Bright spark has solution to SA's power woes

Jesheran Yengopal may have the answer to South Africa’s electricity problem after developing a wireless system that can prevent a power outage when copper thieves strike. 

The Port Shepstone Bachelor in Electrical Engineering student graduated summa cum laude this week and believes that meticulous planning was the key to his success. “I like to plan my schedule three weeks in advance so that if something random happens, like if a lecturer moved a test date, or a practical date fell through, or deadlines changed, I had three weeks to adjust for that.” 

His interest in engineering was sparked at a young age and nurtured by his parents who are both teachers. Yengopal said that because he was very quiet they often encouraged him to ask questions. “From the time I was five I knew I wanted to be an engineer because I enjoyed Lego, building things and trying to figure out why things happened. Like why was the remote control car’s wheels spinning? I was interested in how people could create things for other people to use,” he said.

That same curiosity saw him win the prize for the Best Final Year Design Project at UKZN. Through his groundbreaking project he has found a wireless alternative to copper control cables so that communities are not subjected to extended periods of darkness when thieves steal the copper cables. 

“It's close to impossible to beat the performance of a copper cable. But even though you can't beat that, you could use this wireless system as a secondary method, or even maybe a replacement in some extreme cases if it's developed well through industry.

“So that will reduce copper theft and reduce the number of unplanned outages, so that businesses and households are not affected,” said Yengopal.

The former Port Shepstone High School pupil is currently part of a graduate engineering training programme at Eskom in Johannesburg.

"Initially I wanted to do mechanical engineering because I liked cars a lot but one day I saw a video about power generation and electricity. When load shedding started, I realised how much we actually depend on electricity. Now there are ways to get around load shedding and you can still function, but back then when there were no lights, you couldn't really do much. That's when I decided that I need to go into power generation and maybe I can solve the issues and we'll not have blackouts.”