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Dr. Christopher Charles Haw
Co-Founder and Director: Aurora Power Solutions
Co-Founder and Acting Chairman: SAPVIA
Tertiary Education: BSc. Elec Eng (UCT), PhD Eng (Oxford)
Relevant courses/training: RENAC Course on Policy Framework for Deployment of PV in developing Countries (Berlin)
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Dr. Christopher Haw is the chairperson and founding member of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), as well as the director and co-founder of Aurora Power Solutions (APS), a photovoltaic (PV) project development and consulting company established in South Africa in 2008.
Since PV was omitted from the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) draft of October 2010, Chris has been focused on driving the foundation of SAPVIA to meet its objectives and, in conjunction with his colleagues on the management board, he successfully contributed to the lobby for the inclusion of PV in the IRP, now to the level of 1450MW up to 2030. This lobby included setting up and attending government meetings with key stakeholders at the Treasury, DoE, DTI, Eskom, SARI and DPE, amongst others.
Chris has co-authored a paper on the suitability of PV for the South African REFIT which was subsequently submitted to the Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, as well as to government as part of NERSA's public consultation for the IRP. In addition to this he collated feedback and co-presented at the REFIT public hearing in November 2010 to Nersa and the DoE, as well as at the REFIT public hearings in May this year. Through these activities Chris has developed a keen understanding of the issues surrounding the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, as well as the political issues and bottlenecks facing other areas of the industry at the moment such as the unlocking of the rooftop PV market in South Africa.
Doug Kuni
Doug is an Honours Engineering Graduate of London(UK) Univ and undertook postgraduate engineering studies in Germany(Aachen).
He has a 27 year career in the electrical power sector,primarily in the design, construction, commissioning , testing and operating of large coal-fired power stations, he also headed up the Generation Engineering Division of Eskom for 5 years, completing the Majuba Power Station(4000 MW) in Eskom’s last expansion program.
In Eskom Enterprises, as Business Development Manager he managed projects in Africa , India and China. After leaving Eskom, he joined a Hong Kong based company, as Chief Corporate Officer, acquiring assets in the power sector supply chain in China. When he returned to South Africa, he headed up IPSA Group PLC’s operations as General Manager SA and completed the Newcastle Cogen project together with its licensing and operation onto the grid.
Doug left IPSA in Feb 09 and is an Independent Power Consultant consulting to major corporations. He is also MD of the SA Independent Power Producers Association , (SAIPPA) – a lobbying association for the introduction of IPP’s into the SA power market.
Ian McKechnie
Ian McKechnie practices as a project consultant/advisor, project manager and consulting engineer. He is a Director of Global Africa Projects (Pty) Ltd (project consulting, project management, systems engineering and consulting engineering services) and a Director of Innopro (Pty) Ltd (specialist consulting engineers and solution providers, with specialist niche expertise and experience including lightning protection and forensic engineering consulting). At the University of the Witwatersrand Ian is appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering.
Ian is registered as a Professional Engineer (PrEng) and as a Professional Construction Project Manager (PrCPM), and is also registered on the South African section of the International Register of Professional Engineers (IntPE(SA)). He holds a BSc(Eng) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from UCT, is a Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) and an Associate of the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa).
He is a Council Member of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and a Past President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE).;
Johan van den Berg
Johan practised as an advocate for ten years before moving into renewable energy and climate change work in 2002. He was a Board Member of the Darling Wind Farm and is presently the CEO of the South African Wind Energy Association. He is an internationally accredited mediator, an Associate Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies in London and a registered trader of the South African Futures Exchange. He has done extensive work in CDM and was the founder of CDM Africa Climate Solutions.
In Eskom Enterprises, as Business Development Manager he managed projects in Africa , India and China. After leaving Eskom, he joined a Hong Kong based company, as Chief Corporate Officer, acquiring assets in the power sector supply chain in China. When he returned to South Africa, he headed up IPSA Group PLC’s operations as General Manager SA and completed the Newcastle Cogen project together with its licensing and operation onto the grid.
Doug left IPSA in Feb 09 and is an Independent Power Consultant consulting to major corporations. He is also MD of the SA Independent Power Producers Association , (SAIPPA) – a lobbying association for the introduction of IPP’s into the SA power market.
Mike Cary
Mike Cary is an independent Consultant having retired from Rotek Engineering in September last year, after 15 years of service- 9 of which as Managing Director. Prior to Rotek, he was a Director and/or General Manager of Alstom Transformers (now Actom) and of ABB Powertech Transformers, amongst other positions. He is also the Chairman of HiTech Transformer Maintenance (Pty) Ltd.
He has held various positions in Industry such as being the Hon. Treasurer of the AMEU Affiliates, and Chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Associated Industries. In 2010 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Award by the AMEU.
He became a member of the SAIEE in 1970 and a Fellow in 1996. He is currently the Deputy President and Hon. Treasurer of the Institute. Mike is a registered Professional Engineer.
Ndivho Lukhwareni
An electrical engineer by profession who also holds Business Leadership qualifications. Has worked for Eskom for 10 years and SAA for two years looking aft infrastructure and facilities. Has been with the municipality since 2004 and has assumed various roles commencing with heading Energy & Electricity division. Also headed the Public Works and Infrastructure department.
Piet van Staden
Piet van Staden is an electrical engineer by training, and spent the first 20 years of his career in various positions in the Sasol Synfuels facilities at Secunda. Since 2000 he is responsible for Strategic Sourcing of utility energy for the Sasol group. The position entails the management of the Sasol/Eskom interface, as well as the facilitation of co-generation and energy efficiency projects. Piet is also a past Chairman of the Energy Intensive User Group of Southern Africa.
Ronald Chauke
Ronald started his professional career at Spoornet where he served in the Strategic Planning Department in the coal export business for 5 and half years.
Afterwards, Ronald joined the Department of Energy as Programme/Project Manager in the Coal and Gas Directorate and also served as Secretariat of the South Africa-Mozambique Gas Commission.
Later Ronald joined National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) initially to develop internal and external policies, and later was seconded to the Office of the Board Member responsible for Petroleum Pipeline Regulation. Thereafter, Ronald joined the National Treasury as Director, advising the Minister of Finance and the Ministry of Energy, and representing them at G-20 energy events.
He returned to the National Energy Regulator (NERSA) as Head of Department: Electricity Regulatory Reform and has been serving in this capacity in the last 12 months, where he continues to provide technical and strategic support and advice to both the Ministries of Finance and Energy.
Thembani Bukula
Thembani Bukula is the Regulator Member primarily responsible for electricity regulation at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the Chairperson of the Electricity committee. He obtained his B.Sc. Engineering from the University of Natal and a post graduate diploma in Engineering Business Management from Warwick University. His career started at Yelland Engineering and later joined Eskom as engineer responsible for the commissioning of the extra High Voltage substations in the KwaZulu-Natal region. He was seconded to KEMA-The Netherlands as a High Voltage engineer during 1995/6. He has been the Managing Director of various companies including the NETFA, SABS – Testing and Conformity Services, National Data Systems and Ijanga Consulting Services.
Thomas Garner
Thomas Garner has a B.Eng (Mechanical) degree from the University of Pretoria and completed his MBA at the University of Stellenbosch in 2003. Thomas has had 18 years’ experience in the mining industry and is responsible for business growth at Exxaro.
Thomas’ knowledge and experience spans across a variety of areas, including the coal industry, the reductant industry and cleaner energy technologies, including co-generation, wind and solar (PV & CSP). He is currently leading the Energy Growth team at Exxaro, responsible for the formation of an energy company for Exxaro with the aim of providing cleaner energy to the region.
Viv Crone
Viv Crone was born in Johannesburg in December 1949. He completed his schooling at St. David’s Marist College and after completing his compulsory military training attended the University of the Witwatersrand.
He graduated cum laude with a BSc Eng (Elec.) degree in 1972.
He worked as a Telecommunications Product Development Engineer at Standard telephones and Cables in South Africa, ITT in North Carolina USA and Teltech in South Africa until 1984. The next 6 years were spent at Westinghouse Bellambie as Technical Manager in charge of product development on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems in fail-safe environments.
He joined Spescom in April 1990 as a business unit manager in charge of developing the innovative Cashpower pre-payment electricity system into a saleable product and the Sentinel Supervisory Control System for Pole Mounted Switchgear for ESKOM.
In 1995, a joint venture company, Energy Measurements (Pty) Ltd., was formed with Siemens with Viv Crone as CEO until April 1996.
Over the next period until 1999, he played an active role as CTO investigating a number of new business opportunities and investigating and identifying possible acquisition opportunities in the US.
During 1999 he played a key role in positioning Spescom correctly for the multi million Pound Sterling contract signed with British Telecom for the supply of intelligent network terminating units.
He was appointed as CEO of Spescom DataVoice, (www.datavoice.spescom.com) in August 1999. Specialising in the development of innovative Multi-media Transaction Recording products, He turned this company around from a loss making entity into the most profitable company in the Spescom Group with a bottom line of up to 20% of revenue.
In July 2008, he was appointed as CTO of the Spescom Group, with responsibilities covering all technical aspects in the various divisions.
As a Director of Spescom Ltd. UK he had the responsibility to expand the exports of the DataVoice product range. A key focus of this area is various OEM relationships, one of which was Motorola, with which Spescom concluded a world-wide supply agreement.
In 2010 he was responsible for the design, planning and implementation of a Carrier Independent Colocation Centre for NewTelco South Africa, a new Spescom Group company.
He is a Registered Professional Engineer with ECSA and a Fellow and Past President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers.He lives in Johannesburg and is a part-time lecturer at Wits in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering. Other interests include Astronomy, Nature Conservation, Hiking and Reading as interests.
Dr. Willie de Beer
Dr. De Beer has extensive strategic, managerial and operational experience in respect of business in general and in specific the electricity distribution industry. Furthermore he has extensivie merger experience, inclusive of; business transformation, change management, resource & capacity analysis, development of blueprints, enterprise risk management, program management (multiple projects), business governance, regulation, compliance and business ringfencing. He has specialist knowledge and experience in the electricity distribution business; electrification; infrastructure creation, engineering and retail and business support, both from a municipal (local government) and Eskom perspective.
Yousuf Haffejee
Head : Single Buyer Office
Eskom
System and Market Operator Division (SMO)
Megawatt Park, Sandton, Republic of South Africa
Yousuf was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He attended the University of Witwatersrand “WITS” and graduated with a B.S. degree in Quantity Surveying in 1994. He joined ESKOM in 1996 as a Senior Quantity Surveyor at Majuba Power Station a 4110 MW coal fired power plant at the time when the plant was being built and commissioned. Yousuf than moved to head office and was appointed as Senior Advisor to Generation Division.
Yousuf has spent the last 15 years in the electricity sector in South Africa, he currently heads the Single Buyer Office which has the responsibility of concluding Power Purchase Agreements with all Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) inclusive of Renewable Energy Producers. He is actively involved in assisting the Department Of Energy to expedite the procurement of 3725 MW of Renewable Generation from Independent Power Producers.
During his tenor in the electricity sector he spent 2 years at City Power as General Manager : Energy Management, City of Johannesburg and was instrumental in the awarding and conclusion of the first ever IPP (Kelvin Power Station) in South Africa, a 700MW coal plant. Yousuf has many achievements during the period but the one that stands out was the Chairman’s Award received in 2002.
Yousuf is married to Ayesha and they have three children, ages 7, 14 and 17. He has a passion for sports and currently plays indoor soccer, league tennis and trail running. He has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro Africa’s highest peak and has completed two “Comrades Ultra Marathon’s” a 90km race.