Matthew Bond

6.00 AM

Thanks to the spring light beaming through my open blinds, the ‘wake-up light alarm’ next to my bedside and my phone alarm that is blaring from across the room, I am awake.  

6.10 AM

I commence my morning routine, with 15mins of meditation guided by the Headspace app to clear my head and escape the constant mental chatter.

7.12 AM

I’m dressed, grab my lunch and I’m out the door by 7.12 am.   I use my 25 minutes on the train to complete a few lessons of Vietnamese on Duolingo and then enjoy the last 5 minutes catching up on messages and social media. After grabbing a coffee from the machine, I land at my desk at…

8.00 AM

It’s Monday today and, since I’m part of the Network Operations Function, there’s always some interesting news about the network events over the weekend. Spring weekends create the perfect storm of low industrial loads, low use of air-conditioning and plenty of sun for all the household solar panels – which results in record low system loads!

Low system loading creates a swath of unique network issues. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you like drama), it was only 22oC on Sunday and still a little cloudy, no records were broken.

8.15 AM

I continue one of my current projects which is updating the CPAT/CPAL spreadsheet. This spreadsheet details the ideal and problematic times of the year to have an outage of any transmission line or transformer. These new system lows have created new constraints on the way we can operate and maintain our network and so the CPAT/CPAL must be revised.

I’ve started this process by extracting all the past outages for these assets and am currently developing a macro to tabulate the number of outages that has occurred for each asset for each month of the year. This creates a kind of ‘base picture’, from which I will consult the various members of my team for additional input to smooth out the finer details.

10.30 AM

Next I do some outage planning work. This involves modelling the anticipated generation, load and planned outages for a specific day and identifying if the network can remain secure if the system were to spontaneously lose a few more elements. I have become quickly famous at work for asking a lot of questions, but no matter how busy, someone will find time to answer my question.

12.00 PM

LUNCH TIME! I microwave my lunch and head downstairs and join the other grads for lunch. I’ll often be found wolfing down my lunch so I can start playing some table tennis!

12.30 PM

Last week, I had noticed that we needed an extra step in the process to manage de-rated assets.    After talking with some of my team members individually,   they encouraged me to bring it up in the next team meeting to come to a collective decision. I start preparing a small PowerPoint to present in my next team meeting.

I was only able to notice this due to my previous graduate rotation in Operational Asset Performance. I have been encouraged by my Area Manager to ask many questions, ensuring that I understand things fully, but also to make sure I continue to question existing processes and not simply assume they are already fit for purpose.

These situations are among the best of the graduate program, where the nature of my rotations allows me to bring a unique value where ever I go.

2.20 PM

I start feeling a little peckish. Luckily, I have a stash of healthy snacks for this situation and I grab myself an orange and a pack of chickpeas.

2.30 PM

I meet up with one of the other members of Western Power’s newly revived Graduate committee. We’re planning a small sundowner with the other graduates to give an opportunity for us ‘senior’ graduates to provide guidance and information for the newer graduates, particularly when it comes to them selecting what rotations they want to move to.

3.00 PM

I have my outage planning work I completed earlier in the day reviewed – there’s usually an update needed.

Sometimes it’s due to an oversight but very often it’s due to some peculiarities of the network or conditions, that I wasn’t aware of yet, which is fantastic because there’s always something new to learn and a new perspective on how a network can be designed. If I get this done on time, I get ahead of another outage planning for tomorrow.

4.15 PM

It’s home time! On the train ride home, I typically avoid doing anything too productive and just relax.

5.00 PM

Though I’m usually tired by now, I know that if I just drag myself along to the gym, my energy will bounce back, and I’ll thank myself. I have a flexible routine, so if I’m busy I can reduce the duration of the session and not give myself the excuse to just skip out.

6.30 PM

I arrive home, have dinner with the family and prepare for the next day.

8.00 PM

ME TIME. My favourite part of the day where I can use this time for anything! I try to split this time into a ‘personal project’ followed by some raw down time.

Tonight, I’m going to spend my first hour planning for my next trip then message my friends to be online for a game of League of Legends at 9pm.

10.00 PM

I’m in bed ready to pass out for the next day. With any luck, I MIGHT wake up naturally before my alarm.