working on and how they’re faring. One person I speak to is terminating the control cables in a circuit breaker kiosk. These cables carry critical information between the protection relays in the control building.

They say it takes a full week to finish each kiosk. There must be over a thousand terminations to get through, so there is a lot of work to be done!

That reminds me… I need to duck into the control building and check that one of the relays has been replaced with the correct model. I go in to check it out and confirm it has been replaced - all in order here!

9:00am

It’s time for our monthly contract meeting. I grab my laptop out of my bag and open up our meeting prep. We go through any safety, environmental or cultural heritage related items that have occurred over the last month and we ask how the work is tracking on site. Any disputes are laid out on the table and deliberations take place.

11:00am

Okay, the tower work is starting soon. Time to get a couple of cameras set up around the site so we can get some footage of the work.

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11:30am

Where did I put that chicken focaccia? I hope I didn’t leave it in the car…

12:00pm

Before the lines work starts, I have a chat with our lines facilitator to better understand the specifics of the planned tower work. He’s seen this work be performed a few hundred times. I have seen it done approximately zero times. It’s pretty exciting to see how it’s done! The goal today is for the linespeople to assemble the tower superstructure and hopefully a cross arm or two as well.

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1:00pm

It begins! The steel assembly is lifted up and the linespeople on the tower get to work.

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2:30pm

The linespeople up there get it done fast! Our flight back to Brisbane is at 6pm so we better get going. I grab the data off the cameras and begin packing up.

3:00pm

We leave the site and begin our drive back to Cairns, down the Gillies Range. As we are driving, we do a debrief of the day. It looks like I got my work cut out for me tomorrow!

5:00pm

We are back at Cairns airport. Time to grab some food before our flight home!

8:30pm

As I walk through the door, I’m greeted by the sound of Family Guy on TV. Home sweet home!

Janhavi - Automation Engineer (Completed a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Hons)

8:30am

I’m currently in the process of scoping and estimating for one of our new Battery Energy Storage System connections. Once a project scope is established, it’s passed down to the design and delivery teams for scoping and estimating.

I meet with our strategists to review the scope and explore a potential saving to get the best outcome for the customer.

9:30am

Belated birthday morning tea with a few colleagues at a local patisserie across the road from our office. So many choices to make with the amazing selection of sweet and savoury treats (and gelato)! It's nice to take time out and celebrate with the team occasionally!

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10:00am

Team catch-up

An informal bi-weekly check-in with the team to see how we’re all going and if we need any support. It’s a quiet day in the office with half the team working from home and/or on leave.

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1:00pm

After lunch, I hop onto some control and configuration designs for a new Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) scheme that is being established for a new Solar Farm that connects to one of our substations.

The Secondary Systems Field Test team have completed some preliminary testing and have identified some improvements that need to be made. I work closely with them and our Principal Control Engineer to revise the design to ensure it is fit for purpose.

2:00pm

InterEnergy Wear it Purple Day 2022 Meeting

As Chair of Pride in Power (Powerlink’s LGBTIQA+ network), I represent Powerlink at the InterEnergy meetings.

The InterEnergy LGBTIQA+ community was established to champion LGBTQ+ inclusion through energy industry collaboration. We meet bi-monthly or ad-hoc as required. We are currently planning our first event for Wear it Purple Day 2022.

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3:00pm

Continue with the WAMPAC scheme configuration design.

5:00pm

It’s 5:00! I complete my timesheet for the day and head home. :)

Denise - Asset Performance Engineer (Completed a Bachelor of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering)

I am an electrical engineer working in the Queensland electricity industry for Powerlink. My work in the Asset Performance team starts at 6.30am and my work tools are a laptop and a mobile phone. Our transmission network operates on a 24/7 basis and my first task each morning is to check my emails for information that has come in overnight. My role is focussed on seeking out emerging asset condition and performance issues and co-ordinating resources to mitigate the emerging risk.

At 7am I walk down to the on site cafe and purchase a barista prepared long black with warmed oat milk and take this back to my desk where I work through a list of people I need to meet with.

At around 7.30am I begin my first meeting, a virtual meeting using MS Teams. I work alongside the other eight colleagues in my team. On any given day, part of the team works remotely or on site and some team members work in our office. Our Team Leader checks in with each person in the team each day, either in person or with a virtual meeting. In a flexible working environment connection with others using adaptive communication methods has become more important than ever before.

Early afternoon I work on my asset investigation tasks. Investigation and data analysis is a very big part of my work. Tasks are re-prioritised on the run if a critical asset condition issue or failure occurs.

I spend an hour at the end of the busy day addressing emails and closing out technical questions or tasks if time permits. I often have a chat and laugh with my work colleagues at this time. I then spend time working on productivity tools and analytics to help me find emerging issues faster going forward. When I think that all that needs to be done, has been done for that day, then my work day ends. Working in operations is extremely busy, exciting and rewarding. You can end your day knowing that you have contributed to a positive difference for everyone who calls Queensland home.

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Every possibility starts with you at Powerlink

Every possibility starts with Janhavi

Every possibility starts with Dani

Powerlink awards two QUT engineering scholarships

Real time weather data benefits electricity network

About Powerlink Queensland