Learning about global power markets and becoming a senior power trading expert – this is what MET Group’s 1000th employee, a young Chinese lady, hopes to achieve at the company’s Swiss headquarters. Yi Wan and MET “discovered” each other at a job fair at ETH Zurich.
Yi Wan grew up in the southeastern part of China, in Jangsu Province (two hours from Shanghai, and two hours from the sea, as she describes it), where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering. She learnt how to design a boiler, a heat pump or a turbine, amongst other things. Yi’s choice might have been influenced by her parents’ jobs – her father works at the Environment Department, and her mother used to work as an engineer.
In 2016, Yi decided to continue her studies abroad. She chose the ETH University in Zurich as one of the top international universities, which was also recommended to her by several friends. She was not even aware that there was a free market for power, so when she noticed they had a course called Power Market at ETH, she immediately opted for it. Yi consequently obtained a Master’s degree in Energy, Science & Technology.
Energy definitely became a significant part of her life – she started her PhD in Energy Economics at ETH Zurich. “From engineering I switched to the economic side of energy,” she explains.
During her PhD, Yi worked for the Paul Scherrer Institute, a research organisation belonging to the ETH Domain, investigating the impact of ‘Power-to-Gas’. This is actually her PhD topic: “Navigating future energy markets: Exploring the coupling effects of Power-to-Gas technologies on market prices”. It is a potential new technology for future energy markets, transforming energy from power to hydrogen – a topic which helped Yi to get a better understanding of the energy markets and the mechanisms behind them.
In addition, she has completed research projects with the World Energy Council and Gaznat SA. At Gaznat, she conducted a comprehensive analysis of technology and economic data on Swiss large-scale gas storage, for example.
MET Group’s and Yi Wan’s paths crossed in April 2024. Right before Yi finished her studies, she was about to find a job and MET participated at Polymesse, one of the largest recruiting fairs of Switzerland taking place at ETH Zurich. Several hundred students visited the MET stand – and Yi was one of them.
It was her first encounter with the energy company based in the Swiss canton of Zug. She listened to the presentations of Renewables CEO Christian Hürlimann and Data Analytics Team Lead Fabian Bissig, talked to Nicholas Bailey from MET HR, they exchanged contacts. Once Yi got to know the company, she applied to online job ads, started a deeper discussion… And the rest, as they say, is history.
When Yi joined MET International (the trading arm of MET Group) as a Power Trading Operator, she was surprised to learn that she was hired as the Group’s 1000th employee. There were other surprises. Before joining the company, she thought that people at the trading floor were running around and screaming. “In fact, it is much calmer than I thought, colleagues are focusing on their jobs,” she admits laughing.
Another – very pleasant – surprise was to see how many women work at the energy company and how international the team is. Almost half of Yi’s team is composed of female colleagues.
“The most important for me is to learn about global power markets and grow myself, becoming a senior power trading expert in a few years: this is what I hope to find at MET,” Yi summarizes her objectives. Her current position, Power Trading Operator, has an exciting link to everyday life as power will play an increasingly crucial role in the future – digitalisation is growing, and more and more people are changing to electric cars, for instance.
Outside work, Yi likes to spend time with her new hobby, bouldering (indoor wall climbing), and she also enjoys swimming. She loves hanging around with friends, going mainly to Asian restaurants. “For Chinese people, food is quite substantial. We spend a lot of time cooking dishes,” she says. Obviously, Yi is fond of cooking too, and eating together with friends helps her to “recharge her batteries”.