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Smart renewables: The bridge to smart grids?
by Mike Rycroft, editor
 It is traditional for the first issue of a new year to take a look at what the year ahead holds. Crystal gazing gives a murky picture, but one thing is certain: with no prospect of any substantial amount of new generation capacity coming on stream until late in 2013, or even worse, early in 2014, the electricity supply situation is going to remain tight for most of the year... (more)
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New CEO for ABB South Africa
Information from ABB
 Leon Viljoen has been appointed new CEO for ABB SA and manager for Southern Africa. Viljoen joins ABB from Powertech where he was chief operating officer. Carlos Poñe becomes chief executive officer for ABB in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and manager of Southern Gulf (UAE, Qatar, Oman) and Pakistan, with effect from 1 February 2013... (more)
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The Jacob Marley column: Prosumer fruitloopery
My attention was drawn recently to an article in something called metering.com and was headlined "Inertia to investigate integration of prosumers to the smart grid". It was, self-evidently, about a project called INERTIA (Integrating Active, Flexible and Responsive Tertiary Prosumers into a Smart Distribution Grid)... (more)
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Why South Africa needs, nay, deserves affordable electricity
Information from Energy Intensive Users Group
There can be no doubt that SA has now reached a tipping point in terms of its electricity prices. Sharp and sustained tariff hikes have driven average Eskom pricing from around 20c/kWh to over 60c/kWh between 2007 and 2012, an increase of over 200%... (more) |
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Mozambique gas - A game changer
Information from QED Solutions
The recent announcement by Mozambique's' vice-minister of mineral Resources, Abdul Razak that 12 new explorations would be offered, brings a renewed focus on the large gas resource finds off the East coast of Africa. These finds could well become a game changer, not just in the region but in the global economy as well... (more)
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Carbon capture and storage may be key to meeting global emissions targets Information from Global Data
Carbon capture and storage could be the technology that makes the world's carbon emission reduction targets achievable. Carbon storage techniques, such as enhanced oil recovery, have been used in the energy sector for decades, but only recently has the concept of long term carbon storage been viewed as viable... (more)
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Power developments in Africa
Solar energy project in Malawi, New HV switchyard for Uganda, 500 MW coal-fired plant for DRC, Gas-fired plant for Mozambique... (more) |
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External health costs of a coal-fired power plant: The case of Kusile: Part 1
by Johannes W Riekert and Steven F Koch, University of Pretoria
This article examines the expected health costs associated with the commissioning of Kusile, the new coal-fired electricity generation plant. The subset of health impacts focuses on sulphur dioxides, nitrous oxides and large particulate matter... (more) |
The new energy reality by John Pearson, Hatch SA
Approximately 1,4-bn people across the globe, 59% of which are located in Africa (according to the IEA), survive without electricity. With the global population estimated to grow by more than 1-bn from 2010 to 2025, the lack of electricity is set to become one of the key drivers in the creation of a "new energy reality... (more)
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Smart grid solutions and current projects deployment: InovGrid project by Nuno Silva, Efacec
The increasing penetration level of renewable distributed generation and micro generation units is driving distribution networks to operate near the limits and in a non-optimal way. The smart grids paradigm tackles these challenges through the deployment of smart meters, IEDs, communication infrastructure and new functions... (more)
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Modern substation protection, automation and control systems
by Frank Engelbrecht, NamPower, JT van der Walt and P Diamandis, Trans-Africa Projects
Protection, automation and control (PAC) systems for electrical networks are getting smarter. Advanced communication interfaces and the increasing need for information exchange between devices are shifting well-entrenched paradigms. Paradigm shifts create exciting opportunities but also pose significant threats... (more) |
Towards a transient earth fault clearing scheme for medium voltage networks
by Jan Scholtz, Eskom
This paper describes the design principles and physical implementation of an improved transient earth fault clearing method on medium voltage (MV) networks (1 kV - 44 kV). Test results and operating performance statistics are provided... (more)
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New PV solar panel manufacturing facility for KZN
by Dr. Ronald Lange, ARTSolar
ARTSolar is has opened a new PV manufacturing facility in KZN. Editor Mike Rycroft interviewed Dr. Ronald Lange. The product will use crystalline silicon cells, which can be mono-crystalline, multi-crystalline as well as crystalline based hetero-junction cells... (more)
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New solar powered/generator hybrid system
by Herbert Teubner, Sinetech
The German designed and proven PV-diesel hybrid energy management system from Donauer is now available with local support. The system can save up to 30% diesel fuel and does not use battery energy storage... (more)
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Renewable energy on the horizon
Information from Cigré
The past few years have seen a considerable increase in the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) on electricity power systems worldwide. RES integration is set to grow in the coming decades, and experts expect most of the increase to be from variable non-synchronous renewable (VNSR) generation... (more)
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The transformer becomes triangular - regaining symmetry
by Martin Carlen and Thorsten Steinmetz, ABB
Transformers using a triangular instead of a planar core configuration offer a number of advantages. Such dry-type transformers are now commercially available. This new technology allows weight and space savings, reduces sound level, harmonic content and magnetic stray fields, and inherently improves energy efficiency... (more)
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IGBT drive unit for inverters up to 400 kW
Information from Semikron
To increase the efficiency of inverters up to 400 kW, circuit topologies are developed that are optimised for specific applications. However, interleaved, multilevel and parallel circuits that improve IGBT efficiency also place higher requirements on signal performance... (more)
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