EECON NSW 2014
 
Speaker Biographies
Matt Cooper
Ausgrid

Matt is the Manager, Investment Management at Ausgrid, responsible for leading and managing the development of Ausgrid’s overall network investment plans through; 

  • the development of cost-effective asset maintenance and renewal plans; 
  • oversight of all economic decision making;
  • initiation of all major projects and programs to ensure regulatory compliance in relation to investment decision making

His key achievements in the role include; 

  • ENA Economic Benchmarking Working Group (Chair)
  • Advisor to NSW Energy Network Reform Program on Investment Prioritisation and Governance issues relating to Electricity Distribution Businesses (2012). 
  • Managed the successful implementation of capital expenditure forecasting systems to support planning and the economic evaluation of alternate investment strategies. 
  • Development of Investment Appraisal Standard to meet shareholder and regulatory requirements. 
  • Member of IPART Review of Productivity Performance of State-owned Corporations (Electricity, Water, Ports and Landcom) – Secondment (2009-2010).

 
Garth Crawford
ENA

Garth Crawford is Executive Director, Economic Regulation, at the Energy Networks Association. He previously served as a Senior Research Fellow at the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong undertaking research focused on major international and Australian economic regulatory trends affecting infrastructure investment, pricing and use. 

He holds a graduate qualification in law and postgraduate qualifications in regulatory economics and trade and has worked as a regulatory economic consultant advising firms in the energy, rail and telecommunications sectors.

 
Geoff Douch
Wellington Electricity

Geoff Douch is the General Manager - Network and Operations at Wellington Electricity, the electricity distribution business suppling 165,000 homes and businesses in the capital city of New Zealand and surrounding areas.

In this role he leads the team responsible for the strategic and operational management of the network, including asset management, network planning, capital works and maintenance delivery, control room operations as well as the management of outsourced field service providers.

Geoff has been with Wellington Electricity since 2009 and previously held the position of Asset and Planning Manager.  Prior to joining Wellington Electricity, he has held commercial management, engineering and service delivery roles within the electricity supply industry in New Zealand.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies and is a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (UK).

 
Chris Dunstan
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Chris has worked in Australian clean energy technology and policy development since 1990.   He has worked for utilities, government departments, regulators and industry associations.

Between 1997 and 2004, Chris led strategic planning and policy development at the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of NSW (SEDA).  Chris was instrumental in the development of the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme- the world’s first Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme and Energy Efficiency (White Certificate) Trading Scheme.  He also played a key role in developing Australia’s first Demand Management Code of Practice for Electricity Networks and the NSW Government's $200 million Energy Savings Fund.

Since joining the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney in 2006, Chris’ research has focused on climate change policy and the electricity sector, including the Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap project as part of the three-year CSIRO Intelligent Grid Research Program.

Chris also serves as the (part time) Chief Executive of the Australian Alliance to Save Energy – a not for profit organisation dedicated to building community understanding and support for energy efficiency and decentralised energy.

In 2011, Chris directed the development of The NEM Report Card, an assessment of how well the National Electricity Market serves Australia.

 
Michael Dureau AM
The Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering

Adjunct Professor Michael Dureau AM  FTSE, HonFIEAust. FIChemE, FAIE, FAICD, CPEng, CSci, JP  has a proven track record as a successful CEO in the Power and Water Industriesboth expanding and contracting markets in Australia, New Zealand and Asia and, more recently, a leader of new energy technology development, advanced engineering and studies of key environmental issues facing Australia.

As MD of ALSTOM Power (formerly ABB Power Generation) he built Australia’s most successful Power Generation Technology and Services Company. 

He is the Deputy Chairman of the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering Ltd.and a Member of the Management Committee. He is a Member of the Executive and an Honorary Life Fellow of the Chem. Eng Foundation and Immediate past President and Life Member of the Electrical and Information Engineering Foundation. He is a long serving member of the Industry Advisory Network of The University of Technology, Sydney and the 19th Zunz Lecturer.

Recognising an urgent need of the Electric Power Industry in Australia for properly trained power engineers he led the initiative to set up Australia’s first Electric Power Institute and was its founding Chairman of API.

He is a member of Engineers Australia’s National Committee on Fuels and Energy as well as an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management for Engineers Australia Sydney Division.

He is passionate about renewable and clean energy and is a director of Granite Power Ltd., BioTek Fuels Ltd. And the Australian Centre for Innovation and International Competitiveness Ltd. He is a Member of Coal Innovation NSW, The Experts Advisory Board for the NSW Transport Long Term Strategic Plan and the ACT Solar Auction Panel.

In 2010 he retired as Australian and International Chairman of Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief (RedR) after 8 years on the Board. 

Recognition of his performance includes the EA Professional Engineer of the Year (Sydney Division 2000) and the Fluor Daniel 2001 prize for “Exceptional Achievement in Management and Leadership”.

In 2003 he was awarded the Prime Minister’s Centenary Medal for Services to Electric and Power Engineering.

He is an Honorary Fellow of EA and has been listed several times as one of Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers including 2011. He is a member of the CELM Advisory Board and a CELM champion for the Sydney Division

In 2009 he was awarded the CHEMECA Medal which is the highest award for a Chemical Engineer in Australia and New Zealand as well as the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal—EA’s highest award. He was an invited Ambassador for the EA 2010 Year of Engineering Leadership.

In January 2012 he received the Order of Australia (AM).

 
Leith Elder
Essential Energy

Leith has been in the Electricity Distribution Industry for 52 years.

Born in Melbourne and educated in Albury, he commenced studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Sydney in 1961 graduating with distinction in 1965.  Since then Leith has worked for the Commonwealth of Australia, Sydney County Council (now Energy Australia), Southern Tablelands County Council, Great Southern Energy, Country Energy and now Essential Energy

He has designed building light and power installations, diesel generation stations, uninterruptible power supplies, frequency converters, distribution substations, zone substations, underground cable networks, overhead line networks, protection systems, earthing systems.

He is the author of a number of spreadsheet programmes that facilitate engineering design including PowrLine (an overhead line design programme), RelMo (a system reliability programme) and Eldow (a complete system modelling programme) and has given numerous papers here and overseas. He was recently appointed a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong

 
Mike Griffin
The Australian Power Institute

Mike was appointed to the role of Chief Executive/Chief Operating Officer of The Australian Power Institute (a not for profit energy industry organisation established to address the skills gap in power engineering) in January 2007 and since taking up this position has been responsible for:
• Development of programs and activities to improve the quantity and quality of power engineering graduates and the continuing professional development of power engineers
• Promotion and marketing of API to its stakeholders, including membership growth( a 400% increase in membership has been achieved)
• Developing relationships with universities and the government education sector to maximise efforts and funding for addressing the skills shortage in power engineering
• Facilitating development of university power engineering curriculum resources to improve power engineering teaching and learning for students and provide “work ready” graduates for industry
• Organising and managing continuing professional development technical programs for professionals in industry.

Mike has over 30 years experience in engineering and management roles in the Australian energy distribution industry:
• General Manager Network Asset Management at Energex
• Member of Standards Australia Electrotechnology Sector Board
• Member of the Energy Networks Association Board
• Member of National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) Participant Advisory Committee
• Board Member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers (APESMA).
• Technical Program Manager for Distribution 2000/Energy 21C Series of Transmission & Distribution Conferences from 1990 to 2009

 
Winodh Jayewardene
CIGRE

Winodh holds the position of Principal Consultant based in AECOM’s Sydney offices and leads protection and power systems work for generation and T&D projects.  Born in Sri Lanka, he has spent most of his life in Australia working on large generation, transmission and distribution projects up to 330kV.  His project experience includes wind farms up to 180MW, solar PV farms up to 56MW and large load connections up to 50MW.

He has a passion for the exchange of information and in particular ensuring that younger engineers have access to the knowledge and skills of their senior counterparts. 

 
Simon Lewis
Endeavour Energy

Simon Lewis is an earthing engineer for Endeavour Energy a NSW supply utility. For the past two years he has been extensively involved with the production of standards, designs and the broad based application of earthing risk principles to the power network. The recent changing earthing principles have required a shift in policy and process which has resulted in Simon co-ordinating multiple educational seminars to assist designers, asset owners and interested stakeholders in how to apply the principles to different assets. Simon’s interests lie in power system earthing and renewable energy integration.

 
Mark Paterson
CSIRO Energy Flagship

Mark Paterson leads CSIRO’s Future Electricity Partnerships.  He is a well known advocate for innovation in Australia’s electricity industry and brings a unique blend of perspectives from Business, Engineering and Applied Science disciplines.

In 2010, after several years leading innovation projects with one of Australia’s largest electricity distributors Mark joined CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.   In his current role, Mark works with a range of external partners and leads the Efficient Energy Management science stream.  He also serves as Chair of three significant industry working groups, namely the: 

  • Future Grid Forum;
  • Smart Grid Australia - R&D Working Group; and,
  • Standards Australia – AS/NZS4755 Demand Response Standards committee.

Following the enthusiastic reception by industry and government of the Future Grid Forum scenarios to 2050, Mark is now exploring with electricity stakeholders how Australia may develop a series of ‘transition pathways’ for navigating the critical 2015-25 decade.   

 
Sarath Perera
University of Wollongong

Sarath Perera has been with the University of Wollongong since 1988 and currently he is the Technical Director of the Australian Power Quality and Reliability Centre (APQRC).  He has made significant contributions in relation to the application of Australian Standards on power quality and to the development of international best practice documents published by CIGRE.  His specific areas of work include voltage fluctuations, flicker, voltage unbalance and their emission allocation and emission assessment.

 
Toan Phung
University of NSW

Toan Phung gained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1998. He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales. 

He has over 30 years of practical research/development experience in partial discharge measurement, and in on-line condition monitoring of high-voltage equipment. His research interests include electrical insulation (dielectric materials and diagnostic methods), high-voltage engineering (generation, testing and measurement techniques), electromagnetic transients in power systems, and power system equipment (design and condition monitoring methods). Much of his work is experimental, conducted in the University High Voltage Laboratory and also through collaboration with Australian power utilities. He is a senior member of the IEEE, member of Australian CIGRÉ D1 (Materials and Emerging Technologies for Power Systems), member of IEC TC42 (High Voltage Testing).

 
Neville Watson
University of Canterbury, NZ

Neville gained his B.E. (Hons) and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Canterbury, where he is now a Professor.

He has authored/coauthored 7 books, 4 chapters in books/handbooks and more than 200 technical papers.

His areas of interest are Power Quality particularly harmonic analysis and electromagnetic transient analysis, and HVDC systems.

 
David Williams
Engineering Education Australia

David’s is a former secondary and tertiary teacher who moved into educational content development, publishing and management.

Before coming to EEA David was the National Operations Manager at Salmat Learning and an educational consultant.

David product manages EOL - engineeringonline.com - Engineers Australia’s new online continuing professional development site which is open to all engineers and related professionals, not just EA members. EOL provides access to high-quality training and professional development videos and courses covering a wide variety of topics such as project management, career development and technical presentations.  

 
Maree Zammit
Networks NSW

Maree Zammit is the Group Manager, Transformation at Networks NSW.

Maree has fifteen years’ experience in the electricity industry, first with Prospect Electricity, then Integral Energy, Endeavour Energy and now Networks NSW.

Networks NSW was formed on 1 July 2012, following the NSW Government’s decision to reform the electricity industry. Networks NSW was established to provide common governance to the three state-owned distributors: Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy.

For the first eighteen months following the establishment of Networks NSW, Maree led the program management office responsible for industry reform. In early 2014, she was appointed to a new role as Group Manager, Transformation, and she is now focused on a range of research and advisory projects including Future Grid strategy.

Maree also has five years’ experience as a strategic management consultant with Booz & Company (now Strategy&). In this role, Maree led change programs across a variety of industries including energy, mining, manufacturing and financial services.

Maree graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours and the University Medal in electrical engineering. She was subsequently awarded a PhD in engineering economics, also from the University of Sydney.