Thanks to the generous support of EnergyAustralia, the University of Sydney is reinvigorating the study of power engineering in order to attract a new generation of young engineers into the field.

The NSW electricity supplier has funded the creation of the EnergyAustralia Chair in Power Engineering at the University and will support the position over five years. In April, a high-profile dinner was held at Maclaurin Hall to celebrate the commencement of the Chair, with Vice-Chancellor Professor Gavin Brown and EnergyAustralia's Chairman John Conde and Managing Director George Maltabarow, both Sydney alumni, in attendance.

According to George Maltabarow (BE [Elec] '74), the decision to finance the Chair comes in response to a growing skills shortage in the electricity sector. "The big challenge facing our industry is whether we will have the skilled workforce to meet demand," he said.

"More than $30 billion in investment is planned for Australian electricity networks over the next five to 10 years. Yet the engineering workforce in Australia is ageing, with up to a third of the current workforce – who are baby boomers – due to retire in the next decade."

Maltabarow said that he believes that there is an obligation on Australian companies to play a role in overcoming the critical skills shortage.

"The hallmark of a good company is no longer just how much it invests in its workforce, but how much it invests in its potential workforce," he said. "The EnergyAustralia Chair is one of a number of programs we are supporting, at both the high-school and the university level, in order to encourage more students to become engineers."

Professor Vassilios Agelidis, the inaugural holder of the EnergyAustralia Chair, has begun the process of restoring teaching programs in power engineering at the University. An undergraduate degree has already commenced this year, while a new Masters degree in power engineering will begin in 2008.

Meanwhile, Professor Agelidis will oversee a diverse program of cutting-edge research in power engineering, which covers the areas of electricity generation, management and distribution.
"Research in this field will contribute to developing more energy-efficient systems and networks, which will ultimately benefit the wider community," said Professor Agelidis.

"For example, if we make the move to electric cars to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, those cars will need to get their energy from the electricity grid – and that means we need to plan now for the grid to change and increase."

Professor Agelidis added that the backing of EnergyAustralia will play an important role in reviving interest in the field among students. "Their involvement raises the profile of the subject and gives students the confidence that this field is supported by the industry," he said.

In creating the chair in Power Engineering, EnergyAustralia joins four other companies – including Bluescope Steel, Toll Holdings and Cisco Systems – also supporting academic chairs within the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies.

"It is very important for the Faculty to ensure its teaching and research are relevant to industry needs, and an excellent way to do it is through industry-funded Chairs and the interaction they produce," said Professor Greg Hancock, Dean of Engineering and Information Technologies.