Personality Profile Sponsored by :
CONTINUE TO LEARN , AND
ACHIEVE ULTIMATE PROCESS EFFICIENCY
By Benjamin Brits
These are the points of highlight for young engineer , Priscilla Carneiro , no matter the pressure one is under .
Spending her younger days growing up in Johannesburg , Carneiro attended Leeuwenhof Akademie , followed by completing her mechanical engineering degree at the University of Johannesburg where she obtained her honours .
Getting into the HVAC sector was essentially a very smooth transition as she was employed directly after graduation . “ I always had a passion for thermodynamics and other related HVAC elements of my studies . My employer , Intramech and where I am still employed today , sent me down to their branch in Cape Town immediately , appointing me into a HVAC post where I specialised in chillers and control systems .”
In terms of hobbies and interests outside of work , Carneiro humourously notes that her work keeps her very busy ! “ I consider myself a compulsive learner having recently completed further studies in aeronautical engineering , but I also love running , reading and learning anything new .”
Considering what she enjoys most about her work , she is most fond of when a project is finished , and the final handover to the client . This is the pinnacle of accomplishment after the many hours put into something . “ When you ' re finished with all aspects and you wrap up on a project commissioning , everything is working beautifully and perfectly - that is what I look forward to ,” she notes .
Carneiro adds that she also enjoys working under pressure . While many people don ’ t like this aspect of work at all and is the reason for many failures , she is one of those few people that thrive under such conditions , albeit that she candidly suggests that each project does age her by another ten years .
The question of the most significant achievement to-date is easily identified for Carneiro . Being involved in the African continent ’ s largest data centres top her list with involvement as project manager on the chilled water systems . These data centers are located in Johannesburg , Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal . “ There is huge cooling required in these facilities that includes about 15 megawatts of chilled water ( chillers ) with more to be deployed with the client ’ s future planning and expansions ,” she says .
Carneiro ’ s view on where the HVAC sectors is headed in terms of technology is also very clear . As a controls
specialist , she is involved in various controls systems , building management system and plant management systems . From a technical aspect from the control side , she has identified a definite drive to make the control system more reliable and more efficient .
“ Everything from the control aspects just keeps on improving . Systems today , and in future will be more capable of being up and running on their own with much less human intervention ( and error ) involved primarily because of the updated technology that is being used , as well as the logic implemented around these systems . From an HVAC component perspective everything is moving quickly towards efficiency . There is a lot more free cooling from equipment as an example , particularly in the data centre environment that is growing rapidly , and further I expect to see an ongoing drive on overall reduction in energy consumption or equipment performance as better efficiencies are demanded ,” Carneiro concludes . RACA
Priscilla Carneiro
A driven engineer focusing on controls , BMS , and plant management systems .
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I October 2021 27