These days it seems as though everything is getting a little smarter. Our phones, cars, healthcare, and now, thanks to innovations in electrical energy engineering, our electricity. Smart grids, an intelligent electricity network designed to monitor, control and encourage efficient energy use, are changing the way we that we do laundry forever; but how exactly?

Cleaner Energy

The ye olde power grid, while familiar to us all, was a rather resilient, brainless zombie. With the flick of a switch, electricity channeled into our homes and the user, sometimes begrudgingly, paid for what they used at a standardized rate. The smarter grid on the other hand, as a transmission and distribution system with an IQ that may rival Stephen Hawking, still channels the electricity into our homes, but also monitors our hydro usage, provides bi-directional metering, and incorporates cleaner energies such as wind and solar power. Consequently, like telephone billing, the associated smart meter will bill the user at the equivalent peak or off-peak rate, while also actively managing demand response across the grid.

While we may hear a groan from consumers, believing this to be yet another environmentally-packaged tool to part them from their cash, for users willing to slightly adjust their hydro usage, nothing can be further from the truth. The whole aim of the scheme is to promote more efficient energy use, lower total energy consumption, and maintain a reliable and secure electricity infrastructure, which can meet future demand growth. Growth truly is the key word here as, let's face it, our cities aren't getting smaller.

Job Growth

Gary Murphy is the Smart Meter Chief Project Officer at BC Hydro. He maintains that, with the growth of the smart grid sector in the last 6 months, BC Hydro have employed 300 new people; from technicians and business analysts, to line-men. These new hires have been in addition to employing contractors from other sources.

Ga├®tan Caron, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the National Energy Board, claims that Canada is in a unique position in the global economy as a major energy consumer, producer and exporter. We have a large, cold, country with a resource based economy. This results in Canada being one of the highest energy users in the world.

With Canada's distinctive global position, a number of Engineering Schools are now providing more specialized options, particularly within the field of Electrical Energy Systems. To name a few, universities such as Toronto, Calgary and Waterloo, all offer Masters, PhD, or Graduate Diploma programs with specializations in energy and environmental systems. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board has a more comprehensive list of schools and programs to help with your choices.

Highly Competitive

Of course, with a bountiful array of relevant graduate courses, and an energy sector on the cusp of even bigger growth, there is one drawback, in the form of competition. There is no doubt that graduate jobs are available, however, the electrical engineering programs themselves have recently seen a drastic increase in popularity, leading to fierce competition amongst candidates.

The University of British Columbia's Electrical Energy System's option has seen it's student numbers increase from 50 to 75 in the last few years. Dr. Jos├® R. Mart├¡, a Professor at the University of British Columbia's Department Electrical & Computer Engineering, asserts that 10 years ago, this option was the least popular, but now it has completely flipped and seen a huge revival. Crucially however, Dr. Marti also advises that the most valuable skill an electrical engineering student can gain to get ahead is knowledge of social systems, or demand management that will educate the end user's consumption.

Typically, in any profession, a student's skills and knowledge should never be restricted to the classroom alone. Dr. Marti advises that electrical engineering is no different as employers are generally looking for students than can demonstrate initiative and an ability to handle unexpected situations. Project based learning, a new module now offered to second year students, can be the best way of demonstrating these crucial skills.

Movement Makes you Marketable

Murphy supports this view as communicating complex things simply is a lost art. A lot of work is now automated these days and it is vital to employ people with the ability to put the stitching together. Accordingly, a strong candidate would have knowledge of more than one electrical component and be able to bridge gaps between Informational Technology and Operational Technology.

If you have already begun to hone your specialty in a sector other than electrical engineering then, fear not, as Murphy, who originally began his own career working with nuclear energy, claims movement in a career can make you more marketable, creative and valuable to a company. While specialism can be good, movement will keep you challenged on a regular basis.

If you think you are able to provide employers with diversity and that extra-special-something, then the benefits of pursuing a career working with smart grids are numerous, whether you intend to work with communications, conceptualization, operations or distribution. The future of smart grids is promising and has the potential to provide some lucrative career opportunities.