Attila Gyore
Attila has a PhD from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE), with a focus on superconducting transformers. For 10 years he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electric Power Engineering at BUTE, and then he worked with CG Hungary as an active part design engineer of power transformers. Attila joined M&I Materials, now MIDEL Fluids, in 2012 as a senior application engineer, where he is an expert in the applications of natural and synthetic ester liquids and retrofilling of transformers. Attila is an active participant in conferences worldwide and is a highly engaged member of IEEE, CIGRE D1 as well as IEC TC10 and TC14.
Gabriela Lamonato
Gabbi is a Laboratory Chemist at ChemTX in Wishaw, Scotland. With 6 years of power industry experience, she began her career at TJH2B before joining ChemTX in 2019.
Gabbi analyses transformer insulating fluids for clients across the UK, servicing renewable, nuclear, transmission, and distribution networks from 11kv to 400kV assets.
She has also developed in-house testing methods based on British and international standards. Gabbi holds a Chemical Engineering bachelor’s degree from Politecnico di Milano and recently completed an online Wind Energy course at the Technical University of Denmark.
Caleb Walker
Currently a Lead Engineer for Transformers within the Engineering Design and Standards Team at SP Energy Networks. Caleb joined SP Energy Networks back in 2015 and during that time he has served in both the Asset/Risk Management Team and the Innovation team. Having previously graduated in BENG Electrical Power Engineering from GCU, he has recently been involved in several IEC and CIGRE working groups, and research specialising in Transformer Ageing, Insulating liquids and Chemical markers.
John Colquhoun
John is a Chartered Electrical and Electronic Engineer and is the Head of EFI Global UK, the Environmental and Forensic Investigation division of Sedgwick International UK. Along with managing the department, John is a practising forensic investigator who specialises in fires, explosions, personal injuries, and equipment failures in the conventional, renewable, nuclear, and emerging energy sectors.
Lars Andreas Eriksson
Lars holds a M.Sc. in Engineering physics from Uppsala University and have 10 years of experience working for the Norwegian authorities with regulation on electrical energy and contingency planning before joining Hitachi Energy Norway in 2018. Since then, he has been working with oil reclaiming, site diagnostics of transformers and solid insulation drying. Highlighting some specific topics of interest; he was the main author of an article on transformer bushing diagnostics and co-author of an article on sustainable life extension for transformers published at the Cigre 2024 conference.
Milorad Dobrijevic
Milorad has over 40 years of experience in the Electricity Supply Industry holding various operational and managerial roles in Generation, Transmission and Distribution departments within Scottish Power. He is probably best known for his work in Grid System Operation managing SP Energy Networks Transmission & Distribution control room and outage planning department in turn over the last 15 years. He has been an active participant on several industry forums and bodies, working closely with OFGEM, ESO and other network operators to ensure the GB power network remains safe, secure and efficient while the massive network capital programmes associated with net zero are delivered.
Tony Porrelli
Having attained his BEng(hons) in 1993. 2008 he relocated from Scotland to England to begin his employment with OMICRON. Before joining OMICRON he was a current transformer design engineer.
Responsibilities lie as Regional Application Specialist for Instrument Transformers covering Europe in addition to his role providing support to OMIRCON products covering the UK and Ireland.
Ian Hunter
Ian has a robust 34-year tenure in the electricity supply industry. His career includes 21 years at ScottishPower, where he accrued extensive expertise in both transmission and distribution engineering. Initially, Ian dedicated ten years to the distribution sector, handling projects up to 33kV, with responsibilities spanning construction, system design, field operations, and roles such as Senior Authorized Person (SAP) within the power quality group.
Subsequently, Ian transitioned to a transformer specialist and senior transmission design engineer, overseeing the company’s transformer assets up to 400kV. He took the technical lead on transformer-related R&D, condition assessments, fault analysis, and defect investigations.
Since 2011, Ian has served as the Technical Director of Polaris Diagnostics & Engineering Ltd. His specialistion encompasses all aspects of transformer lifecycle and fleet management. Additionally, Ian has acted as an expert witness in transformer-related disputes for various clients. His contributions to the field include 20 publications presented at national and international conferences and published in technical journals.
Tom Breckenridge
With over 40 years of experience, Tom operates as a Consultant through TB TCS Ltd. His specialisation covers all aspects of power transformer ownership and operation, including specification, procurement support, design reviews, manufacturing inspections, witness testing, condition assessment, and failure investigation.
Tom actively contributes to industry standards. He is a member of the BSI PEL/14 committee for Power Transformers. Additionally, he participates in IEC maintenance teams, working on international standards development and updates in the power transformer field.
As the Editor-in-Chief of the Cigre “Green Book” on transformer procurement, Tom plays a crucial role in shaping best practices.
Before founding TB TCS Ltd in 2006, Tom served as the senior transformer specialist for SP Energy Networks. His responsibilities included specifying and technically approving transformer contracts across a wide voltage range, from 420kV down to 240 volts.
Dr Martin Judd
Martin is a prominent figure in the field of high voltage diagnostics and engineering, currently serving as the Technical Director of High Frequency Diagnostics and Engineering (HFDE), a company based in Scotland. HFDE specialises in partial discharge (PD) technology and provides diagnostic services for various types of high voltage (HV) equipment and substations.
In his capacity as Technical Director, Dr. Judd engages directly with HV asset owners, utilising advanced techniques to detect, diagnose, and monitor partial discharge in equipment such as switchgear, gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), transformers, bushings, and insulators, particularly in open terminal substations. Additionally, he is involved in the design and testing of different PD sensors at HFDE’s research and development facility in Glasgow.
Before founding HFDE in 2014, Dr. Judd was a Professor of High Voltage Technologies at the University of Strathclyde, where he oversaw the HV Laboratory and contributed significantly to the development of the ultra-high frequency (UHF) technique for PD detection. His academic contributions include the authorship of over 250 scientific papers on partial discharge and related subjects. Furthermore, he served as the Chair of the UK Universities High Voltage Network Steering Committee from 2012 to 2015 and is actively involved with professional organisations, including the IEEE DEIS Diagnostics Technical Committee and CIGRE UK.
Jason Butler
As the UK distributor for IPEC Partial Discharge Monitoring equipment. ason covers the UK and Ireland, helping electrical engineers understand and implement a non-intrusive maintenance system to prevent outages via PD analysis.
Kevin Butter
Kevin has more than 36 years’ experience in the electricity transmission and distribution industry working for SP Energy Networks.
He started his career as a Senior Authorised person responsible for operation, maintenance and construction of networks up to 33 kV. In the last 25 years his main activity has been in preparing specifications and carrying out assessment of switchgear over the voltage range from LV to 400kV
Kevin was an active member of the ENA switchgear Assessment Panel for over 20 years”
Kevin joined Threepwood Consulting as an Associate Consultant in May 2024”
After Dinner Speaker
This year we are joined by Ross Kemp, a BAFTA award-winning documentary-maker, actor, and author who rose to prominence in the BBC1 soap opera, Eastenders. Since 2006 he has received international recognition for his award-winning documentaries.
After a brief meeting with a member of the infamous ‘Bloods’ gang in California Ross went to Sky1 with the idea for a new series – ‘Gangs’ for which he won a BAFTA for ‘Best Factual Series’ and was nominated on another two occasions.
After making 27 programmes around the world, Ross moved on from Gangs to a new series: Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, where he spent time from 2007 to 2012 with army regiments: 1 Royal Anglian, 5 Scots, 1 Royal Irish, and twice with 45 Commando. Ross and his team were nominated for a BAFTA for ‘Best Factual Series and won an AIB International Media Excellence Award for ‘International TV Personality’.
Ross and his production company ‘Freshwater Films’ have also made documentaries on international piracy, in Gaza, Israel, and the Amazon Rainforest to ‘Extreme World’, which saw him travel the world to destinations such as Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, The Congo, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq. Ross and his team won ‘Documentary Story of The Year’ and ‘Foreign Press Association’ in 2017 with a documentary in Libya, and recently won a Visionary Honours Award for best ‘Television Show of The Year’ for ‘Ross Kemp Living With…’ on ITV.
A Sunday Times Best Selling author, his titles include Ross Kemp on Gangs, Ross Kemp on Afghanistan, Ross Kemp on Pirates, Warriors & Raiders, and his latest, A-Z of Hell: How Not to Travel the World.
Ross considers himself very lucky to have spent 35 years working in television but his great loves remain from family to friends, his dog Bruno, his home in the country, food and wine.
Ross is a huge rugby fan and is associated with the military charity – Help for Heroes, as well as the Royal British Legion, Combat Stress, and an Ambassador for The Endeavour Fund.