Structure

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The aim of the United Kingdom National Committee (CIGRE UK) is to further the interests of the CIGRE in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  It is recognised by the Administrative Council of CIGRE as a National Committee under Article 16 of the CIGRE Statutes.

CIGRE UK Executive Committee 

Mark Waldron

Mark Waldron (Chair)

Mark Waldron is a graduate in Electrical Engineering who has been employed by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) & its predecessors since 1988. Through his career, he has been involved in many aspects of lifetime management of switchgear and substation equipment, including research and development, specification, assessment, maintenance & monitoring, condition assessment, and end-of-life management. He is presently NGET’s Substation Technical Lead (technical authority) responsible for strategic technical direction encompassing technology, policy, standards, specifications, codes and legislation. He presently has a particular interest in the development of alternatives to SF6 for use in HV equipment.

He has been active in CIGRE and IEC for almost 30 years. CIGRE experience and achievements include Chairing Study Committee A3 (High Voltage Equipment), Chairing the Technical Council (TC), membership of the Steering Committee, co-chairing the Joint IEC-CIGRE Co-ordination Group for UHV Standardisation and representing CIGRE on IEC Advisory Committee for Transmission & Distribution (ACTAD) and IEC Standardisation Management Board (SMB). His term of office as TC Chair saw significant progress in CIGRE initiatives such as the Next Generation Network, Women in Engineering and CIGRE’s end-to-end approach to power systems. He is an honorary member of CIGRE and in 2020 received the CIGRE medal. He remains active within CIGRE and IEC working groups and is presently the Chair of IEC Sub-Committee 17A, High Voltage Switching Devices.

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Jonathan Chapman (Vice Chair)

Jonathan leads Burns & McDonnell’s business in the UK, providing services to clients across the Transmission and Distribution sector as well as the design of mission critical facilities and high value manufacturing facilities. He brings over 30 years’ industry experience in the infrastructure sector covering engineering, strategic development and contract delivery within the Energy, Water and Telecoms sectors. As a Chartered Civil Engineer he has a passion for all things engineering, including innovation and entrepreneurial driven business growth.  He started Burns & McDonnell’s European business in 2017 and has position it as an engineering led EPC delivery partner to the major utilities and infrastructure clients.

Prior to joining Burns & McDonnell he was a board director at Balfour Beatty’s Power T&D business unit, leading market development and the delivery of major power projects, including leading the Offshore business unit. He started hiscareer within the engineering consultancy world, leading the design and project management of engineering programmes and spent seven years with Skanska UK growing their telecoms and utility businesses.

Burns & McDonnell is the US’s leading engineering business serving the energy and T&D sector with over 10,000 employees. The business provides technical consultancy, engineering design and project delivery services across the UK.

John Finn

John Finn (Secretary)

John Finn worked initially in the Electricity Supply industry in the UK in protection, operation & maintenance and system studies. He then joined private industry working with contractors on power station and substation projects in the UK and overseas at voltages up to 500kV and as diverse as the initial 400kV supergrid for China Light and Power to project managing the power supplies for the Channel Tunnel between England and France. In his role as an in-house engineering consultant with Siemens in the UK he was involved in developing the onshore and offshore substation designs associated with offshore wind farms. He has been involved in CIGRE as Area Advisor on Substation concepts from 2002 to 2006 and convenor of working groups on “standardisation and innovation” and “guidelines for offshore substations”. He received the Technical Committee award for contributions to Study Committee B3 in 2006 and the Distinguished Member award in 2008. He was the coordinating author for the CIGRE Green Book on Substations and is currently Secretary for the UK National Committee of CIGRE.

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Benjamin Smith (Finance Controller)

Ben has been the Financial Controller for CIGRE UK since April 2023. Ben is responsible for the preparation of the annual budget, financial reporting and presentation of financial reports to the executive. Ben is also responsible for the management of the bank accounts, preparation of the annual accounts and management of our tax affairs including preparation of VAT returns. Ben studied BSc, MPhys (Hons) Physics at the University of Warwick and is currently working towards becoming a charted accountant. Ben joined the National Grid Finance Graduate scheme in 2020 and has worked in various roles, including Group Treasury, Business Services, Group Strategy and ESG Reporting.

Activities, Working Groups & Special Sections:

  • Martin Ansell (Events/Marketing)
  • Jonathan Chapman (Finance Committee)
  • Chris Jones (Nominations)
  • Darren Jones (Membership Strategy Working Group)
  • Jianing Li (Next Generation Network Section)
  • Tim Miles (Marketing Strategy Working Group)
  • Biljana Stojkovska (Women in Energy Section)
  • Ray Zhang (Technical Committee Chair)

Other Committee Members:

  • Andre Canelhas
  • Andrew Dodds
  • Zia Emin
  • Xiaolong Hu
  • David Meadows
  • Adam Middleton
  • Colin Ray
  • Jason Rowan
  • Simon Ryder
  • Simon Sutton
  • Roman Svoma
  • Peter Watson
  • Leigh Williams
  • John Wright
  • Tony Zymelka

CIGRE Study Committees

CIGRE UK Elected Regular Members

A1 Rotating Electrical Machines Steve Mitchell
A2 Power Transformers and Reactors Zhongdong Wang & Elizabeth Mackenzie (additional member)
A3 Transmission and Distribution Equipment Jonathan Hennah
B1 Insulated Cables James Pilgrim
B2 Overhead Lines Konstantinos Kopsida
B3 Substations and Electrical Installations Mark Osborne
B4 DC Systems and Power Electronics Dechao Kong
B4 DC Systems and Power Electronics James Yu (additional member)
B5 Protection and Automation John Wright
C1 Power System Development and Economics Bless Kuri
C2 Power System Operation and Control Ronan Jamieson
C3 Power System Environmental Performance Carolyn Gardner
C4 System Technical Performance Spyros Karamitsos
C5 Electricity Markets and Regulation Tahir Ramzan
C6 Active Distribution Systems and Distributed Energy Resources Jun Liang
D1 Materials and Emerging Test Techniques Thomas Andritsch
D2 Information Systems and Telecommunications Thomas Charton