Employee profile: Sarah Haskmann

NAVIGATING A NEW CAREER PATH

Sarah Haskmann came to the energy industry via a more indirect route than many engineers.

After graduating from university with a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, Sarah worked in customer-facing roles in the banking and gaming industries. In 2013, she decided to go back to university and study a Bachelor of Engineering, motivated by a passion for renewable energy and the environment.

Sarah now works as a project engineer in CS Energy’s Renewable and Firming Operations team, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Chinchilla Battery and the soon to be completed Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant and Greenbank Battery.

Learn more about her career journey and why she decided to join CS Energy in our profile below.

 

sarah haskmann - project engineer

What does a typical workday look like for you?

Our team makes sure that CS Energy’s new assets are safe, compliant, productive and as available as possible. I assist multiple functional teams across the business to provide knowledge and expertise in relation to engineering and quality assurance.

What prompted you to join CS Energy?

Participating in the transformation of the energy mix is a major motivator for me – helping to build safe, functional, and lower carbon utility electricity generation for everyone. But also, as a proud Queenslander, doing it for the people of Queensland, via a company that is looking forward and getting it done was worth every effort to make a reality.

Image: Sarah with Head of Renewable and Firming Operations Mick Johnstone at the Greenbank Battery.

How did you get your start in the energy industry?

I studied a Bachelor of Engineering hybrid electrical offering from Griffith University in partnership with Engineers Australia, which was based entirely on renewable energy. I am very passionate about the environment and reducing the environmental impact people are making. The electricity generation industry needs to transition the energy-mix to low or negligible carbon emissions, and so I chose my path in renewable energy engineering to assist in that work.

I am especially passionate about increasing the co-benefits of renewables projects and community participation. With my background in classical humanities and ethics, I'm a strong advocate for STE(A)M – utilising the skills from liberal arts to improve the interface between technical and non-technical areas.

What has been a career highlight for you so far?

Working on SunCable’s flagship project, the Australia-Asia PowerLink. It will harness and store renewable energy from the Northern Territory for 24/7 transmission to Darwin and Singapore through a high voltage direct current transmission system. As an engineer, the scale of project was a daily challenge to overcome from a technical and logistical perspective, but one we met each time.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I have a passion for boats, and love preserving history. I am the proud custodian of one of the Brisbane timber cross-river ferries that used to serve the public up and down the river since 1959/60.

I also bought (and am slowly restoring) an old timber worker’s cottage in Brisbane built sometime between 1890 and 1910, in a suburb created to house those working to serve the original coal-loading wharves at South Brisbane.

Between those two projects, I’m responsible for maintaining 190 years or so of timber history, and it certainly keeps me very busy!