Founder and Principal Engineer of CEERISK Mamoon Alyah, CEng, PE, IRMCert, MIET, is an electrical engineer with over 35 years of experience advising clients across different sectors on complex technical engineering matters.
As Managing Director and Principal Engineer of CEERISK Consulting, Mamoon regularly addresses technical engineering questions at the heart of legal disputes, incident investigations, and strategic management decisions. He works with clients across all sectors around the world and has given evidence legal jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.
Technical Expert Witness
With decades of experience investigating complex electrical engineering incidents, Mamoon is a recognised power and energy expert witness. Matters range from single equipment failures to multi-party construction disputes over design and installation.
Some recent instructions include:
- Preparing an expert report and gave evidence in an arbitration over the design of junction boxes in more than 182,000 PV modules installed across sites in the United States. Technical issues raised include design defect and the effect of partial shading. (Singapore)
- Acted as expert witness on a construction dispute over switchgear and motor control centre assemblies at a district cooling plant in Abu Dhabi. He prepared a report and participated in ‘hot-tubbing’ in ICC arbitration proceedings.
- Testified at an arbitration hearing over an EPC contractor's decision to delay energisation of a large gas turbine power plant after a catastrophic failure in one of its HV circuits.
- Multiple matters concerning compliance with national and international regulations in the construction of wind farms, including cable ducting defects in wind turbine towers in Scotland.
Mamoon has prepared dozens of expert witness reports and testified in jurisdictions around the world.
Investigating Failures
Following incidents involving complex electrical systems, Mamoon is regularly called to investigate involving power generation, transmission and distribution: transformers, switchgear, cables, converters, turbines and the systems that control them.
Mamoon has also investigated hundreds of fires in residential, commercial, and industrial properties to determine origin, cause, and factors that led to spread.
Investigations have taken him to power plants, substations, factories and renewable energy sites around the world. Among them:
- Root cause of an explosion and fire at a thermal power plant in Cairo, where blade liberation in a steam turbine led to a hydrogen explosion, with an expert report relied on by the London insurance market.
- Root cause investigation of two battery fires at a communications facility ten days apart in the same UPS room.
- Investigated multiple failures in gas turbines at power and desalination plants in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Investigations covered review of the HV design in the power plants as well as metallurgical analysis of failed GT parts. During the investigation, collaborated with the OEM through joint review and analysis of the design, manufacturing and operation of the GTs.
- Fire and explosion in a 374 MVA power transformer at a transmission substation in California, with forensic testing of the HV bushings in Germany and a teardown of the transformer in San Diego.
- A two-year investigation into a 345 kV bushing explosion at a generation substation in Connecticut, followed by an expert report and more than two days of deposition testimony.
- Origin, cause and spread of a fire at a plastics recycling plant in Cheshire that destroyed three industrial buildings and burned for more than 28 days, with an expert report on the root cause and the factors behind the rapid spread.
He has led investigations of hundreds of warehouse and industrial fires and fires on construction sites. Mamoon regularly hosts webinars to explain key engineering principals involved in the investigation of complex incidents, and has also spoken on failure investigation to insurance, utility and fire investigation bodies in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Middle East. He has also chaired and presented IMIA conference workgroups on the engineering risks of combined cycle power plants and on electrical failures unrelated to weather.
Strategic Advisory
After decades investigating the causes and contributing factors to incidents, Mamoon works with clients to develop robust risk management strategies. Whether by developing advanced risk assessment tools for wide-scale utilities to ensure compliance with national standards, or creating business continuity plans for industrial manufacturing plants, Mamoon is regularly asked to provide technical input into complex decision-making.
Where Mamoon Works
Over the years Mamoon has been instructed on matters around the world, having worked in over 60 countries, including Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Morocco, Slovakia, Germany, France, Singapore, and Australia.
He has testified in jurisdictions around the world, including the United States, the United Arab Emirates (DIFC), Singapore, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Credentials and Affiliations
- Chartered Engineer (CEng), Engineering Council, UK
- Professional Engineer (PE), State of Minnesota, with registration in further US states
- Certified Risk Management Professional (IRMCert), Institute of Risk Management
- Fire Inspector/Investigator, Hennepin Technical College, Minnesota
- Expert witness training: The Academy of Experts (Into Court); Bond Solon (report writing, written evidence, courtroom skills, civil law and procedure, cross-examination)
- MBA, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management; BSc Electrical Engineering, Kuwait University
- Member of IEEE, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET), the International Association of Arson Investigators, the UK Association of Fire Investigators and the Energy Institute; Senior Member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (USA)
Expert Spotlight: Disputes Related to Availability of Power Supply
Expert Spotlight is a new CEERISK series in which Rose Campbell, Director of Services, interviews a CEERISK expert on the matters that our clients care about.
With infrastructure projects, the specifications and performance criteria are agreed upon beforehand in a contract. These cover areas such as power supply availability, up-time, power quality, and resilience, in addition to warranties and performance guarantees. But in addition to contract specifications, there are regulations in place to govern certain aspects.
As with all contracts and regulations, disputes can arise from disagreement in the interpretation of these warranties, performance guarantees, and technicalities, along with technical issues that arise.
In this webinar, we will explore some of the disputes that can arise from contract specifications in relation to power supply resiliency. Our Rose Campbell will be interviewing our lead electrical engineering expert, Mamoon Alyah to look at disputes related to power resiliency based on real cases where he’s been instructed in the past.
We will be asking the questions everyone wants to know: How did the disputes arise? What went wrong? And how were experts able to help?
Session 1, live: Tuesday 15 September, 11:00 BST. Register
Session 2, pre-recorded: Wednesday 16 September, 08:00 BST. Register
Full details are on the webinar page.
To discuss instructing Mamoon Alyah or another CEERISK expert, contact us.
