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cac22278		 What is power systems engineering? Any degrees in this? View All
What exactly is power systems engineering? Or is it more popularly known as power engineering? Is this generally found at the graduate level of education? Also, does it tend to fall as a concentration under a larger specialty, such as electrical?

THanks so much for your help!
14 years ago - 6 months left to answer. - 1 response - Report Abuse
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Benton
 "Power engineering, also called power systems engineering, is a sub field of engineering that deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power as well as the electrical devices connected to such systems including generators, motors and transformers. "

This in mind, in all of the University literature that I have read as I applied to graduate school, I have never seen a graduate degree conferred specifically in power systems engineering (e.g. MS or PhD in Power Systems Engineering). That is not to say that it does not exist, because it might at a university that I did not look into. From my understanding, you would get a graduate degree in some engineering discipline (Mechanical, Electrical, etc.) and in your coursework/ research, you would specialize in power systems engineering.

As far as the level of education where this is found, it really depends on the institution. If you were looking for an undergraduate introduction to power systems, in mechanical engineering you might start with coursework/ lab work in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics to understand energy transport mechanisms. From there, coursework in dynamic systems/ systems engineering describes the method of coupling and solving different combined systems (mechanical/electric, fluid/electric, etc.). In graduate coursework, you may want to look for a school whose engineering program has a strong emphasis in energy and/or power generation/development. In a similar manner, you would tailor your graduate coursework to include classes that focus on power and energy systems.

the above example uses mechanical engineering as an example, as that is my background. I am certain the same is true for other disciplines including electrical engineering, albeit the focus under electrical engineering would be stronger on the electrical power systems (transmission, distribution) and possibly weaker in the mechanical power systems (generation, conversion).

I hope that this mak

14 years ago

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_engineering


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