Engineer's long hours, hard work generate powerful breakthroughs

In the past decade, Zhu Zhijia has won many awards for outstanding performance in scientific and technological innovation in his field, including the title of national youth expert in September.

Awarded by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, it is given to young adults who have distinguished themselves in their fields.

The 33-year-old is head of the turbogenerator design office at Harbin Electric Machinery Company in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province.

Born in Xingtai, Hebei province, Zhu was an excellent student and was admitted to Tianjin University in 2008.

After graduating in 2012, he joined HEC, the core sub-company of the centrally-administered State-owned Harbin Electric Corp (HE) and the main company producing large- and medium-type power generating equipment in China.

"As a major in electrical engineering and automation, I was really happy to receive the offer from the company, which offered me a lot of space for development," he said. "So, despite the long distance from my hometown, I still chose to come to the city to work and live. I felt very proud to contribute to the scientific and technological progress of our country."

Since then, Zhu has dedicated himself to turbogenerator design and has undertaken a number of new product development tasks, some of which have helped fill in gaps in China and even in the world.

"At HEC, I had access to lots of newer and more advanced technologies and equipment used for making power generating equipment," he said. "What I learned at university was barely enough for me to do my job properly, so I had to learn and practice more."

By day, Zhu talked to more experienced colleagues and made notes on everything he learned.

He also often went to workshops to follow production progress, as well as find out what the problems were and find ways to resolve them.

After work, he spent much of his spare time learning by reading books and watching online videos.

In May, he was named one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Persons of HE" and the "Worker Model of HEC", becoming the youngest company member to receive the latter honor.

With the rapid development of ultrahigh voltage direct current engineering in China, there was an urgent need to develop a fast dynamic response synchronous condenser.

When Zhu and his team were tasked in 2015 with designing a 300 Mvar synchronous condenser, the first in the world, they had no idea where to begin.

"We didn't have any technical references," he said. "We had to work on our own."

They spent their time researching and sometimes stayed in the office for several days at a time.

Finally, they made a breakthrough in 2017 that allowed them to achieve the optimal electromagnetic performance design for the first iteration of a synchronous condenser.

In January 2019, when the company began to update the 300 Mvar synchronous condenser for a project in Qinghai province, Zhu volunteered to undertake the important task.

For the second generation, performance index requirements were greatly improved, but the operating environment, which lay at an altitude of 3,000 meters, was significantly less optimal than for the first generation machine.

Zhu, who frequently worked at the office until midnight each day, finally finished the new design in September 2020.

With his years of experience, he has compiled training materials for young workers, including the key points of research and development and design of new products, summaries of failures and recommended structural types.

"I am happy to work with a young team. We average 32 years of age, but I'm also glad to see younger talented individuals joining us," he said. "I believe this will help us come up with more ideas and energize the sector, as well as develop a spirit of craftsmanship."