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The benefits of PV on domestic houses
by Roger Lilley, editor
 I wonder what the implications would be if 5% of the 18-million homes in South Africa were to have PV panels and equipment installed to generate the power they need for their low energy requirements such as cellphone chargers, entertainment equipment, security equipment, WiFi routers, and the like?... ( more) |
Towards a secure, competitive and sustainable electricity future
by Prof. Anton Eberhard, Head of the UCT Graduate Scool of Business; and National Planning Commissioner
 The author comments on a discussion he held with a senior Eskom executive who told him, some years ago, that at the heart of Eskom's business model was the concept of "big coal, big nuclear and big networks". In this article, he eIaborates on why he cannot think of a more Neanderthal business model... (more) |
Karoo fracking debate triggers legislative overhaul
by Matt Ash, Norton Rose Fulbright
The debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of the Karoo's potentially massive shale gas reserves continues to rage. There are strong arguments both for and against harvesting the gas which could potentially alter South Africa's energy and development outlook for many years to come... ( more) |
Improving power quality in the mining industry
by Jeremy Wood, RWW Engineering
Voltage dips or sags often causes equipment to trip which in turn results in production and revenue losses. Good power quality is essential to overcome voltage fluctuations, but all too often this is not available at mines in remote areas which may be connected to inadequate power supplies or powered by generators... (more) |
Local industry should be more active in setting standards
by Isaac Kruger, Schneider Electric South Africa
SA has not participated in the work of sub-committees or working groups in many of the MV standards developed by SC 17A and SC 17C, which are now used extensively in the electricity supply industry, and will have to accept what the international community has decided, or design its own standards with accompanying costs... ( more) |
The Jacob Marley column: Distribution competition
Sir, I must caution at the outset that I am not intending to announce a competition related to distribution, and I indeed apologise if the heading created the wrong impression. I mean, however, to draw your erudite reader's attention to the necessity of creating competition in the distribution industry... ( more) |
Utility scale energy storage systems - Possibility or pipe dream?
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
Large scale storage of electricity is becoming an increasingly important sector of the industry, with applications in generation, electric vehicles, load balancing and many other areas. Research is focused on developing new technologies as well as improving and advancing older systems... ( more) |
Virtual power station uses customer standby generating capacity
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
The virtual power station (VPS) concept combines a number of separate distributed resources to behave as a single larger resource, to make additional generation capacity available on the grid. The resources may be generation plant or curtailable loads... (more) |
Energize Inbox
This month's winning letter
This month's winning letter is by Chris Herold who writes that it might be better if Eskom owned its own coal mines so that it would understand the true cost of the coal it uses in its power stations... ( more) |
Life-time management of relay settings
by Peter Crossley, Rannveig Lřken, Jorge Cardenas, John Fitch, Bryan Gwyn, Cord Mempel and Damir Novosel, Cigré
The Cigré B5.31 brochure describes a generic setting management process, based on the "best practises" of utilities based around the world. The process requires that all the changes that could affect the settings of a protection relay during its life time are identified, controlled and validated... (more)
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Power factor correction and harmonic filtering for energy efficiency
Information from Schneider Electric
Energy efficiency has a significant impact on energy savings and, according to Schneider Electric, technologies designed to lower energy costs could cause unexpected power quality issues... (more) |
Rooftop PV to offset advertising energy
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
With a number of tower blocks in downtown Johannesburg, ABSA has made use of rooftop space to construct the largest groundmount style rooftop based PV system at a height above street level in South Africa... (more) |
Design of small off-grid PV for telecom networks
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
Telecommunications networks using radio or optic fibre based systems require power at all points in the network. In rural areas grid power is often not available near to the site of the installation... (more)
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Performance of heat pumps in South Africa
by M Zhang, Tshwane University of Technology
An analysis of the economics, thermal characteristics and development of heat pump water heaters in South Africa... (more) |
Energy efficiency: recognising how losses occur
Information from Elspec
Motors, lighting, facility wiring, distribution panels, protective devices, transformers and switch gear all experience a wide range of phenomena that combine to create energy losses. Identifying and calculating the sum of all losses is an extremely challenging engineering proposition that requires knowledge of all factors that impact operating efficiencies... (more) |
Thorough diagnosis crucial to condition monitoring
Information from WearCheck
Scientists involved in oil analysis have long debated the issue around diagnosing oil sample results according to trends versus "limits". Most limit tables produced by OEMs contain a rider that says it is also important to consider trends as well as the published limits... (more) |
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