Given the chance offered by GraSPP, I spent a fruitful week doing my winter internship at Kansai Electricity Power Company (KEPCO) from February 17th to 21st.
The internship could be divided into three parts, including lectures, sight visits and final presentation. On the first day of our internship, we were warmly welcomed by the staff of Department of International Business. The first day was mainly about lectures on background and basic theories. They gave us a brief introduction of KEPCO, the electricity market reform in Japan and the renewable energy business. For the following days, in order to make the internship more interesting, KEPCO offered the chance to visit their electricity power plants. The schedule of a day was matched: in the morning, we listened to lectures given by the specialists about thermal electricity and hydroelectricity; in the afternoon, we were able to visit Saki-ko Thermal&Solar Power Station as well as the Amagase and Kisenyama Hydroelectric Power Station. In this way, we were able to know how the electricity is generated, distributed and sold, not only theoretically, but also practically. Finally, based on what we have learned, we were assigned to give a presentation on overseas investment strategy in Asia or Europe.
Except for the lectures and sightseeing, we were accompanied by young staff of department of international business for lunch each day. They were really friendly and willing to give us some advice on career path and the working experience at KEPCO. Since they were about our age, their experience on job-hunting was useful.
Through the internship at KEPCO, I gained a basic understanding of the energy and electricity industry in Japan. Also, I realized that Japanese language skill is very important if you want to do job-hunting in Japan since Japanese is the main working language.
I regard it as a good chance to know more about energy sector in Japan as well as working environment of Japanese companies. This internship is a valuable experience and I really appreciate the support and help that KEPCO and GraSPP has offered.