Career in Power Systems   The discovery of the principle of an ac generator by Michael Faraday in 1831 was a major breakthrough in engineering; it provided a convenient way of generating the electric power that is needed in every electronic, electrical, or electromechanical device we use now.

Electric power is obtained by converting energy from sources such as fossil fuels (gas, oil, and coal), nuclear fuel (uranium), hydro energy (water falling through a head), geothermal energy (hot water, steam), wind energy, tidal energy, and biomass energy (wastes). These various ways of generating electric power are studied in detail in the field of power engineering, which has become an indispensable subdiscipline of electrical engineering. An electrical engineer should be familiar with the analysis, generation, transmission, distribution, and cost of electric power.

The electric power industry is a very large employer of electrical engineers. The industry includes thousands of electric utility systems ranging from large, interconnected systems serving large regional areas to small power companies serving individual communities or factories. Due to the complexity of the power industry, there are numerous electrical engineering jobs in different areas of the industry: power plant (generation), transmission and distribution, maintenance, research, data acquisition and flow control, and management. Since electric power is used everywhere, electric utility companies are everywhere, offering exciting training and steady employment for men and women in thousands of communities throughout the world.