GreenCape is pleased to announce the appointment of our new Energy Analyst, Zakhele Skosana.
Tell us about your professional background and how it relates to your role at GreenCape?
I completed a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Witswatersrand and soon found myself interested in data science. I managed to secure an internship position at the CSIR. Soon thereafter, I joined the Wits Business Intelligence Services Department, which deals with university-wide data.
Post-graduation I worked for a consulting company and design house that works in the oil and gas industry. Here we did numerous brown and green fields projects. I mainly focused on the design and power space. We had an office in our company that worked in renewables and whilst I was not involved in that sector, I found it to be of great interest. I gained a lot of experience in power systems design and a bit of experience in project management and commissioning. That is what I bring to GreenCape, coupled with my curiosity around the transition to renewables. I am also excited to be involved in shaping policies and regulations in the energy space.
What has been your favourite thing about GreenCape thus far?
Two things. The people are vibrant and young. I had experienced this a lot during my interviewing stage where they said they have a banter kind of vibe, and I think I felt it in most of the meetings. Secondly, it is the work. The work is multi-faceted, which is very interesting to me. There is a lot of it that is technical and more so in finance. I am also intrigued by the different stakeholder relations my role entails. I am thrilled to engage and working with government, business and academia.
Which projects are you currently working on since your started working for GreenCape?
Currently, I am working with Johan, Senior Energy Analyst at GreenCape. I am assisting him on a project he is working on with the City of Cape Town. With this project I am assisting with designing an energy storage roadmap. The other one is municipal support work where we are dealing with various Western Cape and Mpumalanga municipalities. We are helping them with things like the Small-Scale Embedded Generation and setting up the regulations and policies in those areas. There is also work where I am assisting them with their tariff designs.
Why do you do what you do?
One of the things I do what I do is because of community building. I heard this back when I was still in high school. That is why I studied engineering, so that I can use my technical expertise to improve the country at large. Also, to support my family and be a role model for the younger generation. I believe that work helps us to care for ourselves so that we can be better people.
What impact do you hope to achieve?
In terms of impact at GreenCape, I just want to be a go-to-person – a technical expert. I want to be a very relatable person. In terms of the country, it is just helping our government and municipalities improve their governance, to ensure that they adopt green technologies with a company like GreenCape, and providing support where needed. The impact is to have people with technical competencies to run the operations of technical projects.
What do you get up to in your spare time?
I play a lot of FIFA, watch sports (English Premier League, cricket and all kinds of sport) and I also like going to restaurants to try new cuisines. When Covid permits, I would like to also play some sport.
