Background

Thomson Bridge facilitates a range of Industry Forums across our chosen sectors.  These events are designed to enable our industry peers and our staff to come together and examine the significant themes and events that impact our industries.

The generation mix supplying the energy market continues to evolve as new technologies emerge and the costs of generation from some technologies fall. However, despite these changes, the major supply of electricity to the market is from the thermal sector, with coal fired generation remaining the dominant supply technology in the NEM, supplying approximatley 70 per cent of output.

While some older generators (gas and coal) are reaching the end of their life and closing, many will continue to function for several years to come.

There is a pressing need to ensure that the current and new workforce operating these crucial large-scale generators are provided with training that secures their skills and knowledge to undertake electrical and plant operations in a safe and competent manner.

Thomson Bridge saw this need as a catalyst to host a Forum of representatives of our large-scale generator client base.

Our role

In September 2019, Thomson Bridge, together with CS Energy, hosted a round table forum for operators of large scale generation assets. An enthusiastic audience representing Engie, Origin Energy, AGL Energy, Stanwell Corporation, Delta Electricity and CS Energy gathered to address issues including:

• Foundation, station and panel training - identifying industry best practice
• Boiler and Turbine training and licensing - the need for realignment for the National Assessment instrument for industry relevance
• Emergency Response procedures - site based scenario training
• The National qualification framework for the large scale generation sector

The knowledge and experiences shared during this forum contributes to a collective understanding of the issues that drive our current operating environment and benchmarking toward industry best practice. 

Project Details

• Client: Large Scale Generators Forum
• Location: Virtual (to encourage nationa lparticipation)
• Industry: Large Scale Generation – Coal, Gas and Hydro
• Our role: Facilitate the sharing of key issues for the large scale generation sector with industry peers
• Outcome Promoting a best practice approach to ensuring the workforce operating crucial large-scale generators are provided with training and a safe working environment that ensures they can undertake electrical and plant operations in a safe and competent manner.

• Related work

• Power Plant Operations Courses
• Boiler and Turbine Courses
• Australian Energy Council (AEC) Electrical Arc Flash (pdf)
• Power Systems Operations
• High Voltage and Electrical Safety
• Legacy Skills Program - recognising a life time of skills