From pulling apart childhood circuits to supporting major transmission infrastructure, Rania Neisi has built a career around curiosity, renewable energy and quiet technical confidence without needing to be the loudest person in the room.
For Rania Neisi, confidence has never meant being the loudest person in the room. It has meant knowing her work, continuing to learn, and allowing technical competence to speak for itself.
That mindset has followed Neisi from an early fascination with circuits to a career spanning power-system design, testing and commissioning, high-voltage infrastructure, and renewable energy. After completing Engineering Institute of Technology’s (EIT) 52859WA Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Technologies*, she now works as an Electrical Project Engineer with ACCIONA, supporting the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Project in New South Wales. Her role includes secondary systems design, load forecasting, and low-voltage protection studies.
From Taking Apart Circuits to Power Systems
Neisi’s interest in electrical engineering began long before university. As a child, she remembers pulling apart small circuits involving batteries and lamps and attempting to put them back together. Fixing things around the house did not always go to plan, but the process kept her curious about electricity and how things worked.
That interest eventually led her to complete a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Her career has since taken her through electrical design, control and automation, construction, and testing and commissioning. During her time working on the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project, her responsibilities included protection-system testing and commissioning and work involving high-voltage protection systems.
Her current role brings that experience into renewable energy infrastructure.
The Central-West Orana REZ is being developed to connect new solar, wind and energy-storage projects to the New South Wales electricity grid through new high-voltage transmission infrastructure.
Finding Confidence in a Male-Dominated Field
Long before entering the workforce, Neisi had already become accustomed to being one of relatively few women studying technical subjects.
At university, she remembers entering classrooms where nearly everyone else was male. Early on, the attention that came with being the only woman in the room could feel intimidating. On one occasion, she even asked a lecturer whether she had entered the correct class, partly hoping she had not.
The experience reflects a broader imbalance within the profession. According to Engineers Australia, women represented just 16% of engineering professionals in Australia in 2026.
For Neisi, working in a male-dominated environment has sometimes meant being more intentional about establishing technical credibility, finding the right support networks and developing confidence in communicating her ideas.
But confidence, in her view, does not require competing to be the most outspoken person in the room.
“I don’t need to be the loudest in the room. My work speaks with confidence.”
It is a perspective built around competence rather than volume: doing the work well, contributing a distinct perspective, and gradually building professional relationships through collaboration and mutual respect.
Broadening Her View of Renewable Energy
After building her career in high-voltage power systems, Neisi decided to deepen her understanding of renewable energy through the EIT’s 52859WA Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Technologies*.
She expected the course to develop her knowledge of renewable power systems. What surprised her was how far the learning moved beyond electrical engineering.
The wind-energy content introduced her to aerodynamics and how factors such as turbine blade design can influence power generation. As an electrical engineer, it was an area she had not previously explored in depth.
Other topics pushed her further into mechanical, civil and even chemical considerations, particularly when examining technologies such as energy storage.
“It really changed my perspective,” she says.
Instead of looking at a project predominantly through its electrical systems, Neisi began thinking more holistically about how different disciplines interact. A wind turbine, for example, is not simply an electrical generation source. Its mechanical behavior, foundations, surrounding conditions and eventual electrical output can all influence wider engineering decisions.
EIT’s practical learning model also allowed her to continue working while studying. Neisi found the lectures comprehensive and valued being able to ask questions during the sessions, while the assessments encouraged her to return to the material and consolidate what she had learned.
Where AI Fits in High-Voltage Engineering
Neisi also takes a measured view of one of engineering’s most discussed technologies: artificial intelligence.
In conventional high-voltage and substation design, she says AI has not yet fundamentally changed the established engineering process. Activities such as equipment selection, protection coordination, insulation design and earthing studies continue to rely heavily on engineering calculations, specialist expertise, utility requirements and established standards.
AI is beginning to support activities such as data analysis, documentation, asset management and elements of design automation. However, Neisi currently sees it primarily as a tool supporting engineering professionals rather than replacing engineering judgment in critical design decisions.
As the technology becomes further integrated into engineering software, she expects it to play a greater role in improving efficiency and optimizing solutions. For now, however, conventional high-voltage design remains strongly grounded in engineering expertise and industry standards.
Putting Her Hand Up for What Comes Next
Studying renewable energy has also influenced where Neisi wants her career to go next.
She was already working on a transmission project when she began the course, but says the experience has made her more inclined to pursue further renewable energy projects.
“For my next project, I’m more inclined to do more renewable energy projects,” she says, pointing to possibilities such as another transmission project or a wind farm.
Her current work already places her within a significant expansion of Australia’s renewable-energy infrastructure. ACCIONA’s involvement in the Central-West Orana REZ includes the design and construction of a 90-kilometer 330 kV and 500 kV transmission infrastructure as part of the ACEREZ partnership.
Neisi has also expressed an interest in eventually contributing to areas such as offshore wind and hydrogen as these technologies continue to develop.
For now, her trajectory remains grounded in the same curiosity that once led her to dismantle batteries, lamps and circuits as a child: learn more, understand how the pieces connect and keep building technical capability.
Her message for other engineering professionals, particularly women entering industries where they remain underrepresented, is equally straightforward.
You do not always need to command the room to establish your place within it.
Sometimes, the work can speak with confidence for you.
*VSL approved course, maximum tuition fee for Australian students: AUD $5,634.
This article was published October 27th, 2026 and the content is current as at the date of publication.
