REPS 2016

Speaker: Mr Sisa Njikelana

Sisa Njikelana served as a member of parliament for 10 years until May 2014. He also served as Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Energy. Furthermore 5 of the 10 years were spent in the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry.

SAIPPA represents the interests of a number of independent power producers in South Africa and is an active player in contributing to both civil and government debates and policy formation processes at this complex time for energy supply in South Africa. SAIPPA believes that Mr Njikelana will bring valuable experience and skills on organisational effectiveness, government relations, policy and legislation in the energy sector.

Members come from a diverse number of backgrounds including coal, renewables, energy consulting and engineering. The association is closely aligned with a number of key stakeholders including BUSA, EIUG and SAREC.

Recently SAIPPA made contributions towards the review of IRP 2010 and the current War Room on the electricity crisis. Furthermore, SAIPPA intends to intensify its role and contribution towards improving the supply side of electricity through its Working Groups machinery in areas such as cogeneration, wheeling, network access, embedded generation, coal base load power.

Speaker: Thembakazi Mali – Ph. D. (Chem.), GDE (Environmental Engineering)

Dr Thembakazi Mali holds a Ph. D in Chemistry and a Graduate Diploma in Engineering in Environmental Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her career spans close to two decades in the energy and petrochemical fields.

Presently, she is the Senior Manager: Clean Energy Solutions (Renewable Energy and Alternative Energy) at the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), which is a state-funded energy research, development and deployment organisation that focuses on public interest energy R&D that seeks to assist government in meeting the national goals of economic development and the improvement of quality of life of all citizens.

Her responsibilities within the thematic area are that of strategic planning to ensure that the strategic objectives of government that relate to energy security of supply are realised, in the nature of research work undertaken and technology diffusion that is appropriate for the country’s needs and development. She serves as the South African representative and executive committee member to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Technology Collaboration Programs on Ocean Energy Systems (OES), Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) and Bioenergy.

She is the Chairperson of the Thin Film Solar Technologies (PTY) Ltd board. She is the director of the Southern African Regional Secretariat for the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) which is hosted by SANEDI. She also chairs the Energy Storage Initiative Steering Committee which is looking into the value of energy storage in the South African context