Ritesh Kumar found himself amongst industry heavyweights at the 2016 Siemens Power Plant Automation (SPPA) Service Workshop giving a presentation describing his background and his selection as the winner of the 2016 Siemens Control Systems Prize.
“I was aware that I would be involved in some activities, but I didn’t expect to give a presentation!” said the fourth-year Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering)/ Diploma in Engineering Practice student
“I felt privileged and honoured to be given an opportunity to speak, as I was just a student in a room full of experienced personnel and experts in their respective fields.”
The Workshop was attended by delegates from the Australian energy generation sector, including representatives from power plants as users of Siemens control systems, and Siemens experts from Germany and Malaysia. The theme was digitalisation and how it can be utilised in energy generation to meet challenges, now and into the future.
Siemens delivered an assessment of current market trends in the energy sector in Australia/New Zealand/ Papua New Guinea, forecasting that renewable energy would account for nearly 50% of additional global generation by 2040, overtaking coal as the largest power source by 2030.
“As a student, it is very rare to get such a first-hand review of the industry and it gave me a different perspective of the future of energy generation and distribution. Before attending the workshop I had not ever really considered the challenges for energy producers and distributors concerning infrastructure and control systems,” he said.
Before attending the SPPA workshop, Siemens was one of the organisations Ritesh had marked to learn more about for possible work at in the future, and so made the most of networking.
“I met Siemens graduate and intermediate level engineers open to answering my questions and to share experiences of working there. So I was able to get a good sense of what they do, what type of activities they do on a daily basis, and also the workplace culture there,” he said.
“The workshop gave me much greater understanding of the energy sector and the services and products Siemens provides to accommodate the needs of energy producers, in Australia and around the world,” he said.