EPNE - Electrical Power Networks Engineer Review

My role on a day to day basis involves managing outage bookings on the high voltage distribution network within our DNO area. These bookings are for our electrical equipment and assets on or connected to our network. Part of my role is to evaluate the impact of the outage on the network to ensure the remaining equipment and customers are not at risk whilst maintenance work is carried out.

I have had many years of experience working on the low voltage network, whilst this has provided me with some underpinning knowledge I have had to learn more about how the distribution network is arranged to not only meet demand but also how we secure against faults. I have had to learn from scratch a whole new range systems and tools including modeling programs, where we can simulate alterations to the network.

The program has been challenging for me (in a good way), I haven't been in academia for about 15 years so I knew it was going to be tough getting back into it, but it has been made easier with the support from my employer, college and my colleagues. It has been really enjoyable meeting new people, there is a good mix of experience within my cohort and while at college I've taken the opportunity to network with some of the other apprentices on different engineering programs.

The program is structured and organized well, there are some really great lecturers at the college with a large amount of experience in the field of electrical / electronic engineering. SSE have been fantastic in supplying the equipment and contacts that we need to complete our apprenticeship. Both the company and college have catch up and review meetings some of these meetings require us to present what we have learnt / achieved since the last review. Since this was the first year and we were still under covid restrictions there were some issues but both the company and college worked to get these resolved.

SSE have provided a huge amount of support. SSE have a HR portal so access to HR is easily accessible, they also have an employee assistance program that is free and confidential and they can refer employees to more specialist support if required. In the office environment I have complete support from my team manager and the department manager too. When in the office I'm given hands on work to do, initially it started of with fairly straight forward work but as I have progressed I am given more technical work and some office duties as I begin to be more comfortable and more knowledgeable. I have been placed in a good team again with a variety of backgrounds and asking questions is encouraged.

The college lectures as mentioned before are highly experienced within the electrical engineering field. Some of the lectures are recorded so it easy to go back and review what was being taught during the session. In addition all the lecture slides and notes are available online on the college portal. All the lecturers are available by teams and email and generally respond fairly quickly.

All lot of what we are learning in the current semester is applicable to work since it is focused on the electrical network and the different types of equipment that we have on our network. I have put into practice quite a lot of what has been taught at college especially how and when we use certain electrical machines. There have been times I've needed more but I have asked this additional theory from the lectures and they provided me with some teaching and given me a list of reliable sources.

There are plenty of extra-curricular activities to get involved in at work. There are regular engineering lunch sessions which cover a range of electrical engineering subjects, the company also has a volunteer program where employees can volunteer for local projects and use their skills to help the local community. There are also social events like a curry night and a number of the employees go for runs together.

Yes

This apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity to work for a great company like SSE. There are plenty of avenues for support and development and it's a great way to work with other people from other engineering disciplines. SSE invest a lot in not only their apprentices but also in their employees and the communities that they are based in.

The application process consists of online tests which need to be completed within a time limit. It worth while searching for some online practice assessments beforehand such spatial awareness, deductive reasoning and other engineering focused tests. It helps to do some research into SSE and look through some news articles about upcoming projects especially in renewables and battery storage. For the interview it's best to dress professionally even if the interview is over teams. Before the interview it is always good to go back and look at your application form and try and think of questions you might be asked based on your application.