My first motivation for what I do, which is also the reason why I applied to work for Cummins, is that I wanted to work on clean energy technology that will shape decarbonisation across many different sectors. I’m truly passionate about the journey of the technological evolution that we’re living in. We’re in the middle of this transition between “one-of-a-kind” demonstration projects to product upscaling and standardisation to address the massive market growth expectations.
My second motivation is the high diversity of problems to solve every day and striving every day to deliver the highest quality of products possible. Working on such new technology means I’m faced with a different situation each day. Whether I’m solving a mechanical, electrical or software issue, every day is an exciting engineering challenge!
Always do your best in every circumstance – it’s been the personal motto I’ve been trying to follow in whatever I do since I grew up. I know I’m not succeeding all the time, but I at least will do my best at all times. It’s about doing what you can to achieve the desired outcomes and learning from each experience.
This past year has especially shown me that giving my best, regardless of circumstances, can yield some amazing results. With all the travel restrictions imposed globally, making visits to customer sites was difficult, but it was necessary for me to travel to do my part on the operations team. I traveled to customer sites in Canada, New Zealand and Norway and had to quarantine in hotels for two weeks each time. The isolation wasn’t great, but I made the best of it. I used that time to prepare for my projects and adjust to each time zone. It also helped that I was isolating so I could work on major milestones for cleaner energy!
As of right now, my proudest accomplishment has been leading the commissioning on the Halcyon Power project. Earlier this year, I spent two months out in New Zealand working on this project, which involved Cummins’ 1.25MW PEM electrolyzer including a new type of Medium Voltage Power Container, a 350bar piston compressor and trailer filling station. It was a significant achievement for our team and a testament to our hard work.
Other key projects I worked on included in-house testing for a range of global projects, like an off-grid power project in Norway and the hydrogen refueling station in Antwerp. I also was involved in commissioning the world’s largest PEM electrolyzer in Bécancour, Quebec.