Russell Watson

Russell Watson is a Principal Engineer at Northpower with nearly 40 years’ experience in the electricity supply industry. Russell has held many engineering and engineering management roles within Northpower, covering most aspects of electrical distribution, including design, maintenance, and operation.

Russell entered the electrical power industry in 1983 after completing a Master of Engineering degree at the University of Canterbury, joining what was then the North Auckland Electricity Power Board, later to become Northpower. He joined the EEA in 1992.

Throughout his career Russell has been an active contributor to the EEA.

He has been a key contributor to technical guide development, a reviewer and commentator on many EEA technical guides, and we have all benefited from his extensive knowledge of network engineering and technical standards, new and emerging technologies, and operational support (power system protection, substation design, and power quality). Russell has also provided mentoring for engineering staff and internships both within Northpower and for the EEA. 

Most recently, he been involved in leading the Northpower and industry journey facilitating the uptake of new and emerging technologies onto the electrical distribution network, including electric vehicles, photo voltaic, and battery storage. Russell was a key contributor to the EEA’s work on a Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) on EVs, and the Energy safety Guidelines for Safe Electric Vehicle Charging.

Russell was a founding member of the EEA Asset Management Group and the EEA has been very fortunate to be able to use his knowledge to support our young leaders upon joining the EEA.

He is a regular writer of technical papers (on topics including power quality, XLPE cables, and SCADA); at EEA Conferences; to the University of Canterbury’s electrical engineering programme; and at EEA technical webinars.

Russell is also a key member of the Northpower team and is held in the very highest regard by all of the people he works with and his local community.

He displays the key attributes of a great leader – a passion for what he does, extensive knowledge, pragmatism, and modesty. For young engineers wanting to learn and have a technical mentor - put Russell on your list of ‘go to people’ – he has so much to share.

Russell is a very experienced and engaging person with a willingness to share his broad technical knowledge – which is second to none. He always makes himself available, his thinking is sound and well-considered, and he is a very patient man.

The EEA also wishes to acknowledge Russell’s wife Ngaoko and their family. Thank you for letting us borrow him regularly to help the industry with tricky engineering and technical problems.