Meeting the energy needs is becoming more challenging with the continuously growing global demand for conventional energy sources and an increasing awareness of the need to protect the environment. Due to infrastructure and personnel needs in the power utility industry and significant challenges to develop environmentally clean alternate energy sources, there is a substantial job market now with potentially growing demand for engineers to deal with critical needs in the future.
Exploiting renewable energy sources – sun, wind, geothermal, (wave,) hydraulic and others – presents a most urgent partial solution, and together with the task of increasing efficiency of energy use provides immense opportunities for engineering talents. To manage a complex power generation, control and distribution system, and operate it efficiently and in compliance with the maze of technical, financial, and regulatory constraints, requires a combination of management and technical skills that must be provided through an advanced degree program with a well-balanced educational and real-world learning experience.