{"id":10,"date":"2025-07-29T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php\/about-theme\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:54:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T03:54:51","slug":"about-theme","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/?page_id=10","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My background in the power industry is varied, starting with an apprenticeship as a mechanical fitter with the New Zealand government electricity department at a 1000 MW coal fired station. During this apprenticeship and subsequent employment I gained much knowledge of the construction and maintenance of all facets of a large thermal power station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"751\" src=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-1024x751.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-1024x751.png 1024w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-768x563.png 768w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-1536x1126.png 1536w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Map-2024-4-2048x1502.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\"><p id=\"simple-download-counter-777\" class=\"simple-download-counter\"><a class=\"simple-download-counter-link\" href=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com?sdc_download=777&#038;key=j6ew4795s8obiatt1eiktewe4syzlu\" title=\"218 downloads\">Career highlights 2025.PDF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p id=\"simple-download-counter-778\" class=\"simple-download-counter\"><a class=\"simple-download-counter-link\" href=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com?sdc_download=778&#038;key=0iy6ul9c40qh75oi2yggle7z1sc272\" title=\"215 downloads\">Career highlights 2025 - Key.PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Subsequently I have worked in various locations around the world in power generation (including coal fired, gas turbine, combined cycle, cogen, reciprocating dual fuel, hydro, geothermal, PV solar) in the maintenance, operations, commissioning, senior management and training roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:25%\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" src=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0271-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">I once also spent a year relocating a B.T.H (British Thomson-Houston) double expansion reciprocating steam engine to a museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:25%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Some photos of power plants that I have worked at can be found by following this <a href=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/?page_id=311\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"311\">link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CV-Richard-J-Smith-3.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of CV - Richard J Smith.pdf.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-8c89f729-36d3-4b09-9d6d-1240a59f5b3d\" href=\"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CV-Richard-J-Smith-3.pdf\">CV &#8211; Richard J Smith.pdf<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My background in the power industry is varied, starting with an apprenticeship as a mechanical fitter with the New Zealand government electricity department at a 1000 MW coal fired station. During this apprenticeship and subsequent employment I gained much knowledge of the construction and maintenance of all facets of a large thermal power station. Subsequently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardspowergenerationpage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}