Championing green careers this National Careers Week – and every week

Showcasing the breadth of a career in energy

We’re leading the energy transition to a cleaner and greener future, placing people and the planet right at the heart.

All roles are green jobs at E.ON. From our engineers creating and managing the systems and solutions needed to deliver the energy transition to our colleagues talking to our customers everyday about how they improve their home’s energy efficiency and sustainability. And as we work towards the UK’s net zero goals, we know we need to develop the skills needed for the new energy world. This is where the workforce of the future comes in.

We proudly took part in this year’s London Careers Festival, showcasing the opportunities available to young people interested in contributing to a more sustainable future. With over 1,100 students attending, we spoke to attendees about the range of careers on offer at E.ON and across the energy industry. We shared our excitement and enthusiasm about the future growth in the energy industry, including the green skills and capabilities we’ll need from the future workforce.

Bringing ecogrid™ to life

And to bring this to life at the festival, we shared one of our exciting projects helping to deliver net zero – our pioneering ectogrid™ system, an energy sharing heat network based on heat pump technology.

Over the course of three days, young people engaged with us around our interactive ectogrid™ table which demonstrates how this heating and cooling solution works in a real-life example at the UK’s first development of our innovative ectogrid™ system: Silvertown on London’s Royal Docks.

The ectogrid™ table allowed attendees to interact with a representation of how ectogrid™ will work in real-time at Silvertown by increasing or decreasing the potential energy needs of the buildings and showing whether the properties are generating a heating or cooling surplus.

The attendees responded well to the interactive demonstration, and highlighting the work we do and our colleagues who bring it all together led to a real sense of excitement about the role young people could play in the new energy world.

Welcoming students to Citigen

It wasn’t all about ectogrid™ for us at the London Careers Festival. We also welcomed Design and Mechanical T-level students from Harrow, Richmond and Uxbridge Colleges to Citigen, our hidden tri-generation power plant sitting below the streets of London’s square mile.

Apostolos Melas, Sales Manager at our Citigen energy centre, gave these local students a tour of our Citigen energy centre which supplies low carbon energy generated by a combination of sources, including three industrial scale heat pumps and geothermal energy sources that draw heat from the natural warmth of the Earth 200m below the City streets.

On the tour, the students met our expert engineers and explored different areas of the energy centre, learning all about heat networks and renewable energy as well as how they can get involved in the new energy world.

Starting with an overview of the Citigen Control Room, which controls the entire Citigen network and monitors our 70 heat networks across the UK, Apostolos gave the students an understanding of how a heat network operates and is managed. The students then saw how the energy is generated at the energy centre, visiting the heat pumps and ground source system as well as the cooling towers and thermal store.

Apostolos shared his thoughts on the tour: “It was a great day and was one of the most interesting tours of Citigen I have given, with the 15-year-old students showing so much interest. They learnt all about district heating, how a live energy centre works and the various energy systems we’re housing in a historic building at the heart of London.

“They asked a lot of questions about the technology, and more importantly about how their skills and their future paths in different engineering sectors such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, can come together in real-life projects.”

The students shared their enthusiasm, curiosity and passion for engineering by asking questions throughout the tour, covering everything from the role of piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID) in engineering projects to where the water for the ground source heat pump comes from.

Anthea Cassanova, Employability Development Officer at Harrow, Richmond and Uxbridge Colleges, shared her thanks for Apostolos and the team at Citigen: “I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to E.ON for hosting our students on the recent tour of the Citigen Power Plant. The students gained invaluable knowledge from the experience, seeing firsthand how various engineering disciplines are transferable across sectors. It was an excellent learning opportunity, and we hope to arrange similar experiences in the future.”

How we’re helping nurture future talent

We’re committed to helping young people develop the skills needed to thrive in a greener future, and taking part in events like London Careers Festival is just one of the many ways we’re involved.

For example:

• Our Enterprise Advisor programme sees our colleagues volunteer their time and expertise to collaborate with schools and colleges and provide guidance and support in shaping career education and work-related learning activities for students.
• We support young people with work experience and our Net Zero Training academy work with schools and colleges to deliver training focused on future green skills.
• Plus, we’re committed to apprenticeships which support young people to develop the skills and experience that employers are looking for.

For more information about careers at E.ON, visit our careers website.