Born and raised in Johannesburg, his career trajectory was inspired by his father, who was an electrical engineer with Sasol for about two decades.
“My father motivated me to become an electrical engineer and go into the energy space, as he worked in Sasol's new energy and business development arena,” he explains.
Kelton’s career path as an electrical engineer was augmented by an interest in renewable energy, which was fostered while pursuing his electrical engineering degree at Wits University.
“My final year project was a solar desalination project, which piqued my interest further in renewable energy. It also fanned the flames of my desire to contribute to solving South Africa's energy crisis, while helping build a renewable energy future,” he elaborates.
Upon graduating, Kelton started working at a different consultancy firm in the building services team. While this wasn't where he wanted to end up, Kelton acknowledges that it taught him a good amount about the industry, working in a consulting environment and how to work with a team in a high-pressure environment.
However, the opportunity to join WSP in its Energy team in October 2022 offered Kelton the chance to work on the kinds of projects he was most interested in.
He notes that when he joined, the Energy team was less than 20 people; now it is more than 35 strong – and growing. The team's growth mirrors the growing demand in the market, and increased need by developers and utilities, alike. This growth also led to the team splitting to cover renewables on one side, and a team dedicated to transmission and distribution.
Kelton continues that while he is involved in renewables, his focus is currently on developing grid infrastructure.
“In my mind, it's probably one of the most crucial items, because as important as wind turbines and solar panels are to clean energy, if you can't get that power onto transmission lines, into a transformer, to a substation, and then into someone’s home, then there is a problem,” he explains.
Even though he has only been with the Energy team for two years, already Kelton has worked on a few notable projects, including the Seriti Green Project in Mpumalanga and the Namaacha wind farm in Mozambique. Although both projects have been in Africa, Kelton notes that working at WSP has enabled him to gain access to international expertise and regularly interact with teams in the UK, US and Canada.
“Being able to access global resources helps a great deal. For example, our UK offices have strong technical experts, who are just a Teams message away,” he enthuses. This is valuable, Kelton explains, because there are advantages to not being at the forefront of green implementations as a country.
He elaborates that cutting edge projects can rather be implemented in Germany or the UK, for example, enabling us to learn from any mistakes made before implementing them here. “If South Africa was to be at the forefront and something went wrong this could be costly – financially and reputationally – and potentially lead to banks or lenders pulling funding. The reality is that there is less room for error in third world countries – so the pressure is always on to make our work count and optimise every project.”
Like so many of his Changemaker colleagues, Kelton extolls the freedom and autonomy that WSP affords him, and how much management allows him to be responsible for his projects.
This is then complemented by readily available support should he run into a problem. This hands-off support also informs the one piece of advice he would give to other engineers breaking into the industry. “I have found that it is more valuable to get a working solution on the table, that can be tweaked and amended, rather than being paralysed by looking for the perfect solution first,” he says.
When not working, Kelton enjoys playing golf, paddle, and spending time with his friends.
