Intern Review

During my placement, I was able to gain exposure across many aspects of the business, including:
🔹 Substation site work – assembling and wiring 132 kV isolators, supporting breaker and transformer commissioning, preparing foundations and rebar layouts, cable ducting, and observing tower decommissioning and overhead line insulation changes.
🔹 Protection and control testing – carrying out continuity checks, troubleshooting relay wiring, supporting AVC transformer tap changer testing with Omicron equipment, analysing pickup and drop-off characteristics, and validating protection schemes through secondary injection testing, impedance calculations, and time-current characteristic curves.
🔹 Transformer and circuit breaker maintenance – observing SF6 breaker leak inspections and replacements with sustainable dry-air alternatives, reviewing Buchholz relay operation, learning star-delta transformer connections for protection, and rewiring trip indication circuits to improve SCADA signals.
🔹 Planning and design exposure – working with PND engineers on intertripping schemes, reinforcement planning, and tower decommissioning; with DSO teams on network modelling, load index studies, curtailment, and contingency planning; and with the Engineering Design team on single line diagrams, GA drawings, schematics, and multifunctional transducer applications.
🔹 Hands-on tasks – pulling and dressing multi-core protection and control cables, labelling and wiring CB panels according to standards, assisting with circuit main earth removal, oxidation removal from equipment, and supporting practical commissioning activities.
🔹 Technical training and systems – gaining experience in Crown, IPSA, SQL, and Excel, completing LinkedIn Learning courses, and undergoing comprehensive training in cybersecurity, compliance, insider threat, data security, and business separation.
🔹 Professional development – presenting my work to graduates and interns, receiving constructive feedback, and attending the Power Academy Conference, where I engaged in workshops on hydrogen aircraft, net-zero networks, and network planning, while also networking with peers across the industry.
Throughout all of this, safety remained my top priority. I worked under strict DIESIR protocols, permit-to-work systems, and on-site procedures such as isolations, earthing, colour-coded wristbands, and control communications, ensuring every task was carried out safely and correctly.

As much as safety precautions allowed

I’ve developed my technical knowledge in protection, control, and commissioning, while also strengthening my teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Lots of support

happy to be there, work, lots of support available

Very much, very interactive

Yes