What does a smart grid engineer do?
Smart grid engineer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real smart grid engineer resumes:
- Coordinate with senior electrical engineers and achieve hands-on experience on coal fire plant power generation and power transformers, circuit breakers.
- Prioritize, coordinate, troubleshoot and perform RF maintenance activities as require.
- Develop synthesize-able decimation filter architecture.
- Develop synthesize-able decimation filter architecture.
Smart grid engineer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 21% of Smart Grid Engineers are proficient in Renewable Energy, MATLAB, and Demand Response. They’re also known for soft skills such as Initiative, Speaking skills, and Writing skills.
We break down the percentage of Smart Grid Engineers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Renewable Energy, 21%
Processed State procurement and purchase order documentation for procurement of renewable energy equipment.
- MATLAB, 18%
Utilized C/C++ and MATLAB to develop in-house applications targeted toward validating experiments and calibrating sensor accuracy.
- Demand Response, 16%
Developed a Dynamic Market model incorporating Demand Response which showed a reduced electricity price.
- Electric Utility, 14%
Validated products in conjunction with electric utility (standards group approval).
- Linux, 14%
Developed and implemented a Linux device driver and performed extensive user-level software validation on the completed circuit card.
- IEEE, 5%
Compared the reliability of substation topology alternatives using statistical reliability calculations performed in MathCAD in accordance with IEEE Std.
Common skills that a smart grid engineer uses to do their job include "renewable energy," "matlab," and "demand response." You can find details on the most important smart grid engineer responsibilities below.
Initiative. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a smart grid engineer to have is initiative. Their role and responsibilities require that "electrical and electronics engineers must apply their knowledge to new tasks in every project they undertake." Smart grid engineers often use initiative in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "supported numerous corporate initiatives, including cloud computing, security solutions and services engineering through advanced technical and service management practices. "
Speaking skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling smart grid engineer duties is speaking skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "electrical and electronics engineers work closely with other engineers and technicians." According to a smart grid engineer resume, here's how smart grid engineers can utilize speaking skills in their job responsibilities: "presented / outlined a technology direction to support product line review through 5- and 7-year product development plans. "
Writing skills. This is an important skill for smart grid engineers to perform their duties. For an example of how smart grid engineer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "electrical and electronics engineers develop technical publications related to equipment they develop, including maintenance manuals, operation manuals, parts lists, product proposals, and design methods documents." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a smart grid engineer: "managed and conducted data gathering for the creation of arc flash studies requiring heavy use of skm and technical report writing".
Math skills. smart grid engineer responsibilities often require "math skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "electrical and electronics engineers must use the principles of calculus and other advanced math in order to analyze, design, and troubleshoot equipment." This resume example shows what smart grid engineers do with math skills on a typical day: "lead engineer for converting mathlab scripts to python. "
The three companies that hire the most smart grid engineers are:
- Eversource Energy6 smart grid engineers jobs
- Dominion Energy2 smart grid engineers jobs
- Amazon1 smart grid engineers jobs
Compare different smart grid engineers
Smart grid engineer vs. Electrical & instrumentation designer
An electrical instrumentation designer's main job is to design instruments that can be used in various areas such as laboratories, power plants, or research institutes. They work together with a team or individually to design instruments, create a prototype, and test its functions. They can even install these instruments in different establishments and locations. They are tasked with repair and training engineers. At other times, they are assigned to record expenses and other documentation.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a smart grid engineer are more likely to require skills like "dms," "renewable energy," "distribution automation," and "matlab." On the other hand, a job as an electrical & instrumentation designer requires skills like "plc," "instrumentation design," "control systems," and "p id." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Electrical & instrumentation designers tend to reach lower levels of education than smart grid engineers. In fact, electrical & instrumentation designers are 32.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Smart grid engineer vs. Electrical designer
An electrical designer designs and develops electrical circuit and system layouts for electric power distribution. The responsibilities of an electrical designer include assembling electrical panels and leading a team of document control personnel in-charged to identify and organize facility maintenance drawings. The position requires good initiative, writing, speaking, and mathematical skills to accomplish such responsibilities. The job's education requirements include possessing a college degree in electrical engineering, design, or a related field.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that smart grid engineer responsibilities requires skills like "dms," "renewable energy," "distribution automation," and "matlab." But an electrical designer might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "revit," "electrical design," "autocad electrical," and "ul."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Electrical designers tend to reach lower levels of education than smart grid engineers. In fact, they're 29.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Smart grid engineer vs. Senior electrical designer
A Senior Electrical Designer is in charge of creating electrical schematics, layouts, and other grid plans for their organization, as well as providing the best solution for improvements. They supervise the material, construction, labor costs, and project timescales.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a smart grid engineer is likely to be skilled in "dms," "distribution automation," "matlab," and "ot," while a typical senior electrical designer is skilled in "electrical design," "revit," "electrical equipment," and "electrical systems."
When it comes to education, senior electrical designers tend to earn lower degree levels compared to smart grid engineers. In fact, they're 28.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Smart grid engineer vs. Instrumentation & control engineer
An instrumentation and control engineer is responsible for installing and designing technical components for engineering systems that would support production and manufacturing processes. Instrumentation and control engineers inspect control systems, modify features and infrastructure, configure controllers, and run multiple quality checks to ensure stability and optimal performance. They must have excellent communication and technical skills, especially in developing system codes and analyzing programming languages to serve control functions and development. An instrumentation and control engineer also resolves system issues and write resolution reports for reference.
Types of smart grid engineer
Updated January 8, 2025
