About Power Systems Engineering

The short answer is that power systems engineers develop, implement, and maintain advanced electrical power systems for use in a wide range of facilities, vehicles, platforms, and devices operating in various land, air, water, and space environments. This can range from an electric utility managing a massive power grid to a maker of electronic systems for advanced aircraft platforms to a municipal transit authority converting its fleets to zero polluting vehicles, and beyond. In any of those scenarios and more, power systems engineers basically all focus on the same objectives – designing and optimizing electrical power generation, transmission, and distribution systems to energize cutting-edge capabilities that can change the world.

At BAE Systems, our power systems engineers design and architect electrification solutions for the land, sea, and air platforms, including work on packaging Li-ion and other chemistry cells to provide solutions for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and fixed-wing aircraft solutions. A more detailed explanation of responsibilities includes:

• Architectures and circuit design for Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET), Silicon Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (Si IGBT), and Silicon Carbide (SiC) / Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices
• Isolated and Non-isolated high power DC/DC converters (greater than 1kW)
• High power AC inverters (greater than 1kW)
• System level DC link interactions
• Experience with power magnetics design, machine control, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) control
• Filters for importable and exportable sine wave power for grid tie and other applications
• Control strategies for power conversion
• Opportunities for professional engineers as a technical collaborator or as a technical leader on the program where you will mentor your team and present the technical design at technical interchange meetings with the customer
• Support manufacturing operations production and test issues
• Test equipment design and troubleshooting process
• Electrical components, component quality, and procurement issues
• Reliability engineering activities such as Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA), stress analysis, tolerance analysis
• Field service technicians, or Field Support Group with Power Systems Issues

Education and experience requirements include:

• Master’s degree in electrical engineering or a related field
• Experience with the design of DC/DC converters and motor drives with power levels of up to 500kW and DC link voltages to 1000V or higher
• From two to 20+ years of experience in power electronics-related design and development, including familiarity with motor drives, gate drivers, analog circuitry, and magnetics
• Experience with power magnetics design and electromagnetic concepts
• Experience with SPICE and Mathcad software
• Experience in full lifecycle development process, including component level requirements and design, component and system-level integration, validation, and verification
• Ability to work with software and firmware-controlled power converters and electric power systems
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership, understanding, and mentoring

Skills required include:

• Willingness to lead and work in a high-voltage / high-power lab environment
• Technical writing skills for creating required engineering documentation
• Ability to develop strategic roadmaps for both technology and new business
• Discrete understanding of the entirety of the electrification ecosystem
• Enjoys working with cross-functional teams on complex engineering challenges

This work pertains to all-electric systems, systems that combine electric power with other electricity-producing sources, like electrochemical or electromechanical processes, and innovative electric-hybrid designs for every application imaginable. With their in-depth knowledge of circuit design, high power conversion and inversion, and electrification architectures for high-voltage silicon devices, today’s power systems engineers are changing how we travel, how city infrastructures are designed, how battles are fought (or avoided), how future systems are updated more cleanly, how much more efficiently we commute, and more.

In short, “No.” For the most part, the same core skills are required of all power systems engineers. All power systems engineers deal with power generation, transmission, and distribution. All work with motors, controls, capacitors, batteries, transformers, and other devices. All must handle a variety of processes, like power conversion, power drops, and blackouts. All must analyze situations, like measuring power flows and checking network stability, then design appropriate solutions. And all power systems engineers today must be fully attuned to renewable energy and environmentally-friendly power options.

However, one likely difference may be that aircraft power systems engineers will probably have a strong interest in and more in-depth knowledge of the power systems, controls, and electronic devices that are most effective – and most vulnerable – in aircraft, as opposed to those used in community power grids, cruise ships, personal automobiles, and such. Also, while many of the elements involved in all power systems are the same or similar, modern aircraft do have aggressive Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) requirements that ground-based vehicles and physical facilities don’t need to worry about, so an aircraft power systems engineer could bring the benefit of greater forethought and insight to a position where aircraft systems are the primary task at hand.

A power systems engineer is among the best careers today for an electrical engineer and is expected to remain better than most for decades to come. In fact, recent surveys ranked it in the same top five career paths as aerospace engineer, systems engineer, electronics engineer, and project engineer – all roles that most power systems engineers will also fulfill at some point, in the work performed even if they never hold those titles. Those core career benefits include:

• Strong category growth: Every part of the transportation sector – from advanced new aircraft, electric personal cars, and commercial delivery vans to transit systems, school buses, and cargo ships – is quickly transitioning away from fossil fuels toward clean power electrification, mostly with expectations that they will be powered fully or in part by renewable energy sources. And the transportation infrastructure on which all of those advanced, next-generation vehicles depend is transitioning almost as quickly. In addition, most new or renovated government and commercial facilities integrate renewable power sources into their power plant design, usually citing environmental, cost, and expected fuel availability reasons. That will continue for the foreseeable future and power systems engineers will be needed to move that forward.
• High demand: Power engineering has been a key part of the electrical engineering category for decades, but the massive quantity of new electric vehicles, devices, motors, and integrated systems that are in demand today (see above) has resulted in a similar demand for power systems engineers right now. That demand will only increase in the coming years, assuring that power systems engineering continues to be a highly-valued career.
• Category flexibility: While a number of professions can be limited in their adaptability, Power Engineering is applicable to any line of work that involves the electrification of primary systems and the integration of related devices, controls, subsystems, and programming. As a result, expertise as a power engineer of advanced aircraft can also be a key strength in the development of power systems for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and submarines, light rail systems and city buses, space vehicles and satellites, commercial trucks and service vehicles, search & rescue vessels, mining equipment, and more. Such flexibility within the electrical engineering field is a strength that bodes well for lifelong employment in this sector.
• Good salary: As in most professions, salaries vary in this field with experience, academic achievement, title, and area of responsibility. However, Power Engineering typically ranks as one of the highest paid in the engineering category, and aerospace power engineering salaries generally trend higher still.
• Steady employment: Careers in many fields go through “boom and bust” cycles driven by economic trends, wars, population shifts, and other factors that may or may not be tied directly to circumstances within those industries. That is seldom the case with power engineering, which is one of the oldest forms of electrical engineering because the need for electric power generation and management throughout industrialized nations has been in non-stop demand for over a century. If anything, that demand will continue to grow, especially as dependence on renewable energy sources increases, fossil fuels are used less, and “smart” systems become normalized in more and more platforms.
• Interesting work: In the end, perhaps the biggest benefit of a career in any field is that it maintains a person’s interest over several decades. Although the basics of power engineering remain the same as they ever were, new opportunities that this category offers a person to use their electrical engineering knowledge to create next-generation technologies that will change how humans travel, live, work together, defend themselves, and engage the world – including space – continue to expand. That means it is not just the work that’s interesting, but where that work can take us all.

There are two ways to answer this question – what kind of organizations a power systems engineer can be hired by and where they spend their time working. The first answer boils down to, “Anywhere that large amounts of electricity need to be generated and put to use operating electrical devices.” In the U.S., that means a power systems engineer could work for:

• A vehicle developer or manufacturer such as a private sector aerospace company, an automobile maker, a cruise ship or power boat designer, a transit system or train builder, a helicopter company, and so on.
• The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), whose departments design and use power systems in more facilities, vehicles, and platforms than just about any organization anywhere.
• A DoD partner company like BAE Systems that develops next-gen solutions for every department of the military and several other U.S. government agencies and administrations.
• Research universities and science institutions that need reliable electrical power systems with innovative options to carry out experiments and research without interruptions.
• A U.S. government agency like the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy, NASA, the Department of Transportation, and more.
• A power industry utility that must generate or acquire electricity to power major cities and widespread power grids across the U.S. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week safely and with as few power outages as possible.

As for where power systems engineers spend their time working, that can depend on whether they are creating new systems or updating current ones, what level they are at in the organization, their specific assignments, geographic locations of both their company and that company’s clients, and more. Some of the work environments in which power systems engineers play a key role include:

• Innovation & design labs where the next generation of electric power systems and the devices and electronic systems they make possible are invented, designed, refined, and prepared for testing. Power engineers would typically work as part of a development team with mechanical, electrical, and propulsion engineers, and a range of scientists and specialists.
• Test centers that try out, analyze, verify, and report on the real-world performance of the systems invented or improved on by the Innovation & Design teams. Designs that fail initial testing are sent back to be reconsidered or eliminated, while those that pass core tests are often still sent back for further refinement before they can make it into production.
• Manufacturing facilities where final, approved designs are built for use in the field according to design specifications, then re-tested before implementation to be sure they meet industry standards and pass all client requirements. Manufacturing capabilities may also need to be customized to optimize production quantities of deliverables.
• Client operation sites where the systems and devices are to eventually be implemented, operated, and maintained by client personnel. These sites are usually driven by the assignment focus of the client, so they could include:
  • a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) site
  • a U.S. Air Force (USAF) air base
  • a power utility’s hydroelectric or nuclear power station
  • an automobile manufacturer’s proving ground
  • a NASA space vehicle or satellite testing center
  • a U.S. Navy (USN) aircraft carrier or submarine base
  • a self-driving truck manufacturer’s test tracks
  • and much more
• On-site repair and upgrade facilities created specifically to service clients’ facilities or vehicles wherever they may be worldwide. Major clients today often operate globally, so clients who need an assurance of support teams they are certain they can rely on will often contract superior engineering talent, or hire them directly, to be in or travel to areas where they are less familiar with local options.

Many of the tools, components, and practices used in power systems engineering vary with the business categories where they are applied – automotive, aerospace, public utilities, manufacturing, transit, medical technologies, etc. – but most are the same and some versions of the same three main practices are always part of the job:

1. Power generation & conversion, in which electrical power is produced from fossil fuels, like coal, petroleum, or natural gas; from nuclear energy; and/or from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind power, hydro, wave motion, geothermal, regenerative braking, and more. This is a very active and thriving area of the power engineering sector because, after more than a century of heavy dependence on fossil fuels for electrical power generation, technologies that can reliably and affordably produce clean power electricity from renewable, less finite energy sources are in high demand today by most business sectors, as well as governments worldwide, the defense community, environmental scientists, and others. Not only are fossil fuels now seen as less plentiful and more damaging to life than in the past, but new clean power technologies appear to have reached a tipping point where their effectiveness and availability make their adoption less costly and more broadly acceptable across a growing range of platforms and industries.
2. Power transmission is that part of power systems engineering where electricity is moved safely from its generation source to the distributor, who is often the regional electrical network operator or power grid owner. For power systems engineers, the power transmission challenge can be as big as moving electricity from a hydroelectric power station in a rural dam to municipal electrical grid substations in a few surrounding states, for example, or can be as focused as getting the power generated by a ship’s onboard generator(s) routed safely throughout the ship to key power distribution centers. Within most ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and land vehicles, power transmission responsibilities are often tightly aligned enough to be integrated with power distribution duties, but large interconnected electric power grids today face significant transmission challenges made especially challenging by the broad-scale need to integrate a number of traditional and new power sources into an ever-expanding and less than balanced usage infrastructure.
3. Power distribution varies somewhat by the applicable ecosystem, but overall requires power systems engineers to distribute and maintain the available electrical power from the energy source to end users, stepping down the voltages to levels appropriate for their facilities, homes, and devices. Traditionally, the distribution systems would only operate as simple distribution lines where the electricity from the transmission networks would be shared among the customers. Today, such systems are heavily integrated with renewable energy generations at the distribution level of the power systems by the means of distributed resources, such as solar energy and wind turbines. As a result, these systems are becoming progressively more independent from the transmission networks. Balancing the supply-demand relationship at these modern distribution networks – sometimes called “microgrids” – is extremely challenging, and it requires the use of various technological and operational means to operate. Such tools include battery storage power stations, data analytics, optimization tools, and more.

In all three of the above areas, the power systems engineer must be ready to design, adapt, and integrate some of the most advanced technologies on the planet with a mix of electrical systems from various eras over the past century. This is particularly true in the utilities sector, but also in other vertical categories – like the defense and intelligence communities, the financial sector, and transportation. Objective analysis would show that the need for cutting-edge power systems is so great that most power systems engineers with proven proficiency in advanced technologies can have a very strong career.

Today, power systems engineering is vital to advancing the aerospace industry, particularly with the many Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) enhancements that it makes possible to improve aircraft and spacecraft performance. As mechanical controls and instruments have been replaced by computerized systems with advanced control algorithms, flight crews today have better control of their aircraft, flight fatigue has decreased significantly, less fuel is required, and aircraft agility has increased.

As aviation has become more electrified, the use of high-powered silicon-based technologies plays an increasing role in the operations of both military and commercial aircraft. The sensitivity of these electronic components, and the critical roles they play in flight safety, means that without properly developed power distribution systems, these components may not be functioning properly and may even be exposed to power fluctuations that could cause the failure of the entire aircraft.

In spacecraft applications, electric power system elements involve power inputs from solar arrays, power dispersion to individual spacecraft components, and system control circuitry that enables an effective transmission system and storage of the power. Although the use of power systems on spacecraft has evolved greatly over the years, this evolution has resulted in a larger gap between traditional power electronics engineering and how power is generated, stored, and distributed aboard spacecraft. As space agencies and private space exploration companies continue to push out further and further, the need for more advanced power technologies will require a new breed of power engineers.

Despite the challenges inherent in any quickly-changing technological field, current environmental and geopolitical trends make it critical for leaders in the aerospace category today to challenge a new generation of power system engineers to make the commitments necessary to lead the way tomorrow. Those who accept that challenge will find a gratifying path forward.

The historical answer is that power systems engineering became its own field when British physicist Michael Faraday (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) turned his research in electrochemistry and electromagnetism into what would become the core principles behind all electromagnetic technology inventions, starting in the 1820s. His invention of the first rudimentary electric motors two centuries ago was a result of his experiments developing devices that caused what he called “electromagnetic rotations” by combining an electrochemical battery current with a magnetic force. His first generator came to fruition in 1831. By discovering how to reliably and safely turn other energy sources into electricity, and identifying many of the fundamental theories that drive the behaviors and properties of electrification, Faraday effectively created power engineering.

In 1882, New York City became home to the first commercial central power station – Pearl Street Station in Manhattan’s financial district – which began by generating electricity specifically to power public lighting nearby. It was an immediate hit, both in New York and soon after in other cities around the globe, and electricity’s integration into the everyday lives, homes, and businesses of average people grew exponentially throughout the 20th century. It took several decades of expansion and systems upgrades to make access to electricity fairly ubiquitous nationwide in the U.S. and most modern industrialized countries, and this tremendous growth was only possible with commensurate growth in the power engineering field worldwide, including the number of power systems engineers.

Applying power engineering principles and inventions to transportation began with the first electric locomotive being built in 1837. The first marine vessel generating electricity was the S.S. Columbia, introduced in 1880. It used electricity for lighting only. Three years later, in 1883, the first aircraft propelled by an electric motor – a dirigible – was introduced in France by brothers Albert and Gaston Tissander. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the first electric car was introduced in 1890 by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. The electrification of power systems and key devices in all modes of transportation has grown steadily since the end of World War 2, but today’s combination of technological capabilities and new environmental standards has driven the need and opportunities for truly game-changing innovations to an all-time high.

Power systems engineering has been with us for many decades, and has made significant strides since its beginnings. Best of all, the need for further power systems innovation and incorporation of new advanced electronics is expected to remain high for the foreseeable time across multiple business and government sectors, from the defense community, power utilities, and commercial business facilities to aircraft innovators, automobile manufacturers, shipping logistics firms, and more.