Issue: 77 / September 2021
Foreword
Welcome to the September 2021 issue of PSC News.
There’s a distinct Asia Pacific bias to this issue of PSC News, so here’s the foreword from Melbourne, Australia. I’m pleased to share a number of news articles from the APAC region: Our renewed focus on strategic advisory helping clients be future-ready whilst transitioning to a cleaner energy future, updates about conferences we managed to take part in virtually or before COVID changed our plans, to the announcement of our partnership with Harmonic Analytics of New Zealand with whom we’ve been doing some great work around the world.
From a global, corporate perspective, this issue of PSC News contains an article from Alex, our CEO, about why and how we’ve just refreshed our vision and values statements. This is significant to us as it represents our renewed commitment and purpose for being an active participant in the global energy industry, so we hope it’s of interest to you as well. And, as always, we’ve provided an introduction to our latest new hires as we continue to grow.
As vaccinations in the State of Victoria are increasing, we are looking forward to the current COVID lockdown restrictions here decreasing soon so we can get the kids back to school and transition to the new business as usual. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the latest issue of the PSC News.
Roger Riley, PSC Asia Pacific Managing Director
By Alex Boyd
Celebrating change: Revitalizing PSC’s vision and values
PSC’s President & CEO, Alex Boyd, announces a new and improved version of the Company’s vision and values statements that reflects the evolving sustainability needs of its global clients, employees and stakeholders.
By Tina Kazmer
PSC shines a light on its strategic advisory service to help navigate the energy transition
PSC’s OT and Strategic Advisory General Manager Matt Robinson discusses a renewed focus of the company’s Strategic Advisory service in the Asia Pacific region.
By Tim Miles
PSC and Harmonic Analytics announce strategic partnership
PSC and Harmonic Analytics partner to deliver insights to the electricity industry through the innovative power of data.
Technical Advisor Services for Offshore Transmission Owner
This project summary outlines the work PSC has provided to Diamond Transmission Partners, who currently own and operate five offshore transmission systems connecting the Burbo Bank Extension, Race Bank, Galloper, Walney Extension and Hornsea One wind farms to the onshore National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) owned transmission network.
PSC – Proud sponsor of Electra’s August issue
The August issue of CIGRE‘s digital magazine, ELECTRA, is available now.
Hitachi ABB/PSC webinar
With the global push to decarbonize the energy sector, the generation supply mix within Asia Pacific is transitioning towards natural gas, renewables, hydro, and energy storage. If you’re planning renewable generation in the APAC region, you’ll want to join PSC’s Tri Le and Wilson Szeto from Hitachi ABB Power Grids for this free webinar on September 23*. The presenters will demonstrate how the industry-proven PROMOD and Portfolio Optimization solutions allow for the flexible modeling and scenario analysis of complex and changing markets. *The webinar will be recorded so you can access at your convenience once you register.
PSC, DOE and Texas A&M University will present at T&D World Conference
PSC, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Texas A&M University will be leading a presentation during the T&D World Black Sky & Grid Resilience virtual conference, November 16-17, highlighting the on-going efforts to study the impact of High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) on the North American power grid.
PSC and Texas A&M are service providers to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and are studying the impact of HEMP on the electric power grid. This presentation will discuss the evolution of state-of-the-art tools, the concerns of the US government on securing the electrical grid against the threat of HEMP, and the unique data requirements and institutional communication challenges to perform these types of studies. This presentation will discuss the E1, E2, and E3 waveforms with a particular focus on modeling and simulation of impacts from the E3 waveform. For more information about the Black Sky & Grid Resilience Virtual Conference, visit here.
By Tina Kazmer
PSC recaps its top takeaways from EEA 2021
PSC’s Peter Brown and Rob Lake offer a look back on EEA 2021 which took place in Wellington, NZ last month.
By Richard Adams and Zia Emin
CIGRE’s virtual centennial session
PSC’s Richard Adams and Zia Emin contribute their perspective about participating in CIGRE’s centennial session which was held virtually again this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
DID YOU KNOW?
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— North America —
Linda Goergen Welcome to Linda Goergen who joined in North America as a Senior Consultant early in August. Linda is an experienced and successful technical leader in the Database arena for utility real-time systems. A long-term member of the Siemens EMS database team, Linda has experience on many generations of database products and systems – especially focused on the Siemens Spectrum Power™ series. Linda is available to provide support remotely to industry database teams and can offer software development and system design guidance as needed.
Paul Gregory We welcome Paul Gregory to the Operational Technologies team in North America. Paul has a finance and technical education background and extensive program/project management experience with various energy management solution companies. He is a certified Program Management Professional (PMP) since early 2009 and has established and directed Program Management Offices (PMO) leading project teams through all stages of deadline-driven projects. Throughout his 30+ year career Paul has been responsible for the management of development, design, costing, and implementation teams for numerous system-level automation, integration, construction and energy conservation projects of various complexities and sizes. Paul will be based remotely in the US.
James O’Brien PSC welcomes James who joins us as a Principal System Studies Consultant in North America. James has a master’s degree from the University of Idaho with a focus on power system modeling and protection. He has previously worked for the Bonneville Power Administration as an operations planning engineer, at Peak Reliability (WECC RC) in advanced network applications and recently at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a research engineer. James will be working remotely from Richland, WA.
— Asia Pacific —
Tina Kazmer PSC welcomes Tina Kazmer as our new APAC Sales and Marketing Lead. Tina has spent the last 15 years in senior corporate marketing roles for a variety of organizations including professional services, education, healthcare, employment, technology and thought leadership. She has been involved in strategy development, thought leadership, marketing and campaign planning, events, media, business growth, content development and brand awareness, among others. Tina has been involved in various purposeful activities throughout her life including volunteering opportunities such as helping reduce food waste in Australia, supporting education opportunities in remote Australia, mentoring police officers in London, and conducting market research in the urban slums of Bangalore for a social venture. Tina is based in Sydney.
Djino Pirsic Welcome to Djino Pirsic who joins the APAC Power Network Solutions team. Djino has over 30 years of experience in various sectors including process, energy, mining and petrochemical and various specialised industrial sectors. He is competent in all phases of design, project management, FEED studies, EPCM and EPC projects, construction support, commissioning, team management and development, and he has excellent client relationship and liaison skills. Djino will be based in our Brisbane office.
Mohammad Hasanuzzaman Shawon We welcome Mohammad to the APAC Power System Studies team. Mohammad is a power system engineer with work experience in leading power industries and research institutions in Australia and overseas (Europe & Middle East). He is also finishing his PhD studies from Curtin University, Perth, Australia. His core expertise includes power system modeling and grid control aspect. Prior to joining PSC, he was with GHD Power system study group. He has been involved in a number of research and industry projects with GHD, ELECNOR, ADNOC, ABB and several R&D companies. Mohammad will be based in PSC’s Perth office.
Shaurya Duggal PSC welcomes Shaurya Duggal to the APAC Power Systems team. He has come from New Zealand to join the Australian team as a Power Systems studies consultant. He graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Engineering. His final year project: “Modeling the uptake and impact of electric vehicles on the distribution network” was awarded the best project in power systems. Prior to relocating to Brisbane, Shaurya was a Network planning engineer at Vector, where he worked on load flow modelling and fault simulations using PowerFactory. He also assisted with the asset management plan, load forecasting, and was the electricity planning lead for Auckland transport’s transition to e-busses and e-ferries. Shaurya will be based in our Brisbane office.
Akbar Barkesseh Welcome to Akbar who has joined the Power Network Solutions team in Australia. Akbar brings a wealth of multi-industry experience to the team, from power generation and delivery, transmission and distribution, as well as industrial electrical plants in oil, gas and chemical, mining and water together with good experience with control and instrumentations. Akbar has worked with our major clients before and with his solid academic background and hands-on experience in engineering, commissioning, construction and project management, he will be an asset to PSC and our clients. He has an MSc in Electrical Engineering and is a CPEng and RPEQ. Akbar will be based in our Brisbane office.
Gillian Benfield Please welcome Gill (Gillian) Benfield, Senior Human Resources Generalist, who joins PSC’s global People team in Australia. Gill comes to us with approximately 15 years of HR Business Partner experience, spanning all aspects of a generalist role in a variety of industries, including talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, global mobility, talent management and management consulting. She has supported teams in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in the past, so will slip right into our international culture. Gill will be based in our Brisbane office.
Sarah Zhou Welcome to Sarah Zhou who has joined the APAC Power Network Solutions team. Sarah joins us with one year of local experience and four years overseas experience across LV design, power system analysis, LV protection and arc flash analysis. She has a good understanding of international and Australian standards, codes, and regulations, including AS3000, AS3008, IEEE1584, IEC60909, etc. She is proficient in SKM PTW, ETAP, PowerCAD and has been building her skills in PSSE. Sarah is also bi-Lingual and proficient in written and spoken English and Mandarin. Sarah will be based in the PSC Brisbane office.
Cameron MacKay PSC welcomes Cameron Mackay who joins the APAC Power Networks team. Cameron joined PSC on a casual basis in March to get his work experience for his BE. During this time Cameron has worked on the Aerial Laser Survey project, traveling around the South Island setting up GPS equipment for the helicopter operations; attended a generator test at Coleridge hydropower station; and has undertaken generator compliance assessments and reporting for the nine units tested at Murray 1. Cameron is now working full-time at PSC and will be based in our Christchurch office.
— Europe —
Adam Fawcett We welcome Adam to the PSC Europe team as our IT System Engineer. Adam has spent the last nine years working within the IT Department at Northgate PLC, where his role covered multiple areas of support including projects, daily support, monitoring, patching, service and desktop support, Mimecast configuration and maintenance and many others. He started out as a Junior IT Analyst within the business, and by the time he left, had worked his way up to the IT Operations Infrastructure team. We look forward to having Adam on board, and he will be based in the Newcastle office.
Joseph Oliver PSC welcomes Joe Oliver as Principal Consultant in the UK/Europe region. Joe brings his comprehensive experience in power cable engineering to PSC, having worked for leading manufacturers and consultants in the fields of HVAC cable systems and HVDC interconnectors. Joe has experience in cable system and installation design, and practical knowledge from involvement in major projects in the UK, mainland Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. Based in the UK, Joe will be a valued member of PSC’s HVDC team in the region.
Raj Bharatbhai Hirani We welcome Raj Hirani to our HVDC team in Europe where he will be supporting cable and converter project delivery. Raj joins us fresh from completing his MSc in Electrical Power Engineering, at Northumbria University Newcastle. Prior to that, Raj worked as a student intern and a junior project manager on the electrical systems of Gujarat India. Raj has also applied his skills and knowledge in a voluntary capacity in India and the UK. Raj will be based in our Newcastle office in the UK.
Carlos Ferrandon-Cervantes PSC welcomes Carlos to the Europe Studies team. Carlos is an Electrical Engineering Consultant with seven years of research experience, and four years of industry work experience from the distribution layer to the transmission system operator. Carlos will be based in the Newcastle office.
