Celebrating 20-year milestone for TasNetworks Engineer

Growing up in Tasmania, James Teirney studied Electronics Communication at the University of Tasmania.

During his studies, a 12‑week student placement at Transend (former name of TasNetworks) introduced him to power engineering and transmission networks.

That experience sparked an interest that led him to apply for the graduate program and ultimately begin what would become a long‑term career with the organisation.

Throughout the graduate program, James gained experience across a wide range of engineering roles, giving him a broad understanding of how the network operates. Many of the lessons from those early years continue to shape how he works today!

"The graduate program gave me the opportunity to experience roles across analytical and field-based engineering, both 'pure' and 'applied' power engineering," James says.

"It gave me a great foundation to move into a substantive role and to this day, I still lean on those learnings."

After completing the graduate program, James moved into the Network Planning team.

Jumping in and out of different role along the way, he has spent his career in network planning across Transend and TasNetworks, witnessing significant change in the environment the organisation operates in.

“When I started, it was a time of high load growth, with lots of projects to meet increasing electricity demand,” he says. "Today our planning is really dominated by large‑scale loads (big power consumers like large industries) and new renewable energy generation.”

James, now a Specialist Network Planning Engineer is currently involved in planning the network to support the renewable energy transition, developing critical infrastructure while also working to balance the needs of customers, project stakeholders and the wider network.

Reflecting on his 20‑year journey, James encourages new engineers to make the most of the opportunities available to them, particularly graduate programs and their different rotations!

“I’d definitely encourage people to try areas that aren’t their obvious first choice,” he says. “You don’t always realise how valuable those experiences are until you look back.”