The Portuguese engineers association known as “Ordem dos Engenheiros” (OE) supported by its College of Electrotechnical Engineering and EUREL’s Young Engineers’Panel (YEP) organized 2019’s Field Trip to Portugal.
The group of young engineers had the opportunity to contact various aspects of the electrical industry and some running control systems in Portugal.
It was also an opportunity to develop social and technical relationships between the young members of the Group and the engineers of the companies they have visited.
During the stay, some visits were made to electricity production plants (Alqueva Hydroelectric Power Plant), a Smart Grid System in the city of Évora (INOVGRID, from the local electric distribution company) and the Medium Voltage Storage facilities to support Évora region MT Distribution Grid. Two control centres were visited: railway control system and a shared bicycle Lisbon network operational centre.
A research complex owned by a important European manufacturer of electrical systems was visited, where young engineers can understand some aspects of home automation, security and artificial intelligence solutions.
Complementing the technical visits, the young engineers visited the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Museum where, for around 3 hours, they were guided into the extraordinary collections of classical and modern art, as well as an approach to the architecture of the building.
Field Trip contributed to strengthen personal ties between participants and allowed contact with the technical and cultural reality of the urban area of Lisbon and the southern region of Portugal.