Transmission or Substation 1

[RaPower]

I am a new engineer working with the Energy division of my firm. I have recently been given a choice to either focus on substation or transmission design. Although it is likely that I will be working for both, my choice will dictate educational courses I am sent for as well as more interaction with certain project managers.

Which field do you think bodes the best for the future in terms of career growth as well as income down the line? I want to eventually be more involved with progression and evolution of this area (whether it be smartgrid, green energy etc).

 

[ptcabb]

I suppose the geographic area you're in or want to go to matters a lot. Going into transmission (and I understand transmission here as in planning, engineering and erecting of transmission lines / corridors) in Europe or other heavily populated areas seems a bit hopeless to me. There are so few new corridors being build, mostly due to politics. In Asia and Africa however enormous works are underway, planned or in the future.

Now with the whole substation automation trend, IEC61850, inter substation communication, wide area protection and control and an extremely aging workforce (although the aging goes for transmission as well), I'd go for substation (automation). Seems like all the new development is happening there.

If you'd go into transmission, aim for something like HVDC or FACTS. All the extremely high voltage (recently read about 1100kV transformers) development seems to be aimed on the HVDC section. On the other hand, this is again geographic, you won't find anything like that in Europe or even America I guess. You'd have to go to India or China. A 765kV ring is being erected / planned in southern Africa, but HVDC is big there as well. Lots of untapped hydro.
FACTS because it is often the only feasible way to increase power flow in heavily populated areas.

Seems to me though that the industry as a whole is in dire need for more generalists, less specialists. Learn everything. That's a lot though