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Hello, welcome, and thanks for listening to Carbon Climates, an energy podcast dedicated

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to discussing all things energy, carbon, and sustainability. We also like to talk about

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what's getting hot, besides from our planet. I'm your host, Enya, and today I'm joined

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by my carbon client, I'm co-host Margaret. Hi Margaret. Hi Enya, how are you? Good,

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what about you? Yeah, all good, all good, thanks. That's one of the questions that always kind of

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throws me, it's like, how are you? I'm like, oh my goodness, you just took me. So what are you doing

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this week? What have you been up to? So this weekend, I enjoyed the long weekend off.

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I definitely get used to the four day week time. But yeah, so I've just been busy, I was in the

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office today, had a site meeting and then just came back to do this. So I've been really busy

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on project work. This is your Monday, okay. Yeah, this is my Monday. Okay, and so your job title,

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did you, like I know what it is, but I know I'm going to like, you know, put the placement of

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some names like in the wrong place, but yeah, please explain. So I'm a transmission design

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engineer with NIE networks. So yeah, the title might not be. So I'm basically responsible for

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designing the transmission network and the electricity infrastructure here in Northern Ireland.

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So whether that be replacing new equipment, whether that be replacing old equipment,

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updating the protection schemes or facilitating like new customer high voltage connections on the

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electricity network here as well. Wow. So it's like, it's just like your job, like, you know,

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see, like, it's so out there, like it is so like, I can just imagine you're like in lots of different

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places and everything. And like, where's my job? I'm at computer. Definitely, I know, I suppose

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like that's probably the best part of my job, like actually being able to have the flexibility

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with the project work as well to go out on site, be in the office and like see a job from start

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to finish. So we would be involved right away through from like initial designs through to

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like pricing, ordering up equipment, doing all the design drawings, being on site during the

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testing, commissioning, construction phases, and then also like seeing the project completion as

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well. So it's like really satisfying to actually see and be involved in part of a project that you

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can bypass the sub station like to design that if you check or draw my names on that somewhere.

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So it's really a lot. I love stuff like that, like one of the things that has my name on it,

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I'm an energy assessor. So, you know, APC certificates for the like ABCD certificate you

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get for your house, if you're buying one, I'm able to lodge those and my names on some of them. So

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I'm like, guys, look what I did. And I see most people who don't know what APCs are, they're like,

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okay, what is that? And I'm like, where's your job? No, this is by the way.

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But that's no, that's brilliant. Thanks for saying about your job title. So how long have you been

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in this sector? So I suppose I kind of first started when I was, I started a lot of electronic

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engineering at Queen's back in 2014. I started in September 2014, which is a bit scary coming up

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with a 10 year anniversary. But I suppose when I first started studying the course,

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NI Networks came in and did a presentation about a scholarship. So I was actually lucky enough to

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get through the application process and get a scholarship with NI Networks. So as part of that,

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I had the opportunity to do several summer placements and my year I placed my degree,

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which actually really helped, like not just the financial side, obviously as well. But the

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experience that I gained through that was incredible. And being rotated around different

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parts of the company, meeting different people, being involved in different projects, actually

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working in different departments to see what I really enjoyed doing. I really found that I

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enjoyed the mix of being out on site and in the office. So that really helped and also really

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helped. I think, well, I think we're back into university studying again, to help to put in

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perspective what we're really learning in class, whether that be like fault calculations or like,

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here's a transformer. And I'm like, well, I'm sure I'm missing one place and I actually haven't seen

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a transformer. And like, yeah, so I'm huge. Oh, wow. So I really was really good and put that

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into perspective and help with my studies as well. Very good. I always find you have a practical

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experience, like honestly, the most important thing. Yeah, definitely. That's so hard to be.

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So then whenever I finished university, I got a graduate job with NI Networks and the engineering

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design department, which I'm now currently in as well. So it's a really, really good job and I

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really enjoy it. And so the best part would be like actually working with the different departments.

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Like we're such a big company here in Northern Ireland and we've been involved in projects like

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right across Northern Ireland. So you can be in Ennisfil in one day up to Campsday, back to

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Belfast, all over the place. And I really enjoy that aspect of being out and about as well.

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It's very good. Yeah, I'm sure you meet a lot of people. Like, absolutely.

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I feel like a lot of people know me as well. That we were a head girl.

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So, say when you were at school, like secondary school, did you ever

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envisage yourself in this role like this? I suppose in secondary school, absolutely not.

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Did I think I'd be designing some electricity infrastructure here in Northern Ireland? People

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like to be responsible. Absolutely not. I suppose I knew I kind of always, I love technology. It's

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my absolute favourite subject. I knew I kind of wanted to do something along that lines.

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And I suppose I was probably very fortunate that I have an older brother and some family who did

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engineering as well. So I kind of knew a bit about engineering, but I wasn't really sure what type.

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And then I went to open days at Queen's and electrical engineering.

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I kind of just thought that seems pretty cool. Seen around the power lab.

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And I was like, wow, this is really cool. But yeah, I didn't really think that I was going to do

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electrical engineering probably until that point, I would say. Probably lower upper tip.

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Before that, I probably wanted to do pharmacy for a bit. And then also wanted to work in a shop

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and do the stand for the big shop. Yeah, very mixed. But no, glad I did. Glad I decided to

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choose engineering. And I suppose my work experience as well. So I had a couple of

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different work experiences. When I was in probably right way throughout school as well,

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from fourth year, fifth year. And it's also good to kind of really what you don't want to do as

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well. Definitely. So I think that's as important as knowing what you want to do.

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Yeah, because then you're like never wondering. But yeah, like I've said a couple of times on

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this podcast, but kind of didn't dawn on me to like maybe A level age that like, so I wanted to

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be a zoologist, like work with animals. Okay. And I picked the biology GCSE, picked the biology A

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level. I wasn't good at it. Like I just get me straight to C. And then it's kind of like, okay,

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maybe like you're saying yourself, technology, technology like called to me and like, okay.

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And then I was able to get into Ulster University and do a clean technology course. So it's amazing

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that like, you know, just like the directions that go, it's kind of like sliding doors, like, you know.

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Absolutely. I think it's even like the subject choice as well, it's about how you approach

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problem, like so transferable skills. I think you can go, if you study engineering at all in any

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shape or form, like it really shows you're a problem solver. You're an analytical thinker.

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You're good at communicating. Like all the skills are transferable no matter like what kind of role

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you end up going into. Maybe not just the technical side, but actually like yeah, nothing really.

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No, just right. Just right. Okay. Thank you for introducing yourself. Okay. So before we move on

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to the hard hit and stuff, okay. I've got a joke for you. Okay. It is long winded. So please bear with me.

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Okay. So, and you know what? You're going to be the person who's going to tell me,

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and yeah, that doesn't make sense. Okay. But like, I kind of piece this together from the

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internets. Okay. So the electrical engineers enter a lab. One measures a piece of wire at

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six mil and cuts it off. He then turns to the other engineer and asks, here, can you help me

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isolate the end of this to circuit? The other one goes, oh, well that'll be a waste of time.

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And the first engineer asks why and the second one responds, because it will be dead short.

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So you can keep that. You can tell that to your friends.

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I'll write them off. Make it into that one. Yeah.

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Okay. So you are a design transmission engineer and you work at NIE networks. So NIE networks,

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owns and transports electricity transmission to over 910,000 customers. 910. You know, when you

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see a number, it's like, hold on, did I say that right? But yeah, 910,000 customers. So your company

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has over 1500 employees and over a hundred million is invested into the network. I'm pretty sure it's

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each year. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am. It is each year, but the bit of research, I forgot to take

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that down, but yeah, I'll look into that. A lot of money. So I'm thinking a lot about NIE networks.

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They also have their own sustainable auction plan. So by 2030, they want to reduce their building

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and fleet emissions by 50% compared to the 2019 levels, which is really great. And that's like a

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really close, like 2019 to 2030, that's only 11 years. So yeah, that's just some good targets.

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But yes, so back to you. Okay. So you're a design transmission engineer.

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Can you tell me, what do you love most about your job?

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So I suppose that's a really hard question. I really enjoy, like I love working with the team,

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like working with people is a real privilege, I'd say. And like actually getting involved

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in different projects and seeing from start to finish, being out on site and being involved and

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knowing that I've helped to contribute to projects. Actually, you can see a difference and it's making

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a valuable contribution to like Northern Ireland and people of Northern Ireland as well. As you

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said, like there were 910,000 customers here. Like I think everybody probably in some shape or form

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knows who NIE networks are. And if your electric goes off, like it's our responsibility, you know,

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to ensure that it's really minimized as far as possible. But no, it's really great. And like it

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is a very exciting time within the company, within the sector as well. Like there's so many new

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different types of energy coming onto the network and we're going to have to be smarter about how

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we do things in order to meet all these targets. So it is actually really exciting and we're going

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to have a lot of change and things that we haven't even thought about yet that we're going to have to

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implement the time 2050 comes. Yeah, that's the thing. Like every time that's mentioned the 2050

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target, I'm like, oh yeah, it's years away. I'm like, it's not really. It's actually not.

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It's like, we'll probably see it. And then we're like, oh flip, we're here. Like scary.

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But yeah, you're talking at the beginning about you guys, you were able to see a project from

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Infancy to like the actual like real life like, you know, version of it. But do you like that bit,

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like seeing a project come to life? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I'm a very visual learner

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and being able to say, I actually see physical construction while they're like, it's the design

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that I've done on a piece of paper through, that's actually been constructed and built on site and

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actually see that that's my design. It actually is really cool. And like, I get a real sense of

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satisfaction, like pride and kind of like, oh, I did that. It might only be a piece of like equipment

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and sports, but no, it is exciting. That's cool. Oh my goodness. We're trying to learn,

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so we do a lot of building assessment and building energy performance. And we're trying to learn

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more about substations and what's actually in them because half the time when I go into a

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plant room, I'm like, okay, what is what? Where is the diagram? Like to show these stuff. That's

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really cool. We'll call you in. We'll call in your name. That's brilliant. So you were talking about

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the degree you did at Ulster and then you got onto NIE networks with the graduate role on the

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apprenticeship training. What sort of, what type of training did they pitch you for? Was it a lot

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of, you have to read a lot of manuals or more like, okay, you're going to go out in site and

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practical like experience like going? So in my role as well, like there's a lot of different

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aspects to it. So you would have the like health and safety training, which is a massive part

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working in the sector, massive part because you're dealing with, you'd be on site and you need to be

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safe and compliant with all the safety rules as well. So there's a lot of safety training at the

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start, also awareness of the team and what we're responsible for. So the training, I suppose,

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in terms of like regulations and like processes as well, in terms like IT systems internally,

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externally, and also how to like projects as well, really. So there's a lot of training, a lot of

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on the job chain, I suppose, as well. Like you don't really know what a job involves until you're

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actually doing it and you're making a mistake. So you're asking those questions and finding out

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more about how to actually do this. And like you pick up, you definitely learn as you go as well.

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And like, I'm sure there's a lot of different people you collaborate with on site as well,

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that can share some of their. Absolutely. Effort. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's like,

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part of like how we try to learn as well. It's like, hey, what did you learn from this job?

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And like I was telling you at the beginning, part of the reason we'll start this podcast,

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just like to kind of show maybe people who are deciding like, oh, is this career right for me?

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Or what sort of career do I want to be in? But like always looking for that person to kind of

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show you some like inside knowledge or expertise like really helps and really makes you feel

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like grounded. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't know if grounded is an electrical service. I'll stop.

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It's getting out of hand. That's great. Is there, I know speaking about guides as well,

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I'm sure there's a lot of electrical safety guides or manuals, but do you have a favorite at all?

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Is there one in particular you reference?

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Sorry. Probably not. I'd say there's probably a lot of documents that I have. I have a folder

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saved in a certainly just for reference really. Here's some handy notes. But probably not that

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in particular, you know. OK, OK. That's fine. I'll come back to that. OK, so Margaret,

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throughout the section, it's kind of the question, pun round section. OK, OK. Actually,

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it's just a question section, but it's kind of like a lot of I ask you silly, non-serious questions

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and kind of tailor this like towards the individual guest. OK, so because you're

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in the electrical business, it's called leaving a spark. And then again, you can keep that to

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your friends. OK, but I actually guess these are on around NIE networks. OK, and it's stuff that

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again, I got straight from the NIE networks. And I will accept estimates. OK. And yeah, but I'm sure

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you guys already know this because like I'm sure it's like, yeah, OK, this is what we do. So

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how many kilometers of transmission network does NIE networks have to accept to the nearest license?

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I suppose we're always building and creating a new transmission network. But I think the last time

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I looked at it was like forty nine thousand kilometers. OK, that's past. OK, you got that.

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OK, so how many like second question, you were talking earlier about substations. Yeah. And

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again, this one didn't give an exact number. Yeah. So except to the nearest hundred.

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OK. How many substations to those networks have? So quite a few substations. And so we have

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distribution substations, which would be anything from and 3311 substations and in both 66 KV as

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well. Or we have transmission substations, which are 275 KV or 110 KV. So we have probably about

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three hundred and ten substations. And I'd say about 50 of those are probably transmission

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substations at the higher voltage level. So yeah, this thing because I kind of know,

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I didn't know about substations until we entered this role. And then at the start, I was kind of

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like, what is a substation? Like pretty much it's just like, OK, I'm not going to explain it. I'm

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going to ask the answer. But yeah, could you give like a summary of what a substation is for any of

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those who don't know? That's a very good question. OK. So substation is basically a building which

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or area which has equipment and that basically transports electricity. It's on the journey from

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transporting electricity from the point of generation to the point of your house as well.

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So we basically step down the voltage at different levels. So our transmission substation

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through the higher voltage levels and then always going to the lower voltage and we would

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have power substations within like which would feed smaller areas such as small villages, towns

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or housing as well. And whereas our transmission substations would be larger cities and larger areas

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for my customers. So inside substation, like you've probably driven past probably quite a lot of them

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or they'd be just unaware. But you usually see like a big NIA logo with a substation of a big sign

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outside of saying location of where it's at, danger, keep out and all that good stuff. But yeah,

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inside it there's equipment and will there be like plant and switch gear outside or protection panels

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in the transmission substation as well and controls basically. And that would be the equipment

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that we would use to isolate any sort of fault or particular maintenance or anything as well. So

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we'd use a lot of equipment inside the substation. Very good. Thank you very much for that.

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I'm going to use that knowledge. Like respond that someone's like, yeah, did you know this?

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But yes. Okay. Well, thanks for playing the Leaving a Star Question Round. You'll be happy

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to know what's it for. Okay. So take a look, a sneaky look at your LinkedIn profile. Okay.

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I can see you were on the Belfast Telegraph 30 under 30 scheme.

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So I'm going to ask you about that. Like how is that? Yeah, I suppose I'm a surprise to anybody

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that is actually on it. No, it's been really great. Like once I got the email about it,

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I was kind of like the best, I got the wrong person here. Like why? No, it's been really,

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it's been really good experience and in part of the 30 under 30, I suppose it's kind of humbling

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and like it is a bit of recognition for some of the other areas that I've been involved in. And

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it's kind of, I know 30 under 30. But no, it's been really good. Like promoting the outreach as

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well and the IT and other volunteering as well to kind of promote engineering, which I had to be

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involved in. And like it is good. I suppose some people have said like it's good to promote that.

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And so there are people out there and like you can be a role model for people. And like, yeah,

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whenever somebody says you're a role model, I was like, I don't think I am. But no, it is been

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really, it's been really positive and yeah, very exciting, very proud as well. And like, yeah,

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been really appreciative of all the support. Like a lot of people, yes, I might be named on the list,

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but a lot of people have been involved in the background and have helped me get there. So

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that's very appreciative. No, that's it. That's it. That's class. No, I can't wait to see like

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all the articles about it. Like, oh my God, there's Margaret. I know her. Well, so. OK,

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you're also you're talking there about the IET, but you're also on the STEM program as well. So

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you're a STEM ambassador. Yes, STEM, science, technology, engineering, maths. Yeah, I don't

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know why I said that so slow. OK, like, yeah, but like when you're saying they're like, you know,

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in skill, technology and call to you. And then obviously, if you're interested in pharmacy,

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all the maths and science based subjects call to you. I really should have done some research on

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the numbers. The amount of people that maybe like are in STEM based roles. That would have been a

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cool fit for this. OK, next time you're on that. But you're also within the IET, the Institute of

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Engineering, Engineering, Technologists or Engineering and Technology. That's what is it.

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That's cool. You're part of the committee for young professionals. Yes. Yes. So you're actually

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the chair. Yes. Yes. Congratulations. So, yeah, so how did you get this role? Like, how did it come

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about or what kind of like as like what kind of channels did you go through? So I suppose

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it was never I was fresh at university and studying electrical and electronic engineering at

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Queen's. I was fresh into just IET. So there was like an IET on campus student group. And as part

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of that, they had organized events and I kind of thought it was a really good way to meet people

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initially and like get involved. You know, they're running cool tours or like workshops and like be

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social activities and stuff as well. So it was a really good way to like kind of meet people,

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especially starting out at university. And then I suppose like moving on through the years,

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like I got involved with the student on campus group when I was a chair of it as well. And then

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since graduating, I became the chair of the young professionals as well here in Northern Ireland.

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And then as part of that, I suppose as well, like I'm on the local network committee for

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all Northern Ireland as well. So it's quite, it is really good. Like, it's been great, I suppose,

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to kind of meet new people and also like get to plan and like organize events, which I really

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love doing and like helping to promote engineering and actually like get out there and like do things

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really and like show that we're not just engineers just sitting on our desks, we actually do things

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and we're especially really interested in some of the events we would organize. Whether it be like

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workshops, tours, lectures, social events, networking, annual dinner. We have a lot of

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stuff going on and it's quite good that it's just a real variety. Like there's stuff that

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you might just find interesting. It doesn't have to be like car engineering based. It's very random,

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open to everybody and it's always a good event really. So a good way to meet new people as well.

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Very good. Like that's class. She knows because I'm also on the young professionals

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network for the energy and shit. So who knows too.

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Are you like, I can edit this out as well. There's an event on in gym time. Are you going to?

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Yeah, I actually, it's funny because I know a lot of young committee or like at the young

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professionals committees, they like maybe operate separately, like, you know, from the main like

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the adult committee. But like we're just more like we sit in and then like we're going to be like,

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we sit in and then like we're kind of like maybe just a section of the minutes for the main

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committee. I had to like ask them, I was just like, here, we sponsor this. And then like everyone's

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like, yeah, like I'm sure that's grand. And then our AGM happened and the treasurer stepped down

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and haven't pointed anyone yet. And I'm like, cool, we need to get this.

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The search. Yeah, please. That's that's class. Yeah, see that. Okay. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant.

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Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Like you've been an absolute delight

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to talk to. And you've got so much valuable information as well. And yeah, I think we've like,

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it's just your chair of IET and then IET young professionals and always trying to encourage

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people to get involved in societies and organizations like that. Because there's not

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just IET, there's CIPSE and then Lystrapte and then the Concrete Society as well. Like so much.

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And yeah, just like you can get to meet people and all. It just really helps your career as well.

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Because like then you're like, you know that person or you can be like, hang on, I know a guy.

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Like all the connections. Yeah. See, you said you're going to ramble. I'm rambling. Okay.

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Okay. But again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Just before we go,

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do you have any advice for future prospective engineers, engineers, electrical engineers,

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or people who want to work within NIE that want to get into this sector?

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Well, I would say absolutely. Like it's such an exciting time in the sector and in the industry

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as a whole. I would say absolutely. Like it's such an exciting time in the whole sector and industry.

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There's going to be so many new opportunities, challenges and like

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ways. And it's going to be down to us and engineers to try and solve these problems as we work towards

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net zero. I would say like I would also recommend joining NIE networks and shine out if anybody

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wants to get in touch. But no, absolutely. Like I would definitely recommend getting involved and

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going to the event, chatting with people, find out more about it, doing your research and put

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yourself out there really. And like don't be afraid if it doesn't work out the first time.

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Yeah. Just keep going. Like one of my favorite things is like fear can be two things.

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Fear everything and run or fear can be face everything and rise. So, first of all, apply.

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That's okay. That's insightful. I always like in these episodes when someone says something

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that's really, I'm like, you can put that as the sound bite. Like when you're advertising

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the episode, you're like, yeah, it's pretty insightful guys. Okay. I've got it on my calendar.

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So I try to always think of a pump based one. However, I used it as the title of the question

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round. You couldn't resist. Like I couldn't resist. And usually I'm pretty good at coming up

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with these things off the cuff, but I really, I really can't. So I'm just going to say, yeah,

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don't be afraid to always leave a spark. I'm actually going to retract that because that

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kind of sounds maybe like, like I'm encouraging people to be an arsonist or something like that.

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Don't be afraid for the shock factor. Again, my brain's just not working. Apologies.

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I'll edit something in. Okay. But no, thanks again for coming on. You've been absolutely brilliant.

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Thanks so much, Maman.

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Okay. Thanks for listening to Carbon Climates. If you follow us on Instagram

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at carbon underscore climates and keep up to date with our latest news and episode releases and any

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any more. I'll edit that. I messed that up. You can keep up to date with like all our latest

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news and episode releases. Okay. Thanks for listening. Bye. Do you say bye? Bye.