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The solar powered drive-in theatre
by Mike Rycroft, editor
 A regular claims that appears in the news is that the cost of renewable energy is constantly declining, and may soon approach parity with grid electricity. The increasing use of solar PV in urban off-grid systems, particularly for non-essential applications, seems to give credibility to these statements, and there could be a developing market for such systems in this country... (more)
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Major milestone for IPPs and renewable energy in SA, but at what cost?
by Chris Yelland, EE Publishers
 Eskom CEO Brian Dames indicated that Eskom is being required to pay an average of about R2,00 per kWh for renewable energy from IPPs in the five year period from 2013 to 2018, while the average cost of electricity generation from Eskom's current fleet of power stations at present was R0,31 per kWh... (more)
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The Jacob Marley column: In praise of miniaturisation
One cannot fail but to be astounded by the scale of miniaturisation in the electricity industry today. If one reflects back on the days of Gilbert and Volta and looks at the first steam engines Watt built and turbines that Parsons built, then Watt for Pound, the industry has come a long way... (more)
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The changing thermal coal market
by Gerrit Lok, Hatch Africa
With coal prices retreating from multi-year highs, the coal market is certainly poised for change in the coming years. Looking to the thermal coal market specifically, the past decade has seen tremendous changes taking place, and the next ten years are expected to offer similar levels of excitement... (more)
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Winning letter to the editor
received from Antony Cooper
Referring to the problem of the excessively cheap electricity that BHP Billiton is getting for its aluminium smelters, I think it's easy to resolve the problem, but it does require a government with vision, competence and integrity. Oops! Nevertheless, if BHP Billiton refuses to renegotiate their contracts, the following could be done... (more)
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Automated power management systems for on-site generation
by Scott Manson and Saurabh Shah, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
Co-located generation capabilities are finding great popularity among industrial, commercial, retail, and governmental power consumers. As the number of individual unit generators increases, so does the need for more powerful methods to monitor, control, and optimise the operation of the generation and load throughout their facilities... (more)
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Emergency power generation: Lessons from Iraq
by Ken Gafner, Single Destination Engineering
The electrical infrastructure of Iraq was particularly hard hit by successive wars and sanctions. Rebuilding this infrastructure is a key priority for Iraq. In May 2012, SDE was invited to undertake the engineering for a 100 MW emergency power project at Hartha, north of Basrah... (more)
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Voltage source converter based HVDC
by Dale Pudney, HVT Power Systems and Luo Wei, NR Electric Co
VSC based HVDC (also called HVDC Lite) is an important technology that is suited to strengthen the weak transmission and distribution systems in Africa. There has been much development in the power electronics field, to the point where NR Electric Co. is busy designing a five terminal VSC HVDC system for the city of Shanghai... (more)
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Demagnetisation of CT cores under exposure of operating currents by Dr. Fred Steinhauser, Omicron
Saturated CT cores and their behavior during fault conditions are an important topic, in particular when fault currents with transient components occur. Typically, the CT cores contain some residual magnetism when the current flow is interrupted. At reclosing, this residual magnetism may cause undesired effects... (more)
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Silo monitoring in mineral processing applications
Information from Allpronix
Accurate safety stock levels means more money in the bank. The monitoring of bulk solids in storage silos, for companies that mine, handle and or manufacture granular products, forms a pivotal link in their supply chain efficiency and directly effects production output and profits... (more)
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Analysis of distributed energy resources for domestic electricity users
by Atanda Mohamed and Tariq Kahn, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
After over a century of utilisation of economics of scale, transmission grids need to transmit over longer distances, bringing the concept of onsite or close-to-load generation back. Many countries have started the process of liberalisation of the electric systems, opening access to T & D grids to distributed generation systems... (more)
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