To recognised International Women in Engineering Day, a panel from CIGRE Women in Energy discussed embracing diversity in engineering and how this will help in achieving the Net Zero challenge. The panel was chaired by Dr. Biljana Stojkovska, Chair of CIGRE UK Women in Energy.
The panel members were:-
- Angela Wilks: Power system manager in NGESO control room
- Rannveig Loken: Head of Team Protection, Statnett
- Margaret Taggart: Transmission Design Engineer, NIE Networks
- Gabriella Pinheiro dos Santos: PhD student, University of São Paulo – Brazil
PANELISTS
Angela Wilks achieved her degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and gained a junior engineer position becoming proficient in power system analysis. Responsibilities during this stage of Angela’s career also included business development to compete for and win contracts to deliver new projects. A new phase of her career started when she had 2 children and moved to National Grid joining the National Planning team as a Power System Engineer, then Team Leader, creating outage plans to handover to the Electricity National Control Centre (ENCC). She then joined the ENCC where she work a shift pattern including night shifts, Angela currently hold Power System Manager and Operational Energy Manager authorisations, leading the Control Room Teams operating the GB transmission system in real time. Key projects include the Whole System & Power Potential project and the Stability Pathfinder project, both projects introduce system solutions to enable the GB transmission system to operate under zero carbon conditions. Angela is looking forward to her continued career in the new independant National Systems Operator (NESO) which will bring the challenge of operating the GB National Electricity Transmission System under zero carbon conditions with increasing levels of distributed generation of all technologies.
Rannveig Loken received her Master of Science in Electric Power engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1992. She works in Statnett, the TSO of Norway, currently Head of Protection department in Statnett. In September 2018, she became Chair of CIGRE SC B5. Her special field of interest is protection and control for the transmission system. In addition, working in Cigre Working groups is of great interest – she is currently a member of WG B5.69. Rannveig is in the Advisory board of PAC world, and Committee member of IET DPSP.
Margaret Taggart graduated with a MEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast in 2019. After joining NIE Networks as a scholarship student in 2015 Margaret has worked in a wide range of departments in the company throughout the course of her degree and since graduating works as a Transmission Design Engineer focusing on Primary Plant and Protection. Margaret is involved in several initiatives and programmes within NIE Networks helping to promote diversity and inclusion as well as outreach programmes encouraging students to pursue career opportunities in STEM. Alongside her role Margaret is also currently part of the IET Northern Ireland Local Network having been past chair of the IET On Campus student group at Queen’s University and the IET Northern Ireland Young Professional’s.
Gabriella Pinheiro dos Santos received her B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo (EESC-USP), in 2019. She obtained her M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Microgrid Protection from EESC-USP in 2021. Gabriella is currently a PhD student at the same institution, developing a methodology for setting anti-islanding protection functions. She recently spent six months as a visiting researcher at the University of Strathclyde. In addition, she co-founded the Women in Engineering (WiE) – IEEE chapter at the São Carlos campus of the University of São Paulo in 2016 and continues to be an active member.
The panel will be chaired by Dr. Biljana Stojkovska, Chair of CIGRE UK Women in Energy
