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Portuguese Miquel Moreira consults Sweco’s energy transition projects in Finland and abroad

Sweco’s energy transition projects were not the factor that brought Portuguese Miguel Moreira, a project engineer, to Finland. He fell in love with the Nordic lifestyle and life balance when he dated a Norwegian and visited Norway.

When he knew he would go for an exchange during his electrical and computer engineering studies at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, he chose Finland. The attraction to freedom, stability of life and work, better salaries, and working atmosphere did it for him.

But Sweco’s energy transition projects have kept him in Finland for many years. Today, Miguel leads the electrical engineering team for Finland’s first green hydrogen plant in Harjavalta, Finland.

Gut feelings drove Miguel to Sweco to get one of those “pretty insane jobs” – in Sweco’s energy transition projects

During his studies, Miguel used to watch documentaries about massive construction sites.  

He was fascinated by what he called “pretty insane jobs”, building huge bridges, tunnels, seaports, and power plants costing billions and substantially impacting the communities and people around them.  

Miguel wanted to become a consultant planning these mega sites. And that’s what many energy transition projects are, at least in their complexity and impact on society and people, not to mention the earth!  

After a few years doing jobs that did not match his education and potential, he started looking for employers consulting large construction projects in Finland.  

Three names popped up on his radar.  

Checking their websites, Sweco had no suitable vacancies at the time, unlike the other two. However, his gut feeling told him something would come up soon at Sweco if he gave it some time.  

Less than a month later, he happily applied for an electrical engineering position at Sweco. And in a summery August day in 2018, Miguel’s wishes were met as he started his career as a consultant at Sweco.  

From a port terminal expansion project in Uruguay to a green hydrogen plant project in Harjavalta

During his five years at Sweco, Miguel has been consulting projects in Finland and abroad.  His first project was a massive port terminal expansion in Montevideo, Uruguay. 

 As an electrical designer, he was responsible for engineering: 

  • the electrical distribution in MV and LV, including the segregation of consumers and switchboards, 
  • modelling of power flow and short circuit analysis, 
  • selectivity studies of protection devices,  
  • and integration of the main electrical components, such as main circuit breakers, UPS systems, reactive power compensation banks, and diesel generators, into an intelligent network operable from a control room.  

 Did you know that designing electrical plans involves a lot of research?  

There are so many variables in the projects Miguel consults that he often turns to studies to determine the best ways to provide solutions according to the client’s plans.  

Miguel spent about three years working on the Montevideo project from Finland.  

The building phase is fairly easy when the plans and documents are thought through and prepared with quality during the detailed engineering stage.  

 You sporadically answer a question or troubleshoot a problem here and there, and that’s it.  

 Miguel estimates that the Montevideo project will be concluded within a year. 

 He learned from this project that he enjoys the length of the bigger projects with a good degree of nuances and complexity.   

Working on a big project tie you up for a good few years, allowing him a more stable lifestyle.  

Working as an electrical lead in an energy transition project in Harjavalta

 Today, Miguel works as an electrical lead in the first green industrial-scale hydrogen plant in Harjavalta, Finland. 

 This plant will produce green hydrogen from water.  

Green hydrogen is seen as the key power source, helping Europe cut its dependency on Russian energy and help Finland become carbon neutral by 2023.  

Read more about this project here: https://www.sweco.fi/en/insight/press-releases/p2x-solutions-chose-sweco-to-design-the-harjavalta-hydrogen-plant-and-as-its-framework-partner-for-future-hydrogen-plant-projects/  

Miguel’s role in this, once again, considerable and hugely critical project is to manage a project team of seven focusing on the electrical side of the plant. 

In addition to producing documents for power distribution, his team also takes care of the following: 

  • the engineering of the underground earthing grid,  
  • cable sizing and routing,  
  • electrical bonding connections network,  
  • building electrification aspects from lighting design to electric sockets and maintenance panels, 
  • electrification of HVAC and automation-related equipment, from electrical simulations to the programming of the protection devices that will ensure the plant’s safety.  

Working in a green hydrogen plant bubble with other energy transition pioneers

What Miguel finds fascinating in this project is the new technology. The concept involves purchasing technology that is not even known widely yet.  

Miguel says the learning curve has been steep when working on this project:  

“We have had to comprehend and make the client’s vision work on paper, on something that hasn’t been much developed yet. It has been like looking at a crystal ball!” 

Sweco is known for the company culture and attitude of a pioneer. Miguel speaks the same language when he talks about cooperation with other pioneers in this project.  

“It is a world of its own, with every party in this project working around the same table for a common goal”, Miguel explains.  

And continues: “Going into detail together and gaining insight and knowledge from all parties when creating the final technical environment for the plant is a huge learning opportunity.” 

“This has given us so much more space to grow as professionals working so closely together and building trusted relationships with each other”, he continues. 

What made Miguel pay attention to his gut feelings and wait for Sweco?  

“I had a hunch that a lot was going on behind the curtains at Sweco, even if they were not promoting jobs or their work as aggressively as some of the other competitors.”  

“I just felt this would be a more premium place than the others”, Miguel explains. 

Has it been that?  Yes, it has.  

Of course, large companies with the dimension of Sweco also have weak spots.  

Not everything always works to perfection, which can be good or bad.  

Miguel says he finds it good because “if I didn’t get to bang my head against the wall every now and then and make decisions, I would have missed many growth opportunities”.  

Inefficiencies and mistakes force us to find answers and teach us how to become more prepared for whatever comes next.   

Miguel concludes that being more prepared for what comes next has been pretty important in his role in the energy transition projects. 

 

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