Biography
Dr Smith commenced his career in 1973 as an engineering cadet with
the Sydney County Council electricity distribution utility and
concurrently studied for his undergraduate degree at the NSW Institute
of Technology, Sydney. Upon graduation, he was employed as an
electrical engineer with the Sydney County Council and worked in a
variety of areas including zone substation construction, design and
maintenance of protection systems for substations and distribution
networks, design of distribution networks, estimating for distribution
network alterations and additions, routine and type testing of high
voltage switchgear, cables and transformers, dielectric evaluation
testing, impulse and interference testing of electronic equipment,
cable fault location, electromagnetic interference complaint
investigations and dissolved gas analysis of transformer oils.
In 1981, Dr Smith studied for his MSc degree at the University of
Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester,
UK, while on leave-of-absence from the Sydney County Council.
In 1985, Dr Smith took a research position with the High Power
Testing and Arc Studies Laboratory of Sydney University Electrical
Engineering and concurrently studied for his PhD degree. He worked on
a range of projects including the investigation and modelling of
arc-gas flow interactions and energy exchange processes in the
high-power arcs of circuit interruption devices during circuit
interruption, examination of electrical hazards that are of concern to
Australian utilities particularly vegetation contact with high-voltage,
overhead lines and high resistance contacts in low-voltage reticulation
systems, and the development of a current-limiting medium voltage
expulsion fuse.
In 1997, Dr Smith joined the Integral Energy Power Quality Centre at
the University of Wollongong as a research engineer and was responsible
for the day-to-day running of the Centre including administration
and budgetary control, research, organisation of courses and seminars,
consultancy and publicity.
After 19 years with the Centre Dr Smith formally retired
from full-time work in July 2016 but continues his association with the Centre as an Honorary
Senior Fellow.
Research Interests
- The implementation of Power Quality standards in software
- The transient and harmonic response of current and voltage transducers
- The modelling of distribution systems and their loads in the presence of harmonics
- Susceptibility of electrical equipment to Power Quality disturbances
- Earthing, shielding and surge protection of electronic equipment
- Power Quality aspects of grid-connected inverters
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