Advising Page -- Power Engineering

What is power engineering? 

Power engineering covers three complementary areas of electrical engineering:
 The job market is booming for graduates in electric power engineering. The workforce in the electric power sector is aging and the industry faces massive retirements, yet many power engineering programs in the U.S. have been phased out. In addition, new opportunities are exploding thanks to developments in power electronics. Exciting new applications include electric cars, (more) electric aircraft and ships, renewable energy (wind power), and data centers.


Wind turbines near Milford, Utah

Contacts at the University of Utah

Professor Marc BodsonEmail: marc.bodson@utah.edu Prof. Bodson's web page
Professor Masood ParvaniaEmail: masood.parvania@utah.eduProf. Parvania's web page
Professor Mostafa Sahraei-ArdakaniEmail: mostafa.ardakani@utah.edu Prof. Sahraei-Ardakani's web page
Professor Mingxi LiuEmail: mingxi.liu@utah.edu Prof. Minxi Liu web page
Professor Arn Stolp Email: arnstolp@ece.utah.eduProf. Stolp's web page
Professor John PalmerEmail: japalmer@ieee.org   Prof. Palmer's web page
                            
                   

Power engineering courses at the University of Utah

Students interested in power engineering should plan on taking as many of the following classes as possible.

ECE 3300*
Fundamentals of Electromagnetics and Transmission Lines
ECE 3500*
Fundamentals of Signals and Systems
ECE 3600
Introduction to Electric Power Engineering (Fall, also Spring temporarily)
ECE 5610
Power Electronics Fundamentals (Fall)
ECE 5615/6615Classical Control Systems
ECE 5620
Power Systems Analysis (Spring)
ECE 5625/6625
Power System Protection (Fall, even years)
ECE 5630/6630
Power System Economics (Fall) (or similar 5960/6960 class) 
ECE 5640/6640
Power System Security Analysis (Spring)
ECE 5652/6652Linear Control Systems
ECE 5670/6670
Control of Electric Motors (Spring)
ECE 5671/6671
Electric Generators (Fall)
ECE 5680/6680
Electrical Forensic Engineering and Failure Analysis (Fall, odd years)

* ECE 3300 and 3500 are not required for the program, but are recommended.

The following classes are being offered as Special Topics courses and may become permanent.

ECE 5960/6960
Power Systems Operation and Planning (Spring)
ECE 5960/6960
Convex Optimization (Fall)

For all course descriptions: https://catalog.utah.edu/#/courses
For ECE course descriptions: https://catalog.utah.edu/#/courses?group=Electrical%20%26%20Computer%20Engineering

Control systems courses: the power engineering program is closely connected to control systems. 
Information about control courses is available at: www.ece.utah.edu/~bodson/advising/index.html.

Relevant courses in the mechanical engineering department:
ME EN 3600       Thermodynamics II
ME EN 3650       Heat Transfer
ME EN 5600       Intermediate Thermodynamics
ME EN 5790       Energy Systems Analysis
ME EN 5800       Sustainable Energy Engineering
ME EN 6740       Wind Energy

Courses from the nuclear engineering program are also highly relevant (http://www.nuclear.utah.edu).


                           
AC/DC, what does it mean?

Scholarships

Thanks to an endowment created by the Intermountain Power Agency, two scholarships have been given each year since 2008 to students interested in power engineering careers. Applicants must be:

For more information, please check http://www.ece.utah.edu/scholarships.

The IEEE's Power and Energy Society also created the PES Scholarship Plus Initiative with the goal of increasing the number of well-qualified, entry-level engineers to the power and energy industry. For more information, please check http://www.ee-scholarship.org.

Sponsors

The Power Engineering Program would not have been possible without the support of Utah's industry. Major donations were provided by the Intermountain Power Agency, Rocky Mountain Power, and the Utah Rural Electric Association, with additional funding received from Questar, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, Utah Municipal Power Agency, Reliable Controls, Williams Pipeline and Pacificorp Energy.  

                           
Generators and control room at the Intermountain Power Project, Delta, Utah

Useful web sites

http://www.ieee-pes.org  IEEE Power and Energy Society.
http://www.ieee-pels.org  IEEE Power Electronics Society.
http://sites.ieee.org/utah/  IEEE Utah Section.
http://www.doeconsortium.ece.umn.edu   DOE-Sponsored Nationwide Consortium of Universities to Revitalize Electric Power Engineering Education by State-of-the-Art Laboratories.
http://cusp.umn.edu  Consortium of universities for sustainable power.
http://geology.utah.gov/emp/energydata/electricitydata.htm  Data on electric power generation in Utah.
This web page is maintained by Professor Marc Bodson, of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. Please see the University of Utah Web disclaimer. For questions or comments, please send an e-mail to marc.bodson@utah.edu.

Last updated: August 23, 2024.