Working in a traditionally male-dominated career doesn't present any challenges for Rockhampton engineer Chanelle Harvey...

After being chosen as the top electrical engineering student in her cohort from CQUniversity, the young Ergon Energy electrical engineer, representing her host higher education institution, recently blitzed the field against stiff competition from 5 other Queensland universities.

Chanelle Harvey with her award certificate and medal

Chanelle gained top honours in the recent State finals of the Engineers Australia/The Institution of Engineering and Technology ‘Present Around the World' competition.

From here, Chanelle will be competing in New Zealand in April for the Asia Pacific final and if successful will then go on to compete in the UK for the world title.

The competition required the students to present their final-year thesis to an audience and panel of judges. They (the students) were assessed on both their thesis topic and the way it was presented.

Chanelle's thesis was entirely her own work completed at CQUniversity as an industry thesis for Ergon Energy.

It details alternative proposals to support network load growth in the rapidly expanding coastal residential suburb of Bucasia in Mackay, being representative of a number of communities experiencing similar growth rates in the State during the current levels of economic development. The alternative options recommended include mainly demand-side management options, including energy efficiency schemes, direct load control of air-conditioning, energy conservation schemes, re-adjusting tariff switching times and customer education and awareness programs. Distributed generation is also proposed as a potential option for load support.

Chanelle being congratulated by Neil Lowry

The recommended options have the potential to save Ergon Energy 70,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, millions of dollars and defer the need for traditional augmentation for almost a decade.

Chanelle's thesis was well received by Ergon and work has commenced to begin to develop an implementation plan for these strategies.

"I am excited about these outcomes and feel my thesis has successfully demonstrated that alternative technology options can be used to negate or defer traditional augmentation and make a difference to the environment at the same time. More importantly, I think I have encouraged a new way of thinking about network load support," she said.

Congratulating Chanelle on her achievement, Ergon Energy General Manager Network Neil Lowry said her work was an excellent fit with Ergon Energy's climate change strategy for the future.

"We are now putting initiatives in place to ensure we are running a sustainable energy business to deliver benefits for our shareholders, customers and the environment we all share."

Mr Lowry said Ergon Energy is pursuing a range of business initiatives which also included setting up its own sustainable wood pole forestry, driving solar power technologies and industry-leading demand management programs.

"The greatest contribution Ergon Energy can make to tackling climate change is to help our customers reduce electricity consumption," Mr Lowry said, "and that will be better for our customers' back pockets too."

"Energy conservation which reduces peak loads is also better for our business - it means we don't have to spend as much bulking up our network to cope with small windows of peak energy demand as the population and economy continues to grow."

Chanelle is an electrical engineer who has recently graduated from CQUniversity with first class honours. Her work placement experiences include 6 months working as a power systems engineer with Ergon Energy and 6 months last year working as a street lighting engineer with Atkins in England.

During her studies, Chanelle aimed to develop her skills and gain experience in a wide range of industries.

To achieve this, she gained additional vacation experience at a power station, an alumina refinery, an underground coal-mining equipment company and again with Ergon Energy.

All of Chanelle's placement and vacation work experiences have been extremely beneficial and helped to develop her as both an engineer and a person.

Last year, Chanelle won the David McPherson memorial trophy for the highest achieving engineering student at CQUniversity and also the Engineers Australia Queensland Electrical Engineering Medal.

Chanelle has just commenced employment with Ergon Energy in Rockhampton, as the Support Electrical Engineer for Network Refurbishment, and is excited to be joining the industry at such a challenging and interesting time.

In what has become a bit of a family tradition, Chanelle's brother is an engineer working for Ergon Energy in Rockhampton and her younger brother is also undertaking engineering studies.