This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Medha Subramanian, Senior Power Systems Engineer at Elgin Energy. She says finding good mentors and managers is key to learning and growing throughout a professional journey. “It’s so helpful to go to networking events, attend workshops and webinars, cold email people when you need to, and find mentors who inspire you and people who have a lot of knowledge to pass on and experience have something they can draw on,” she says.
I’ve been working in the energy systems field for over four years and it still feels like I’m just getting started. After my bachelor’s degree, I had two main interests: energy and artificial intelligence (AI), and I was keen to learn how to combine these two fairly different fields. With exactly this hope I started my master’s degree in Electrical Power Engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands. Starting a technical course like this can be daunting, but the excitement, adrenaline and some lovely people helped me get through it.
I think the most important opportunity I had when I first started was meeting smart and like-minded people with the same interests and passion, from professors and PhD students at the same university to my fellow students. But one thing that always stood out was the lack of enough girls in the class. It was a ratio of about 20 to 80. And I think this is a self-perpetuating cycle. The fact that girls don’t take up these fields because there is a feeling that there are no women to learn from or look up to – and vice versa.
One important piece of advice I have always relied on is to surround yourself with smart and kind people who will inspire you. I have been fortunate to always have great mentors and managers. I have always felt that working with people who inspire me makes me want to continually learn and grow. And in some ways it may be difficult to find female role models, but they are out there. It’s so helpful to go to networking events, attend workshops and webinars, cold email people when you need to, and find mentors who inspire you and those who have a lot of knowledge to pass on and experience to exhaust.
Another thing that has helped me throughout my career so far is focusing on my passion. Pursuing something I was genuinely interested in, I have always enjoyed what I do. I’m always looking for ways to improve and learn in the same area, and it helps that the energy sector is evolving quickly. So personally, my career has always been driven by my interest and passion for the field.
The solar industry in particular seems to be more accessible to women, possibly because it feels like a “newer” industry. It doesn’t feel as ancient as the traditional oil and gas sector. We have the opportunity to be standard bearers for the entire energy sector, because we need as many people as possible to contribute to supporting the energy transition. We must champion these causes and work very hard in the coming decades to achieve climate goals and objectives at national and global levels – and who better to champion them than women who have been doing this for centuries and generations?!
Medha Subramanian is a Senior Power Systems Engineer at Elgin Energy in Dublin, Ireland. She focuses on Power System Modeling in various markets, tool development and automation, and the use of AI for Power Systems. Previously, she worked at Smart Wires, a Grid Enhancing Technology company, where she focused on modeling energy systems on a range of software platforms to optimize energy flow control devices. She is an electrical engineer by training and has a master’s degree from TU Delft, Netherlands, where she specialized in Smart AC and DC grids. She collaborated with TenneT, the Dutch transmission system operator for her dissertation, which focused on using AI to tackle electricity grid congestion.
Interested in participating Medha Subramanian and other female leaders and industry experts at Women in Solar Europe? More information: www.wiseu.network
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