John Pierce, chair of Southeast Community College’s Energy Generation Operations program, demonstrates one aspect of the school’s power plant simulation software.
Southeast Community College is leading the country in preparing students to work the nation’s power grid.
The college dedicated a $100,000 PowerSimulator on May 3. The simulator was sold to the college by Washington-based IncSys Inc. for $10,000.
“IncSys basically donated the system,” John Pierce, chair of SCC’s Energy Generation Operations program, said.
SCC in Milford is the only school in the country that gives students access to three types of energy generation education—nuclear, wind and now coal—according to Pierce.
“Cooper Nuclear Station (in Brownville) asked us to start the program to supply them with workers,” Pierce said.
That was in 2008, and other schools have begun to follow suit, offering programs in just one or two types of energy.
“Nobody else has put it all together like that,” Pierce said. “It doesn’t limit our graduates, it empowers them.”
Milford Campus Director Ed Koster said the electrical power workforce will need 1,000 new plant operators each year for the next decade to keep up with demand. He said those workers start at an average salary of $56,264—about $45 per hour.
SCC’s Energy Generation Operations program can accommodate up to 45 students at once and teaches the common skills necessary to work at all three types of power plants.
Pierce said the program has graduated 146 students since 2011.
The new PowerSimulator allows students to see the complete operation of an entire coal power plant.
It ties into the system the college already had, created by engineers in South Africa, which simulates nuclear and wind power set-ups, giving students the chance to see the power plants in first-person perspective, as if they were actually standing on-location looking at the equipment.
The simulator uses hypothetical systems—not a replica of the nation’s actual power grid—to keep critical information out of the wrong hands.
“When you work with hypothetical systems, you have to come up with all sorts of stories and make believe,” IncSys President Dr. Robin Podmore said, but the systems still have to be believable and portray real problems so students can learn real solutions.
“If a power operator screws up, the power goes out,” Podmore said.
The simulator runs in real time with alarms and stress signals to which students must learn to respond.
Students who complete the program are then required to take a 125-question test given by the U.S. government’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They must pass with a 75 percent or higher in order to become certified to run the U.S. power grid.
“These companies are very particular about the people they hire,” Pierce said.
Podmore said IncSys is working on power solutions all around the world to help those who have never had electrical power—and are living on $1 to $2 a day.
“There’s a worldwide need for safe electrical power,” Podmore said.
He graduated with degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
“You have an amazing school. You’re doing something I’ve never seen before,” Podmore told faculty and students in attendance at the dedication. “I’ve been all around the world. I’ve never seen a program like this. You’re lining up people with the right stuff, I can tell.”
Podmore said working in electrical engineering is not only about keeping the world’s lights on, it’s about helping students at schools like SCC discover a career they might love.
“They’re not graduating with $100,000 in debt and still wondering what their role in life is,” he said.
