A new partnership between The University of Queensland, the Australian Power Institute (API) and Powerlink Queensland is set to energise the future of the State’s power sector.
The initiative will fund a Chair in Electricity Transmission to support the existing research and teaching partnerships between the power industry and UQ.
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield welcomed the commitment by API and Powerlink, which will ensure that the industry benefits from both a supply of high quality specialist graduates, and new technologies to improve its sustainability.
“Queensland’s energy industry is the second largest in Australia and the fastest growing, and this partnership will enhance its capacity to responsibly address the demands of an expanding market in the face of climate change,” Professor Greenfield said.
The Chair will maintain a close relationship with the Australian and Queensland power industries to remain responsive to the sector’s technology development and research needs.
Powerlink Queensland’s Chief Operating Officer and current Chair of the API, Simon Bartlett, said that Powerlink and the API recognised the need for senior academic leadership to attract, inspire, and retain the top academics in the field and foster research opportunities in partnership with industry.
“We believe it is imperative for us to take an active role in ensuring our most promising engineering students receive the highest quality education, and that our tertiary education curriculum is keeping pace with the power industry’s needs,” he said.
“The establishment of the Australian Chair in Electricity Transmission at the University of Queensland will help us to achieve this goal at a critical time for the industry in Queensland and in Australia as a whole.”
Transmission companies across the country are currently facing an unprecedented demand to develop and refurbish their networks to meet expectations for reliable energy supplies.
Mr Bartlett said the initiative would help the industry address these and future challenges.
“The electricity transmission networks will play a pivotal role in facilitating Australia’s response to climate change, meeting the technical and regulatory challenges associated with connecting new lower emissions generators and remote, large scale renewable generators to the national electricity grid,” he said.
“Rising to these challenges requires the power industry and universities to work together to research and investigate new technologies and innovative solutions.”
Researchers from UQ’s Power and Energy Systems Research Group are addressing power system operational challenges associated with the deregulation of the electricity market as well as working to incorporate renewable energy in the national electricity grid.
Group leader, Professor Tapan Saha from the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, said the new partnership would equip graduates with the skills required by the power industry.
“Tomorrow’s power engineers will need to be trained in specific areas such as power system economics, transmission pricing, congestion management, security of supply, power system dynamics and the integration of renewable energy,” he said.
“The Chair will play a central role in developing and leading teaching and research programs in these areas, as well as collaborating with industry and other universities to ensure that UQ power engineering graduates meet industry requirements.”
The Australian Power Institute is a national energy industry-wide partnership that includes Powerlink Queensland, the Queensland Government owned corporation that owns, develops and maintains the State’s high voltage electricity transmission network.
Media: Alice Walker at the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (07 3346 7696 or a.walker1@uq.edu.au)
