· A1 – MARK BRUINTJES mark.bruintjies@eskom.co.za
· A2 – CARL WOLMARANS carlwolmarans@gmail.com
· A3 – SIBUSISO DUMA Sibusiso.duma@actom.co.za
· B1 – QUEENETH KHUMALO KhumalQN@eskom.co.za
· B2 – SHARON MUSHABE ArigyeS@eskom.co.za
· B3 – PHILIP KONIG philip.konig@rhdhv.com
· B4 – THOMAS MAGG thomas.magg@seralapower.com
· B5 – MATANKISO MOHLAKOANA MoeranCM@eskom.co.za
· C1 – JANA BREEDT jana.breedt@eskom.co.za
· C2 – NKOSINOMUSA GUMEDE gumedenk@eskom.co.za
· C3 – RUDI KRUGER KrugerR@eskom.co.za
· C4 – VACANT
· C5 – VACANT
· C6 – ARADHNA PANDARUM Aradz1106@gmail.com
· D1 – NISHAL MAHATHO MahathN@eskom.co.za
· D2 – THUTHUKANI BIYELA bthuthukani@gmail.com
Mark Bruintjies
A1
Mark Bruintjies is an accomplished professional with a distinguished career in the power industry, currently serving as the Chief Technologist at Eskom. He holds an M.Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and is a proud member of several prestigious professional organizations, including Professional Technologist (ECSA) and Senior member (IEEE). With an impressive 35 years of experience in the field, Mark has dedicated the last quarter-century to Eskom, where he has excelled in roles such as System Engineer and Chief Technologist within the Generation Division. His expertise spans the spectrum of power plant operations, maintenance, refurbishment, commissioning, and asset management. Mark's current role at Eskom encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, including conducting in-depth generator failure investigations, leading design reviews, compiling technical specifications, evaluating tenders, overseeing plant technical integrations, and supervising high-voltage testing and commissioning processes. His comprehensive knowledge and experience make him an invaluable asset in ensuring the continued excellence of Eskom's power generation operations. Mark Bruintjies has also made significant contributions to the power industry beyond his role at Eskom. He has been an active member of Cigre since 2012 and has held various roles, including both member and convenor of several Working Groups. His dedication has resulted in the publication of influential works such as Electra and Technical Brochures. Presently, Mark serves as the convenor for WG A1.60, where he leads the development of a crucial guide on economic evaluation for refurbishment or replacement decisions regarding hydro generators. His commitment to advancing the industry's knowledge and practices is truly commendable.
VACANT
VACANT
Queeneth Khumalo
B1
Ms Khumalo is a Cable Systems Chief Engineer in Eskom Group Technology (PDE HV Plant). She started at Eskom in 2007 and has held roles covering Distribution Network Development Planning and Electrification. She holds a BEng degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pretoria where she is currently studying towards her MEng degree. She is a registered Professional Engineer with ECSA where she also volunteers in performing Assessments, Moderations and Interviews for ECSA registration applications. She is currently a Working Group Member in CIGRE B1.56 as well as on several SANS working groups focusing on cable ratings and applications.
Sharon Mushabe
B2
Sharon Mushabe has a BSc (Elec Eng) and a MSc (Elec Eng) from the University of Cape Town. She is a registered Professional Engineer with ECSA and is also member of the SAIEE Central Gauteng Centre. She has been employed by Eskom since 2003 and has transmission line design and construction experience in Distribution and Transmission. In her current capacity as a Chief engineer in Line Engineering Services Department, her main roles include design support to field operators during maintenance and emergency incidents, overhead line performance and general overhead line design. She is also responsible for management of the overhead line health index processes in Transmission. She is the Customer Advisory Group (CAG) representative for Africa in the CIGRE B2 Study Committee.
Philip Konig
B3
Philip König is a registered Professional Engineer with ECSA in South Africa, and a Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the Electricity Power Transmission and Distribution industry. During this period, he was employed by utilities, consultants, construction contractors as well as Suppliers/Manufacturers.
Thomas Magg
B4
Thomas Magg is director and principal consultant of Serala Power Consulting. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa in 1989. He is registered professional engineer in South Africa with more than has 30 years’ experience in the electric power industry. Thomas has extensive experience in project management and project engineering of high voltage transmission systems in Africa, including specification, design review, testing and commissioning of HVDC and AC systems and FACTS devices. He has been an active member of CIGRE Study Committee B4 (HVDC and Power Electronics) since 2006.
VACANT
Jana Breedt
C1
Jana is a committed, cheerful and passionate person. She strives to always add a beneficial and positive contribution. Jana Breedt started her Industrial Engineering career as an Engineer in Training in the Eskom distribution business. She ventured through quality management, project management, and business analysis positions until she migrated to the forecasting area of Eskom Transmission Grid Planning and found a passion for analysis, process enablement and building important connections for the successful implementation of strategic vision. Jana now specialises in the field of demand forecasting and analysing demand trends within the power industry. Her major focus is on Utility long-term demand forecast as input to grid expansion plans. Her national and international research focus conduct is on the changing power paradigm and integration of renewable technology and its influence on the forecasting of power systems. Jana holds a bachelor's and honours in Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria and also completed her Master's in Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch where she developed an integrated ISED forecasting framework for use in the strategic energy forecasting environment. She is registered as a Profesional Engineer at the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and a full member of the South African Institute for Industrial Engineers (SAIIE), a member of the International Institute of Forecasting (IIF) and a Member of the Council for Large Electrical systems(CIGRE) where she is currently the incoming Southern African representative for C1. Other involvement in CIGRE includes being a member of WIE CIGDRE, being part of C1.32 workgroup 2014-2016, presenting poster session Paris 2016, secretariat for workgroup C1.40, and presenting final results to Kyoto Symposium 2021. She served as a special reporter for C1 at the Paris 2022 session. Currently, she will be the convenor of a forecasting work group for the Paris 2024 session.
Nkosinomusa Gumede
C2
My name is Musa Gumede, an experienced Engineer with more than 13 years working in Eskom. I have obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of KwaZulu Natal and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Witwatersrand. I am registered as a professional engineer (Pr Eng) with Engineering Counsil of South Africa (ECSA) and currently a Chief Engineer in System Operator, Ancillary Services department. In addition to my responsibilities as a Chief Engineer, I serve as a Study Committee C 2 representative and technical board member for CIGRE Southern Africa, industry mentor in Eskom Power Plant Engineering Institute (EPPEI) and a convener of the inertial technologies work group within Eskom. PUBLICATIONS • “Impact of High Penetration of Inverter-based Generation on System Inertia of Networks”, Reference 851, Technical Brochure, October 2021 • “Impact of Extreme Low System Loading on Frequency and Small Signal Stability during the Pandemic”, CIGRE 2021, South Africa • “High Inverter Based Penetration-Factors to consider when conducting frequency studies”, CIGRE 2019, South Africa • “Estimate Instantaneous Reserves in the Eskom power system”, CIGRE 2018, France • “Optimise demand response for frequency control”, CIGRE 2017, South Africa • “Tuning automatic generation control of the Eskom power system”, CIGRE 2013, South Africa
Rudi Kruger
C3
VACANT
VACANT
Aradhna Pandarum
C6
Aradhna Pandarum is currently the Acting Research Group Leader for Energy Industry team in the Energy Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from Howard College UKZN and a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering (Renewable Energy) from University of Witwatersrand. She serves as a technical board member of Cigre South Africa, representing the country in the international C6 study committee on active distribution systems and distributed energy resources. She is also registered as a Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). She is passionate about research in the renewable energy space. Whilst working at Eskom, she has gained immense experience in research, testing, and development, especially on renewable energy, that was predominantly centred on embedded generation and its’ technical, economic, operational, and environmental impact. At the CSIR, Aradhna is the portfolio manager and acting group leader for all research work related to the Just Energy Transition. The focal point of this work is to promote social justice and create unique opportunities for the energy industry hence touching lives through innovation with the aim targeted at combating poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa.
Nishal Mahatho
D1
Nishal Mahato holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where is also a Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He is in the employment of Eskom, Research, Testing & Development since 1996 and currently holds the position of Senior Specialist, specializing in insulator research. He is a member on a number of CIGRE working group (B2.57, B2,80, D1,58, D1.59, D1,72), and is convenor of WG D1.61 and WG B2.74, He is the South African representative for SC D1.