Power Accademy Engineer Review

I was working in th TNS department (Soon to become Market Network Stratergy) in the team responsible for running long term system analysis and predicting the effects of future energy scenarios on The Grid. Within this I was given two distinct projects, each one investigating a network parapiter that i predicted to change greatly over the oming years. It was interesting to see, through my work, the affects this would have on the system.

I presented my work to my colleagues on a number of occasions, on each one it was comented that my work would be useful in engaging with companies outside The Grid. My line manager was keen to point out that if I hadn't been responsible for my projects, whe would have had to do them himself. Some of my findings will be published in this years System Opperating Framework (SOF).

My line manager was very supportive. We met regularly to discuss the project and he only sat two desks away from me and was always happy to help on an inpromtual basis. The higher tiers of management were also keen to talk to me an I had semi-regular meetings with my Team Leader.

This varied day to day. I managed my own time mostly. Some days I would stay a little bit later to finish the objective I was working on, but others I was killing time if I'm honnest. The work pace is fairly relaxed at Grid, you're not expected to work more than you're contracted to.

My line manager basically let me manage myself. He was onhand if I needed help, but would let me get on with it if I was ok. The work I was doing was to be included in a major departmental publication and would be used to convince outside steakholders to take certain actions, so there was a lot riding on my work. I was basically treated as anoter member of the team for eight weeks.

I learned a lot aout the theory behind reactive power and other power technology principles, such as line loading and voltage control. As all of my work was done in excel, I didn't learn to use any specialist software. Honestly, as I haven't started studying power engineering at uni yet, I'm not too sure.

The office is fairly relaxed and friendly. People are more than happy to talk and explain things to you and a lot of the conversation is quite interesting. People care more about etting the job done than specific working practices. Outside of the imediate team, the company is currently on a massive health and safety drive. This can be annoyng at times, but is mostly harmless.

My imediate team was well prepared for my placement. There were, however, problems wih I.T. and expenses. My line manage was unable to aprove my expenses for over a week and I couldn't print for the whole placement. Other interns couldn't get the software they needed until several weeks into their placement.

It appears to be very straight forward to get from my placement to the grad scheme. Many of my friends, doing placements this year and starting their final year at uni, have just undergone a final assesment and will likely be offered a place on the grad scheme by the time they finishe their placements.

There are about a dozen of us based in Warwick. We area fairly diverse crowd, although more than half of us are Scotish, but there is a close network between us. We often meet at each others houses or go clubbing (Though that's not for me). If anyone in one department reckons he/she can organse a trip, they'll usually try and invite us all along.

Rent is pretty cheap if you find somewhere south of the train station. That half of Leamington Spa has a bad reputation, but I'm not sure why. It seems like a nice enough area to me. There are a number of places to eat nearby, ranging from gastro pubs to full on pretentiouschains like Zizzis, to suit your tastes and wallet.

I'm told it's not bad. It's ceranly better than my home town. Personally, I don't care.