It is with great pleasure that we announce the 26th Southern African Universities Power Engineering Conference (SAUPEC  2018). This flagship Southern Africa regional conference will be hosted by the School of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of the Witwatersrand in conjunction with the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE). SAUPEC brings together academics and students in electrical engineering from the region to present research papers, network and expand the fraternity that has been built as part of the SAUPEC legacy since the first conference in 1990. The conference will incorporate the Eskom Tertiary Education Support Programme (TESP) report-back meeting.