If you would like to know what it's like to work in our SGC team in the US, Drew St Jean, Electrical Engineer shares with us what his first year has been like....
I just finished my first year at SGC after graduating from college, and I’m at the point now where I can start working on projects in earnest. Unlike lots of other places, here at SGC I’m not limited to one area of expertise. I’m allowed to work on protection and controls, automation, load/fault studies, physical design, transmission engineering, or anything that comes up. Someone here is always comfortable in that area, and they’re always willing to stop what they’re doing to teach you how to do it well. This ends up creating a whole office of well-rounded, competent engineers that are able to see the big picture instead of just their discipline. This teamwork and foresight across multiple disciplines speeds up the design process and eliminates problems that tend to show up when working on some multi-disciplinary projects.?
I’m currently working on designing several hundred megawatts of wind and solar energy projects under a principal engineer. These jobs range from Maine to Indiana. In these projects, I’m responsible for all initial protection and control drawings, protection schemes, and relay settings. These include power and relay one-lines, AC and DC schematics, wiring, communication to SCADA, and all the steps in the middle! After my initial designs are complete, the content is sent through several stages of quality checking to make sure it’s done correctly and efficiently to minimize cost/resources and to ensure the client is getting exactly what they need regarding current demand and future expansion.??
Those renewable energy projects are my primary focus, but intermittently I help any of my peers that need help meeting a tough deadline or incorporating comments as part of a QAQC check, as we always have an independent reviewer. We have weekly meetings on a Monday morning to discuss if anyone needs any additional help, or if you’re looking to pick up more work. This helps to keep everyone busy and make sure everything goes out correctly and on time.??
I’ve only been out of school for a year, and I’ve barely scraped the surface of the skills available to be learned here, but I’m learning every day and SGC is a great environment that prides itself on rearing successful young engineers as well as producing high-quality solutions for clients.??
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