Power Engineering and Electrical Engineering Education

in the USSR, a system for training specialists for the energy industry—in thermal, hydraulic, and electrical power engineering and power engineering machine building—and for various other branches of the national economy; the system also offers specialized training in electrical engineering and other areas of technology concerned with the production, conversion, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy in its various forms.

The development of power engineering and electrical engineering education in Russia began in the mid-19th century. At that time the study of thermodynamics, steam engines, and steam boilers was introduced at the St. Petersburg Institute of Practical Technology (now the Lensovet Leningrad Institute of Technology) and at the Institute of Mines in St. Petersburg (now the G. V. Plekhanov Leningrad Institute of Mines). In the late 19th century, engineers were trained in thermal power engineering at the Moscow Technical School (now the N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School), at institutes of technology (in Kharkov and Tomsk in addition to St. Petersburg), and at polytechnic institutes (in St. Petersburg and Riga). The construction of hydroelectric power plants in the late 19th century increased the demand for hydroelectric power engineers; the centers of training in the field at that time were the St. Petersburg Electrical Engineering Institute (now the V. I. Ul’ianov [Lenin] Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute), the Kharkov Practical Technological Institute (now the V. I. Lenin Kharkov Polytechnic Institute), and the Moscow Technical School.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was an intensive development of courses in electrical engineering (as a result of the first successes in the transmission of electricity over distances), power engineering construction, and the electrification of various branches of industry and transportation. Electrical engineers and power engineers were trained at the higher educational institutions mentioned above. The St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute (now the M. I. Kalinin Leningrad Polytechnic Institute) and the Moscow Technical School became the largest training centers for electrical engineers. Electrical engineers were also trained at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute (now the 50th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution Kiev Polytechnic Institute), the Riga Polytechnic Institute, the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute (now the Sergo Ordzhonikidze Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute), and the Tomsk Technical Institute (now the S. M. Kirov Tomsk Polytechnic Institute).

After the October Revolution of 1917, power engineering and electrical engineering education was organized to meet ever increasing needs in the development of socialist production. Independent institutes were founded, and separate electrical engineering and power engineering departments were established in other higher technical educational institutions (seeTECHNICAL EDUCATION, POLYTECHNICAL INSTITUTES, INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTES, MACHINE BUILDING and MECHANICAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTES, and COMMUNICATIONS, INSTITUTES OF). Evening and correspondence courses were instituted to augment daytime education.

The principal areas of specialization in the field were established during the years of Soviet power. In thermal power engineering they include the design, assembly, and operation of thermal power installations, district heat supply systems, and thermal equipment. In electric power engineering and electrical engineering, they include the design, assembly, and operation of fossil-fuel-fired steam power plants and power transmission lines used in various branches of industry, transportation, and communications, as well as electric machine building and the construction of electrical equipment (ion, X-ray, and illumination equipment). In hydraulic power engineering, they include the design, construction, and operation of hydraulic engineering installations, hydroelectric power plants, and transmission equipment. Because of the needs of the growing energy and electrical engineering industries, personnel are now being trained in new specialties: atomic power plants and installations, the automation of thermal power engineering processes, electrothermal installations, aircraft and motor transportation electrical equipment, hydraulic machinery and automation facilities, heat physics, cybernetics, electric power systems, hydrodynamics, and computer technology. The foremost educational and scientific research center for power engineering and electromechanics is the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.

Secondary education in power engineering and electrical engineering is offered by technicums (seeTECHNICUM and SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, SPECIALIZED). Areas of specialization include electric power plants, networks, and systems; relay protection and automation of power systems; electrical equipment in industrial enterprises; mining electromechanics; boiler and steam turbine installations; and heat engineering equipment. The training of qualified workers for the various branches of power engineering and electrical engineering is carried on at vocational-technical educational institutions.