29 Jan 2025
- Renewable energy
- Employees
Grace Margaretha first came to CS Energy as a summer intern, but that summer internship never really ended as she continued to work with us part-time during semesters and full-time during her breaks.
Now, with a couple of summers and a thesis on one of our projects under her belt, she’s moving on to pursue her interests and expand her skills in the energy industry.
Recently graduated from the University of Queensland, Grace Margaretha holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), specialising in Mechatronics Engineering. She initially joined CS Energy’s Asset Analytics team in the summer of 2022-2023.
“It was my first year in Australia, and I was drawn to the opportunity to learn about the National Electricity Market, which is one of the most dynamic and regulated markets in the world,” Grace said.
“I was also eager to see how CS Energy is responding to the energy transition and to get involved in it.”
After she expressed an interest in learning more about renewables, Grace’s manager introduced her to the Renewables & Operations Firming team which manages CS Energy’s non-thermal assets - including the Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant that is the subject of her thesis, Analysis and Optimisation of the Operations of The Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant - and she started working with them in December 2023.
“My thesis looks at the risks and challenges in operating the Kogan Renewable Hydrogen Demonstration Plant (HDP),” she said.
“The main objective was to propose an optimum operational strategy for a solar and battery-feeding electrolyser that would maximise green hydrogen production while maintaining the lifetime of each component.”
CS Energy’s Head of Renewables & Firming Operations Michael Johnstone supervised Grace’s thesis along with two academic supervisors from UQ.
“Mick has invested a lot of time and effort to guide me through each milestone,” she said.
Once she completed her thesis, she joined Engineering Manager Anya Krol’s team to work with the operations engineers that she’d long held an interest in working with.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with many people at CS Energy who are willing to share their insight and experience on the HDP project,” Grace said.
“I’ve also been given the opportunity to present my thesis and the results of performance analysis I conducted on the Chinchilla Battery at internal learning sessions. I was thrilled to see so much interest from experienced professionals in my work.”
Image: Grace Margaretha (left) with Engineering Manager Anya Krol and Head of Renewables and Firming Operations Mick Johnstone.
Grace will soon be moving on from CS Energy to start a new role as a Graduate Grid Connection Engineer with the Clean Energy Council, where she’ll be looking at the power grid from generation to distribution. The graduate program will see her rotated through different businesses in the renewables sector.
“The energy industry is changing very quickly, and it’s important to understand how it works and how it’s all connected,” Grace said of the opportunity.
“It’s also crucial to stay up to date with technologies as they are evolving so quickly.
“For example, at the moment I’m very interested in the grid-forming inverters that will be used by CS Energy’s Greenbank Battery, which is different to the grid-following inverters that is being used at the Chinchilla Battery.”
Grace said her long-term career goal is to be a Project Engineer specialising in power and control, and she’d like to be involved in diverse renewables projects.
“I think my mechatronics background will be very beneficial as we see more demand for automation and control skills in the future as automation, AI, and control systems continue to advance and allow for smarter grid management and data-driven decision making,” she said.