Pillar 3 – Foundational Workforce Development
Led by Imperial College London, this pillar focuses on workforce development to enable power system transformation at both the university and professional levels. A core group of power system academics has been established and free, publicly available power system transformation curriculum has been developed on five technical teaching topics, with more courses coming soon. Local university partners in Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya have also been identified, and a deeper technical survey of existing power curriculum needs and interests is underway. Partnerships with these universities will result in localization of university of professional development curriculum and training for these specific contexts. Pillar 3 is also supporting the technical upskilling of women in the workforce through the Women in Power System Transformation initiative.
Access the free, university-level technical teaching materials.
Review the full list of partners contributing to the Pillar 3 Teaching Agenda Group.
Latest Accomplishments
Women in PST and G-PST Launch Free Technical Teaching Materials for Global Use
With leadership from Imperial College London and power systems experts from around the world, Women in PST and the G-PST released university-level teaching materials on 5 power system technical topics, now publicly available for download.
Women in Power System Transformation and the Global Power System Transformation Consortium Present Free Teaching Materials for Global Public Use
Women in PST brings together leading institutions focused on gender diversity and equality in the energy and other sectors to support students, researchers, and power sector practitioners in developing deeper knowledge and skills on cutting-edge technical topics related to variable renewable energy integration, power sector transformation, and advanced power system operations. With leadership from Imperial College London and power systems experts from around the world, Women in PST and the G-PST published in-depth university teaching materials for 4 cutting-edge power system technical topics aligned with the G-PST Inaugural Teaching Agenda:
1. Declining system inertia and dynamics reserve requirements, taught by Julia Matevosyan, Energy Systems Integration Group
2. Power system stability with 100% inverter-based resources (IBR), taught by Claudia Rahmann, University of Chile
3. Managing Electric Vehicle Charging Impacts on the Distribution System, taught by Edvina Uzunovic, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
4. Network planning and pricing across transmission and distribution systems, taught by Furong Li, University of Bath
This webinar expands on how you can use Women in PST technical teaching materials to train students and energy sector professionals.
Speakers:
- Julia Matevosyan, Chief Engineer, Energy Systems Integration Group
- Edvina Uzunovic, Assistant Teaching Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Furong Li, Electronic & Electrical Engineering Professor, University of Bath
- Hallie Lucas, Lead for Women in PST, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Karin Wadsack, G-PST Secretariat Director, NREL
Women in Power System Transformation 2022 Internship Program
Women in Power System Transformation (PST) is a joint initiative from the G-PST Consortium and USAID-NREL Partnership that addresses educational and professional barriers to women’s representation and leadership in the power sector. From June through August 2022, the initiative sponsored the placement of graduate women interns at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The 2022 Women in PST Internship cohort included:
- Kamakshi Tatkare – University of Texas at Austin (NREL)
- Manisha Rauniyar – South Dakota State University (NREL)
- Gayathri Jagadeesh – North Carolina State University (NREL)
- Vicky Janita – Duke University (EPRI)
- Mayuri Choudhury – Arizona State University (EPRI)
- Treisa Ravi Sahaya – University College Dublin (EPRI)
- Aisling Hogan – University College Dublin (EPRI)
Throughout the internships, these young women leaders learned hands-on skills by working closely with NREL and EPRI researchers on cutting-edge power systems analyses and clean energy integration activities. They participated in bi-weekly coffee chats with women professionals and experts in their field. All interns also completed agency-based empowerment training with the Johns Hopkins University Self-Empowerment and Equity for Change (SEE Change) program, along with 33 other participants from power system operators, women’s networks, and technical institutions from around the world. The Women in PST program also collaborated with California Independent System Operator (CAISO)’s fellowship program with the national system operator for Indonesia, PLN, offering fellows the opportunity to participate in the SEE Change training and other Women in PST events. In August, the Women in PST interns presented on their technical work and discussed how their experiences will help them strengthen decision-making and drive development of dynamic energy system solutions.
“It is important to bring gender equity into power system transformation because the rights, responsibilities, and needs should remain fair and same for both male and female. If I face any such situation in my professional or social life, I now feel equipped to integrate gender equity while making any decision or actions,” said NREL intern Manisha Rauniyar, originally from Nepal, in her exit survey.
- Watch the Women in PST interns present their technical work during the program’s virtual poster session.
- Read more about the Women in PST program.
Illustration of G-PST Teaching Material Through VSC-HVDC Example
G-PST’s Workforce Development Pillar 3 has embarked on developing the teaching material for the ‘forward-looking’ topics from the teaching agenda published last year. This webinar gives a flavor of the teaching material being prepared using an example topic – voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) transmission. The course material on VSC-HVDC was developed at Imperial College London with a preamble from the National HVDC Centre UK. Based on that, this webinar shows some short extracts of the following as exemplars of similar material to be developed for other topics in due course:
• Expert opinion on the role of HVDC in a VRE dominated power system and the associated challenges at both component and system levels
• Lecture videos and slides focused on modular multi-level converters (MMC) for VSC-HVDC applications including converter design trade-offs, control loops at different levels, and dynamic model of MMCs for use in system-level simulation
• Exercises using an open-source tool that are specifically designed to meet the intended learning outcomes of the topic
Speakers:
• Dr. Adria Junyent Ferre, Senior Lecturer, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London
• Dr. Joan Marc Bernuz Rodriguez, Research Associate, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London