Meet the Intern: Benjamin Harvey

Prairie State Generating Company is excited to welcome Benjamin Harvey as an electrical engineering intern for the summer of 2018.

Born into a military family, Harvey has lived in many places.  After graduating high school in Riverview, Florida, he moved to Illinois.  He now attends Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville (SIU-E), where he will be going into his junior year as an electrical engineering major.  At SIU-E, he is a member of the solar car club, and he is involved in intramural dodgeball.

This is Harvey’s second internship.  His first was at David Mason and Associates, through which he did engineering consulting for Ameren.  He has also worked in utility excavation.  Harvey chose Prairie State to experience new aspects of electrical engineering.  “I wanted to get a sense of what it’s like working in a power plant setting.  Prairie State has a very clean, impressive energy campus.”

This summer, he will be using a software program to run studies on electrical loads.  This will help them determine if there is any equipment they could add to the system.  “I am excited to learn about the daily processes of electrical power plant engineers.  It’s been cool to see all of the big equipment and generators up close.”

After this internship, Harvey will return to SIU-E for two more years.  In the future, he hopes to have a career in the power generation industry.