 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING UNLIMITED |
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ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING UNLIMITED |
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INTRODUCING
DR. HENNIE BARNARD Hennie Barnard matriculated from Rustenburg High School in at the end of 1980. After his National Service, which took him via Infantry School (1981) to 32 Bn (1982), he commenced with his electrical engineering studies (specializing in process control) from 1983 at the Technikon Pretoria through a bursary from the Atomic Energy Corporation.
He completed his three-year NDT (elec
eng) in 1985, and the NHDT (elec eng) in 1986. He joined Siemens
Ltd. doing commissioning of the unit control systems of (at that
stage the newly built) Matimba Power Station. In parallel, he was
doing research into safe and scientific ways to dip-proof a power
station unit. During the final part of his studies, he identified
the need to perform a final, potentially dangerous test
(short-circuiting an 11 kV Board for 200 ms). Naturally, Eskom
refused to allow an employee of one of its contractors to put
Eskom’s plant at risk. But they’ve agreed to the test provided that
Hennie resigns from Siemens and joins Eskom’s PTM department at
Matimba. He did, and this enabled him to do the test and prove
his researched solution. Technikon Pretoria awarded him the Masters Diploma in
Technology cum laude in 1989 on the grounds of the dip-proofing
methodology he developed and successfully implemented at Matimba
power station. |
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In 1990 he was promoted to Eskom’s head office, but in 1991 Eskom started to de-centralize their engineering staff. This caused Hennie to start looking for alternative employment, and it was this effort that identified a major shortcoming of personnel agencies in general: the lack of technical know-how and appreciation of technical ability. As a result, he founded EEU (Electrical Engineering Unlimited) Personnel, a personnel consultancy that specializes in the recruiting of all levels of technical personnel. Shortly afterwards, he was identified as one of a group of seven C&I Specialists that would not de-centralize, and was promoted to the position of Generation Engineering’s Station Control Specialist (1993). He occupied this portfolio while running EEU Personnel (with Eskom’s formal approval) at the same time until September 1999, when he left Eskom after 11 years to spend all his time at EEU. In parallel with his work at Eskom and EEU, Hennie started research for his doctorate in 1995, looking exclusively at all the engineering and ergonomic factors that impact the effectiveness, cost and manpower of 24/7 control rooms. This resulted in a model that allows objective measurement of design effectiveness. Both industry and academics from various Universities and Technikons accepted his modus operandi and results. His thesis was examined by academics from RAU, Rhodes and University of College Cork in Europe. He was awarded the D.Tech: elec. eng. degree in 1998. He was the Tswane University of Technology's first student to be awarded a D.Tech in specifically electrical engineering. He has 9 X national and international publications to his credit, and presented papers at various conferences. Since leaving Eskom, he has been consulting to companies such as SASOL, Anglo Gold, Mossgas, Eskom, and ABSA wrt their control rooms. He is an outside lecturer of Unisa, and serves on three advisory committees. He was an expert witness in a multi-million rand Supreme Court case between ABB and Eskom. EEU Personnel is going stronger than ever despite being in a very cutthroat industry for the past 16 years. EEU is still focused on predominantly engineering placements, accommodating both contract and permanent portfolios. Part of its services, is to act as a labour broker. |
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