I’ve been working in power systems consulting for almost 10 years, including nearly three years at a large OEM. The work is interesting and stable, but career growth has been slow. I currently make around $180K.
I recently received an offer from a smaller consulting firm with a 34% salary increase and 0.5% equity. It’s financially attractive, but I’m concerned about the risks.
With AI automating more engineering and consulting tasks, I wonder how smaller firms will fare if the AI bubble bursts or the economy slows down. At the same time, growing demand for power infrastructure could create opportunities for these firms.
For those with experience in the industry:
Would you take the offer or stay with the established OEM?
How significant is the AI threat to power systems consulting over the next 5–10 years?
Is 0.5% equity in a small consulting firm potentially valuable, or should I focus mainly on the salary increase?
I’m looking for a balance between higher compensation, career growth, and long-term stability. Would appreciate any advice or firsthand experiences!

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SF6-free MV gear usually carries a purchase premium that depends on product, ratings, volume and market. I haven't found a public figure I'd trust, so I'm treating the premium as a variable and lining up the offsets instead: no gas handling at installation, no SF6 leak checks, top-ups or gas inventory, no certified gas staff, no SF6 recovery at end of life, and no Scope 1 SF6 line.

What shifted my comparison most was the retrofit path. A CIRED 2019 paper by Schneider engineers says their SF6-free shunt vacuum switch is fully interchangeable with the SF6 switch in installed SM6 cubicles, with the same busbar and cable connection heights, and the 2020 SM6 catalogue counts more than 1.7 million SM6 functional units worldwide. Swapping a switch inside an existing cubicle is a very different cost question from replacing a whole board.

For new RMUs I'd price RM AirSeT (24 kV, 630 A, 20 kA) first, with Eaton Xiria as the benchmark (Eaton says that technology has been market-proven since 2002).

If you've priced SF6 and SF6-free side by side, how big was the gap, and which offsets did your finance team accept?

What is it like working in each field? And is it possible to do HVDC commissioning and then transition onto more remote work in Grid Studies or consulting? I was hoping for a career progression that starts out with lots of travel at first and then becomes fully remote.

Does anyone have the Cimcap CHM file? This is basically the file you view when you get help, which shows all the topics and that stuff. If I could get that file from somebody, I would sure appreciate it

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Hey everyone,

I'm looking to make a job switch and thought I'd reach out here.

I work in electrical/substation engineering, with experience in both physical design and Protection & Control. I've worked on substation layouts, equipment, one-lines, schematics, wiring, AutoCAD/Inventor 3D, design coordination, and construction support.

I'm currently looking for:

• Substation / Power Systems roles

• Protection & Control roles

• Electrical Design Engineer roles

• Data Center Electrical/Power roles

• EPC / Engineering Consulting opportunities

Location: Pune, India

Preference: India / Remote / suitable international opportunities

If anyone knows of an opening or could provide a referral, please DM me. I can share my resume and experience details.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone!

I'm studying Electronics and Communications Engineering and I'm interested in pursuing a career in the electrical power industry.

I'd love to hear from engineers who graduated in this field and are currently working in areas such as:

Power Systems

Protection and Control

Substation Engineering

Electrical Design

Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution

Renewable Energy

My questions are:

Did you manage to enter these fields with a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, or did you need a master's degree or additional qualifications?

Do employers accept graduates from this specialization, or do they require a degree in Electrical Power Engineering?

Which power engineering roles are most accessible to these graduates?

Have you faced any difficulties because of your degree?

What advice would you give students interested in this career path?

I'd especially appreciate real experiences from working engineers in the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, the Gulf countries, and elsewhere.

Your answers could help students and graduates worldwide who are considering this career path.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone!

I'm a Power Systems Engineer based in the APAC region with around 1 years of experience, currently working remotely on grid connection/interconnection studies.

I genuinely enjoy my job. The remote setup is great, my colleagues are knowledgeable, and I'm constantly learning new things. However, I've recently been questioning whether I'm being fairly compensated for the work I do.

For context, my current rate is approximately $4 USD/hour.

My work primarily involves:

- Performing grid connection studies using PSS®E, PSCAD, and DIgSILENT PowerFactory.

- Running RMS and EMT simulations and analyzing the results.

- Developing Python scripts to automate repetitive simulation tasks and tests.

- Troubleshooting simulation issues, model initialization problems, and unexpected behavior.

- Analyzing simulation plots and interpreting system responses to different disturbances.

I wouldn't consider myself an expert yet, and I know there's still a lot for me to learn. However, I feel like I've developed a reasonable level of technical competency and can independently handle certain tasks and troubleshoot issues when they arise.

I also understand that compensation varies significantly depending on geographic location, and I'm not necessarily expecting US salary levels while working in APAC.

That said, is $4/hour actually reasonable for someone doing this kind of specialized engineering work?

I'd really appreciate some perspective from other power systems engineers, especially those involved in grid connection studies, renewable energy integration, BESS, or power system consulting.

A few things I'm curious about:

1. What would be a reasonable salary or hourly rate for someone with my experience in the APAC region?

2. What technical skills or responsibilities distinguish a junior engineer from a mid-level engineer in this field?

3. Am I overestimating my current skill set, or is this simply a case of regional salary differences?

4. For engineers working remotely with international clients, how did you eventually negotiate better compensation or find better-paying opportunities?

I don't necessarily want to leave my current company because I genuinely enjoy the work and the learning opportunities. I'm just trying to understand my market value and whether I should be aiming higher.

Would love to hear your experiences and advice. Thanks!

Does anyone work in Jacobs as a P&C engineer? Was looking for some general feedback on working for Jacobs in the US. Nature of work, team experience, support etc basically anything at all. Thanks!

Soon-to-be new grad EE here (class of '27), and I have two competing offers that I'm torn between.

I've worked at a IOU in South Carolina for two summers now, first doing distribution design (poles, meters, customers, etc.), and then distribution planning (setting & debugging relays for smart grid, coordinating fuses) this past summer. I was hoping to get a return offer in planning, but the team that does that is super small and didn't have any space, so I was offered distribution design full time. They're offering me $90k (probably ~$100k total comp).

I also got an offer from WSP (a former POWER Engineers office) in the midwest doing substation design. They said their new grads are typically cross trained on both physical and P&C. I read through Protective Relaying by Blackburn and I think that kind of work would be more interesting, and I know I don't want to get boxed into distribution design long term. But they're only offering $85k (fewer benefits too so ~$90k total comp). Also a smidge less vacation.

Do I take the extra money now and try to pivot later, or should I start off doing substation work?

Edit for future people: Ended up taking the IOU offer. I forgot to add the bonus on top of the huge 401k match so total comp is closer to $110k, plus it's close enough to my parents' house that I'd pay no rent. The opportunity cost was like $40k per year all in, so that pushed me towards distribution and trying to pivot later.

Edit 2: Right before I was about to accept, I got another substation design offer also paying $85k, but in my home state which has no income tax. It also paid straight time overtime, which I think is pretty rare, so I went ahead and accepted that instead of the utility.

Curious how other Substation Engineers are doing with about 6 YOE. I currently make 122K + a small bonus (4K) for a company in Chicago but am fully remote in Michigan. I didn’t think I was underpaid before but I keep seeing posts for around 135K-155K?

I am looking to move back to Chicago and was wondering if anyone has advice on how to go about asking for promotion? What is a realistic percentage increase to get?

Hello,
I work as a DER engineer on the distribution side and use tools like synergi etc. I was curious about switching to the transmission side. I'd like to use more advanced tools like PSCAD, PSS/E etc. My company only hires PhD and/or senior engineers who already have experience in transmission planning.

My question is: is it worth it to learn more tools? my goal with this move is to eventually get a remote position (I currently do 5 days a week in office) after I acquire enough experience. I saw that most remote positions are PSCAD and/or transmission side engineering. Since, I don't know anything about transmission, I figured might as well just start now when I am young.

Please let me know what you think.

I recently received an interview invitation for a new grad Electrical Engineer position at Sargent & Lundy, and I’m curious about what to expect in terms of salary and overall compensation.

I currently have an offer for around $80K in a relatively low cost-of-living city, and I’m wondering whether Sargent & Lundy would be able to offer a competitive salary in a higher cost of living city.

Does anyone have insight into starting salaries for new grad engineers at Sargent & Lundy, particularly in the midwest? I'm also curious about whether they offer sign-on bonuses or relocation assistance.

Any insight would be appreciated!

Hey everyone!

I’m working on a power system in ETAP, and when I try to run the load flow calculation, I get the following error:

“Load flow calculation did not converge in the specified maximum number of iterations.”

I’m not sure what is causing this error or where I might have made a mistake in my model.

I’ve attached a ZIP file containing my ETAP project file (.oti) and the reference document I’m following. If anyone could take a look at the model and point out what I’ve done wrong, or suggest what I should check to fix this error, I would really appreciate it.

I’m still learning ETAP, so any guidance or explanation would be a great help.

Thank you in advance for your time and help!

Hey everyone!

I'm studying the IEEE 9-bus power system for fault analysis, and I have a doubt regarding the bus data in a research paper.

In Table 1, buses 2 and 3 are classified as PV buses. As far as I understand, at a PV bus, the real power (P) and voltage magnitude (V) are specified, while reactive power (Q) and voltage phase angle (δ) are unknown and calculated during load-flow analysis.

However, in the table provided in the paper, the generator reactive power (MVAR) is also given for buses 2 and 3:

• Bus 2: P = 163 MW, Q = 6.7 MVAR, V = 1.025 p.u.
• Bus 3: P = 85 MW, Q = −10.9 MVAR, V = 1.025 p.u.

**My question is:** If Q is unknown at a PV bus during load-flow analysis, why is the generator reactive power already specified in the bus data table? Are these Q values obtained after performing load-flow analysis, or are they specified input values for the simulation?

I'd appreciate it if someone could clarify this concept. Thanks!

Disclosure: we’re Foxtheon, and our team made this 94-second animation based on a hybrid power solution developed for a real mining camp. Customer and site details are confidential.

The operating sequence shown is:

• Solar serves the camp load first. • Surplus solar charges the BESS. • When solar drops below demand, the battery supports the shortfall. • After sunset, the battery carries the load until the EMS starts the generator. • When the generator runs, spare capacity can charge the battery rather than operating continuously at low load.

The illustrated system uses our EnergyPack M300Pro and FoxMind energy management. The animation is intentionally high-level, not a sizing or wiring guide. Actual dispatch depends on load profile, available solar, battery state of charge, generator minimum loading, fuel logistics and maintenance constraints.

For engineers who have worked on remote or industrial microgrids: which constraint usually dominates your dispatch strategy—generator low-load efficiency, battery cycling, fuel logistics or reliability margins?

Video: https://youtu.be/GRT31rLGsG4

hey guys ! is anybody perform IEEE 9 BUS fault analysis in Etap?

apologies for such a random question,

but I was wondering if anyone who has been an engineer in power systems and say worked at companies such as GE, SEL, Siemens, or utilities have ever transitioned to work at NASA or the space industry?

Thank you!!