Electrical engineer - Jennifer Sai

My favourite quote about engineering is from Herbert Clark Hoover, US President from 1929 to 1932.

Hoover said: There is the fascination of watching a figment of imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realisation in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men and women.

As an electrical engineer with Western Power, the principal generator, transmitter and distributor of electricity in Western Australia, I help ensure that our 725,000 business and domestic customers get the constant and reliable supply of electricity they need in industry and their daily lives.

I have worked in several different areas of Western Power as part of my training, including the team that looks at ways of protecting the electricity generation and distribution system against blackouts and faults. I have also been 55 metres up on a cherry picker - something that wasn't covered in my Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce degrees.

By producing and distributing electricity as efficiently and cleanly as possible, we work to minimise any environmental damage resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels.

Less than one per cent of WA's electricity comes from alternative technologies such as solar energy and wind power, but this is gradually changing. Electricity authorities throughout the world are investigating options for using environmentally-friendly and sustainable technologies. Western Power has specific targets for reducing the amount of greenhouse gases it produces, and is also planting trees to help the environment.

There won't be big changes overnight, but experts predict that by 2010, renewable sources will provide 10 per cent of the world's energy requirements.

I am currently studying alternative sources of energy in my Graduate Diploma in Science course at Murdoch University.

This work is reproduced from the Women in Science Enquiry Network
PO Box 647 Glebe 2037,
http://www.usyd.edu.au/wisenet

"Science Futures" was produced by Wisenet with the aid of a grant from the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism Science and Technology Awareness Program.