Eskom’s Dr Rob Stephen has been elected president of the eminent international organization CIGRE at its biennial congress this week in Paris. CIGRE is the Council on Large Electric Systems, a non-profit organisation founded in 1921 to advance collaboration amongst owners and operators of electric systems around the world. It has individual membership of 15000 people from 98 countries and is headquarted in Paris, France. It holds a biennial session in Paris which is attended by 3500 engineers from around the world.
Dr Rob Stephen of Eskom, the new President of CIGRE
Rob is the first African President of CIGRE and his candidacy has been supported on the back of promises to expand electrification in growing regions and to focus on distribution issues. He joined CIGRE in 1988 in a committee responsible for the study of thermal ratings for overhead lines. His worked earned him a Technical Committee award in 1996. He has been a special reporter at CIGRE several times. He has led many working groups, served on the advisory board and authored two chapters in the CIGRE Green Book on overhead line design. Since 2010 Rob has been a member of the Administration Council and has also served on the Steering Committee since then.
At Eskom, he is a Master Specialist, the highest technical position in the company advising on Transmission and Distribution issues.
Rob has presented many tutorials on the design of overhead lines and this year presented to 400 engineers in Paris on this important topic.
Rob holds BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and an MBA. He has a GCC, is a registered professional engineer with ECSA and a Fellow of the SAIEE. We wish Rob a successful tenure at CIGRE. Well done Rob! Felicitations!
Prince Moyo PrEng
Honorary Secretary: CIGRE SA National Committee