Staff Reporter
Sibabalo Noludwe wants to make history and leave a lasting legacy. The South African engineer is working on a system that will make sure that the lights stay on after natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes volcanic eruptions or any other geologic processes that causes great damage to infrastructure. Noludwe is investigating the ways
in which microgrids can be used to improve the resilience of power systems against extreme events such as natural disasters.She hopes to show, through her research, vulnerable grid networks do not have to be rebuilt to make them resilient, but that smart technologies, such as micro grids for critical load restoration, can be deployed instead to improve the resilience of the system.
Noludwe believes by using her method, customer survivability during power interruptions resulting from extreme events will be increased and cost damages will be minimised.
She obtained a BSc and BSc Honours from UCT, where she is enrolled for an MSc in Electrical Engineering with a focus on power system resilience, which is a relatively new concept in the industry.Noludwe was consistently placed among the best undergraduate students at UCT, graduating in 2016 with an overall grade point average of 73,46%.
