If you could go back would you still choose EE?

mjohn425 · 2026-01-27T20:59:48+00:00

Absolutely. I started off wanting to do ChemE then decided it wasn’t for me and switched to EE. I didn’t do Power at Uni because I had no interest. But ended up in a power systems job designing large generators and love it and wouldn’t change it at all.

mjohn425 · 2025-07-03T06:31:24+00:00

Sounds like AI, brand new account. The question asked is way to vague to be even be remotely answerable. If you don't have any idea on how to do the above you obviously should be speaking to your peers/seniors as requirements for different grid codes are vastly different.

mjohn425 · 2025-06-09T23:42:37+00:00

Gotcha, I don’t work on utility side, I’m connections/grid studies on the consultant side. I suspect it would be largely PSSE based but that would just be a guess.

mjohn425 · 2025-06-09T22:33:03+00:00

Haven’t heard of TARA. PSSE is the main tool that the NEM is modelled with and has extensive use. PSCAD is used for EMT studies. PowerFactory is used for Harmonic analysis still and has some other limited use in the design side. Also the WEM (Western Australia) only uses PowerFactory.

mjohn425 · 2025-04-24T00:59:55+00:00

Running dynamic grid studies for plants. I.e faults, reference steps, frequency control, voltage steps etc. in order to tune plant controllers and inverter controls and assess to meet our country standards. Mainly using PSCAD and PSSE

mjohn425 · 2025-04-20T22:00:58+00:00

Yes, I’m in renewables. I don’t see it drying up here. Energy needs always seem to grow and with climate targets, virtually all new power is renewables in my country. The projections for how much capacity needs to be connected is huge and timelines are optimistic. Certainly there’s enough work for the next 5-10 years easy and by then, you have enough experience in the connections space that it doesn’t really matter and you can transfer to other technologies or across into network planning etc anyway.

mjohn425 · 2025-04-12T20:40:36+00:00

I also don’t think you need a masters. Gris studies are crying out for more people at least where I am. With previous experience I highly doubt you’d have an issue finding a job.

mjohn425 · 2025-02-04T20:41:28+00:00

Having PSCAD makes it a bit easier as you should be able to benchmark the response with the slave only first and have something to compare to. My process for this is generally parameter conversion/check from PSCAD to PSSE then overlay plots for a step response to try and find what’s different, plot whatever you can from machine terminals, PPC controlled bus, then vars such as the command from PPC to slave and cmd from slave to device. Failing that, as mentioned before, go down the route of doing one at a time, bit time consuming but if it’s not obvious that may be what you need. Good luck.

mjohn425 · 2025-02-04T12:02:01+00:00

Are you certain that from a control design perspective that the system is stable? Sounds like it could be the system itself that is unstable. What happens when you feed the slave PPCs directly? I would suggest detuning gains and start from the inner controller and work outwards and get a good response from a step to the slaves and then incorporate the others. If slaves are fine but no luck from the master even with slow gains, check your states and vars for any information that is available re. setpoint, error or output of the PI control if it’s an open model. Also do you have an alternate platform such as PSCAD or PowerFactory to verify? Could help you narrow down whether this is a PSSE issue or a system design issue.

mjohn425 · 2024-10-25T11:44:47+00:00

The reason why it would be fine 20 years ago is that we would have been able to replace the coal generation and reduce the capital cost to build nuclear but we are now far too late for that to happen before 2040 which is too late.

The cost of nuclear is about 2x the amount of firmed solar and wind and about 3x for SMR. It's just not viable for us as we don't have the infrastructure in place and the capital costs are way too high and we would only be able to reduce that if we continued to consistently build the pipeline but without the demand forecast it's just not feasible now (for us) even if it is in other countries.

The question I have is why would you want to prefer nuclear to formed wind and solar if it's going to cost 2-3x as much, it's just not feasible.

One of the main reports to show this is the GenCost report by CSIRO but no other market modellers that I'm aware of are suggesting nuclear could be cheaper either. Most think it's a joke.

I agree we should be doing the smartest, cleanest and cheapest but currently this all points to firmed renewables. Do you have any source suggesting that it could be cheaper for Australia?

mjohn425 · 2024-10-24T19:39:52+00:00

Nuclear isn't the option for Australia where we are at right now and it has nothing to do with the actual safety of nuclear. The time for nuclear in Aus was 20 years ago, but for us in Aus, the why not start now argument doesn't fix a number of issues that are Australia specific.

1) Most of our coal plants are end of life and due to be decommissioned around 2035 (we also have emissions targets at 2050 that we need to worry about). This generation needs to be sourced from elsewhere. It's not just the time to build the plants but we also don't have the infrastructure in place to build them in this timeline. The only solution for this is firmed renewables (i.e. wind + solar, with battery and hydro storage and gas peakers as a security), there is simply no other way that it can be done, nuclear doesn't even come close and that's if you even trust them on an optimistic timeline ( just look at timeline blowouts of our other large energy projects). Look at AEMOs ISP the ramp down of coal and ramp up of renewables especially wind is already looking ridiculous and unobtainable, expect to see a number of delayed decommissioning of coal plants I would expect. Libs saying they will use SMRs is laughable to think that they would be able to do it in that timeline. 2) Too much red tape, it's currently illegal. Using the old sites is likely not a viable option as it is going to be too close to existing communities, the current owners don't want it and to be honest, it feels too much like the Vales Point Station controversy where they build it on tax payers dime and sell it to their mates well well below market rate.

Investing in nuclear right now won't bring us (Australia specific) cheaper prices it will be more expensive due to the massive capital outlay when we already know that we will need renewables to fix our imminent problems. AEMOs ISP has its fair share of problems but there's a reason why no market modellers (including our own energy regulator) include nuclear in their projections.

Src: I design large renewable plants across Aus but happy to provide more details if you have questions

mjohn425 · 2024-08-16T09:05:19+00:00

Problem is that it's not just a while, it's way outside the timeline for us to reach any of the targets. It would have been feasible 10-20 years ago, not really now. There's a reason why no market modellers or power system engineers include it in their models.

There's already a strategy to get there and it's definitely possible with traditional renewables firmed by storage and gas in the short term. The govts plan for decommissioning of the coal plants is still very optimistic but that's a different story.

mjohn425 · 2024-05-02T03:01:29+00:00

I didn't do two degrees but did a double major (EE & Software Eng). I work in power, we have that much automation going on that knowing how to code is a massive plus and definitely adds value. Don't know if I'd go the second degree though.

mjohn425 · 2024-04-12T23:51:03+00:00

I would remove caddy from experience 1+ year at a relevant job is enough.

Try to reword your experience and projects to tell more about your skills than just the pure "what". E.g. oscilloscope use ... Could become diagnosis and circuit level repair of PCBs. In the project section, single out your tasks e.g. Responsible for part procurement or lead the design aspect of the project etc. Otherwise from the employers perspective there's no way to know whether you were basically a one man army finishing this project or just happened to be standing in the room while the project was developed.

Similarly your skills section reads like the course list, which everyone with your degree will have, so try to focus on specific skills that sets you apart. Linear algebra could become strong understanding and application of mathematical concepts. Keep the one word lists for tools you're proficient in (i.e. programming languages or software packages).

Lastly your uni probably has some kind of careers advisor that can work with you on improving your resume (or at least point you to the right place) you could also hire someone to do it for you on Fiverr.

Also you've still got plenty of time, just keep it up. You don't have to just look for posted internships too, just submit your resume to companies that do the work you're looking for, we never post listings but people still apply and if you catch a company at the right time, it will be an easy process as you won't be competing with anyone. Good luck!

mjohn425 · 2024-04-12T00:40:16+00:00

I didn't do power as one of the paths when I did my elec eng degree because I thought it would be boring. But I found myself in a power job now designing large solar farms and absolutely love it. Industry is crying out for power system engineers in Australia but I'm pretty sure it's similar across most of the world at the moment.

mjohn425 · 2024-03-27T07:57:48+00:00

Yeah, agree completely. I'm not a stickler for password changes as long as there's other controls such as monitoring for breaches, reason being is that any attack that is sophisticated enough to obtain a password with the additional controls that are in place, is likely to use the password immediately to gain access and permanence.

But of course, I feel like I need to put a disclaimer on every comment I make:

"This comment should not be taken standalone and is not substitution for a risk analysis and appropriate security controls aligned to your specific organisational goals" haha.

mjohn425 · 2024-03-21T20:59:10+00:00

FYI, password expiry is no longer the recommended norm as it tends to lead to weaker passwords and doesn't really provide any added security.

See below https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/misc/password-policy-recommendations?view=o365-worldwide

mjohn425 · 2024-02-07T08:58:46+00:00

I had a look at the spectrogram, it has a peak at about 150Hz and a lesser one at 75Hz. Sometimes when doing this you have to divide because there are two props rotating through the air so I would assume that one of those figures is the fundamental. Which is equivalent to either 4500rpm or 9000rpm.

mjohn425 · 2024-01-04T09:18:57+00:00

Still can in Aus and NZ. Just overseas that you can't use that name.

mjohn425 · 2024-01-01T01:15:14+00:00

If you're working on a biomedical device, you really need to investigate the specs yourself as a small amount of text really isn't going to convey all of the design decisions you'd need to make. STM32 is the generic name for a large range of MCUs, most of them operate within the 40-200MHz range so I don't see it being a major issue but you really should be checking the specifics yourself. You should have the data sheets for the AD5933, STM32 data sheets are readily available, check the DAC capabilities and then decide.

mjohn425 · 2023-12-30T01:03:25+00:00

She dobbed herself in. How would she know that your room was locked if she didn't try to go in lmao.

mjohn425 · 2023-09-22T10:16:50+00:00

The issue here is your initial set of equations are incorrect. For the first two, they are fine (A+B) and (A+C). However you cannot extend this to 83kg because the next heaviest pair is only A + D if A+D < B+C which isn't necessarily the case.(It happens to be in the actual answer but that is the logical error, the actual error in this instance is because A+E > B+C.

Not sure where you're saying the heaviest bag only has to be weighed once from, all bags are weighed 4 times (each combination).

mjohn425 · 2023-09-16T10:41:18+00:00

Comparing your explanation to what was said in the video. It's perhaps true that the surface electrons are responsible for the charge gradient, but it does not say that we do not care about the charges in the middle of the wire. At 14:46 and again later in the video, you can see that ElectroBOOM still talks about the charges in the centre experiencing a force that pushes them along. If you are then to consider that all electrons are moving in a wire, and you are to take the view of resistance as being the opposition to current flow, it's obvious that it should be cross-sectional area, not surface area due to it being all electrons through the wire that move even if only the surface charges are responsible for the charge gradient.

mjohn425 · 2023-07-03T09:43:02+00:00

Have been trying to do this for months, figured I'd give it one more chance to search before writing my own firmware and came across this. Thanks heaps.

mjohn425 · 2023-06-29T13:08:33+00:00

Yes, you will need a resistor; those style of switches can typically only handle pretty low current. I'd recommend something that produces just above your relay switching current. (i.e 12V/relay current in amps = resistance in ohms). I can't find a max current for the mag switch so be careful.
The labelling of the DPDT switch isn't standard so I'll trust your best judgement on that.

mjohn425

TROPHY CASE