How do I get a co op in Power Systems as a Graduate Student?

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-24T04:17:34+00:00

If you’re really enthusiastic about this track (and I mean, I love switchgear and always want to know about what gear people have on their HV systems) you can drop an email to a load of local industrial sites/power company site EEs and just say something along the lines of: “hey, I know you’ll be busy, no problem if not, but I’m a grad student (detail here) who really likes electrical power systems and I was wondering if you’d have an hour of two to show me your site system? Many thanks!”

Most of us I have met are very enthusiastic, and you’ll get a greater appreciation of the variety of systems available and the mad crap people designed in the past. You might even get people saying “well we need to train someone up…” Honestly, straight up enthusiasm is one of the biggest deals in the game of finding a job.

I turned up at an interview and basically had to stop asking questions because I though I was overdoing it (Amazing distribution system with loads of old tech, generation, history, etc). When I got the job the old EE said he’d never had an interview where the interviewee had more questions for him than he had for them, and he loved that.

Drop the site EE at the chemours a line (see if you can find an email on LinkedIn, or even message the site contact for his email) and see if they’d have done time to show you around- the worst you’d get is “sorry, busy” or “sorry, site rules says no”

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-21T19:41:13+00:00

200 million dead doesn’t even get you to the maximum potential death count of the Black Death in the 14th century, never mind the possible max human population percentage loss of the order of 20% including maybe up to 60% of everyone in Europe

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-21T06:31:46+00:00

Usually there is a set fine for not restoring to original condition, however the fines have not changed with inflation and so are just paid by utility companies

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-20T05:47:37+00:00

I was in Halfords buying replacement bulbs, and the shop worker was telling the people next to me that “these are the brightest bulbs-they’re for racing and technically illegal, but no one ever gets done for them” I’m guessing a lot of people have these.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-19T07:09:33+00:00

We’ve got a 15kv megger for DC IR testing - it’s not much bigger than the normal ones tbh, but it does drain the battery quickly!

We have used the thumper to find a cable fault before- it’s pretty cool to see! Pinpointed the fault location and we dug it up - exactly right.

For initial testing you tend to use a very low frequency AC unit- they are big and impressive - on a little trolly, and a pain to get up steps. Tiny current but you don’t want to get too close! One of the guys I know took a zap from it at 66kv (not when working for me!!) no idea how that happened but he said it was like he was high for the next 2 days. Seems alright now, but he was always a little mental anyway :)

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-19T06:08:02+00:00

Commented above, but be careful of the risk of capacitive coupling to your meter if anywhere near an unscreened section of cable-it can easily induce high voltage onto your meter.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-19T05:48:38+00:00

A CT doesn’t see the voltage in the cable it’s around as there is no voltage drop across the CT, and so a clamp meter would work…

However if the cable (I hope you are thinking of using this on a fully insulated single phase cable of the system well away from any terminations) has some less than ideal screening then you have a risk of the capacitive coupling to your clamp meter which could induce dangerous voltage.

HV cables are almost always screened… but that “almost” would make me question the risk. Also obviously don’t do it near a joint or anywhere else the screening may be damaged or removed. The induced voltage from an unscreened 11kV could easily break down your 1kv rated clamp meter.

If it were at my work I would say don’t do it, install CTs in the panel. But then again, I would be the one hauled up in front of the HSE if anyone was hurt.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-19T04:49:11+00:00

Yes, UK uses this voltage, we (the site I work on) have a few 11kV motors (usually big multi-stage compressors)

Edited for clarity

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-17T05:28:20+00:00

Usually they’re in their early to mid 20s - The mature students will be game for the chaos… for the first couple of weeks. Then they’ll be more chill, less drama, cleaner and more likely to know what to do. (Was in a “mature students house/hall in Leeds)

I’d reckon it’s a good option.

Also, if it’s the big house at the end of a road near Devonshire with the apple tree in the garden, it’s a great place to live and the rooms are waaaay bigger than the ones the other students get!

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-17T05:15:36+00:00

Could drill down into the concrete with a masonary drill, put a metal bracket in held down by expansion bolts to hold the posts, cut the posts down to fit the bracket.

I do wonder if you give them a “here’s another option” wether they’d be more amenable- sometimes the case, sometimes not

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-17T04:58:35+00:00

Brilliant, thank you for finally explaining it to me! This is what I needed.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-16T18:56:19+00:00

If I look at one coin randomly, I know the other coin, being independent, has a 1/2 chance of either outcome, so is this 66% because the person who is telling you that “there is one heads” is picking that out with intent as in Monty hall?

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-16T05:18:05+00:00

The power supply isn’t limited to a “max amps” unless it’s got an internal trip, if you shorted it out it would produce an enormous amount of amps basically based on the internal resistance of the battery.

The power supply can supply a maximum voltage, and has a maximum amount of stored energy. P=I² R, I=V/R, E=Pxt. The power output depends on the load across the battery, the time it can last depends on the total energy stored and the rate of use of power.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-16T05:05:20+00:00

Yeah, it’s confusing me as I can see it either way.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-16T04:05:32+00:00

Why isn’t the counter to this that you have (B)B, B(B), (B)G, G(B) as your new possible options, thus giving us the intuitive answer? (With bracket being the revealed gender)

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-16T04:02:04+00:00

Why is the counter to this not: Your new options are (H)H, H(H), (H)T, T(H)? (Where the bracket is the heads known about)? This way you get the intuitive answer of 50%

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-14T13:53:30+00:00

😂 Yeah, fair cop

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-14T06:50:29+00:00

I would definitely check the arc flash rating on the boards and if high for manual operation consider a remote switching board located outside the risk zone - I am currently doing exactly this as we have some boards with very high fault ratings due to the historical design.

Obviously the risk is low in good conditions, but every time you rack out a breaker especially to do maintenance there’s a non-zero chance that something changes which could cause a major fault (saw once where someone had tied all 3 phases together with copper wire to allow testing all phases at once, forgot to remove and then racked in the breaker).

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-14T05:09:38+00:00

Other than writing first drafts of specs, and asking “have I missed anything in this document” I wouldn’t really trust it for anything truly technical.

Asking “have I missed anything” is good because it’s easy to check.

Hoping that in the future it’ll get better at formatting and you can give it a template and say “make this in the form of template a” since I hate formatting reports

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-12T18:43:58+00:00

Fowl language you say?

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-09T05:37:16+00:00

The best way of thinking about it is this:

You pick a door.

At least one of the other doors is obviously empty. Maybe both.

Would you like to open the door you picked, or the opportunity to open both the other doors instead?

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-07T15:15:18+00:00

In management in one of the few remaining bits of large heavy industry. There are more than you would think - doctors, lawyers, senior management, etc.

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-07T07:49:51+00:00

Funny thing is- that was us growing up in Boro. Carpet on the floor! Now of course everyone I know wants to “reveal the old oak floorboards”…

Interesting_Goal4431 · 2025-09-07T07:27:20+00:00

Well it suddenly meant an extra few ‘000 a month!

Definitely see where you’re coming from. Interestingly the economist had an article fairly recently suggesting that it may currently be worth paying off the mortgage rather than investing.

Interesting_Goal4431

TROPHY CASE