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Celebrating a renewable success
by Davin Chown, SAPVIA
 With the announcement of the successful bidders in bid window 3 of the REIPPP behind us, we should reflect on what the renewable energy industry has achieved over the last two to three years through the REIPPP process. With close to R150-billion worth of projects, there is no doubt that we have an industry that's delivering significant benefits to South Africa and its people... ( more) |
Tshwane Metro metering contract branded "blatantly corrupt"
by Chris Yelland, investigative editor, EE Publishers
 AfriSake claims that "PEU has no experience in the installation or management of electricity infrastructure in towns or cities", and that the outsourcing contract "is probably an example of one of the most blatantly corrupt municipal transactions to date"... ( more) |
1000 additional learner artisans to be trained
Information from Department of Public Enterprises
 The minister of public enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, has launched the official intake of 1000 additional artisan learners to be trained at six Transnet Engineering (TE) facilities. A programme has commenced to oversee the optimisation of State Owned Companies' (SOCs) training facilities by enrolling additional artisans... ( more) |
Medupi's delays threaten to stifle the economy
by Roger Lilley, editor
 Recent events indicate that Eskom should concentrate on generating power and leave new build projects to professional project managers. The Medupi power station is two years late for a number of reasons, a major contributor being the boiler protection software which is part of the plant's control and instrumentation system, and which keeps failing Eskom's acceptance tests... ( more) |
SMRs: The ideal nuclear solution
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
 The cancellation of the PBMR project may have seemed to many as the end of the small modular reactor (SMR) concept. There are many projects in development worldwide, some of which are reaching fruition. These offer the promise of reduced cost and faster construction times... (more) |
Eskom cancelling prestigious software contract
by Chris Yelland, EE Publishers
EE Publishers has received substantial information that Eskom is currently in the process of terminating the Alstom boiler protection contract at Medupi power station. In the light of Eskom's negative experience with Alstom, the utility intends to appoint an alternative contractor... ( more) |
Liquid gas: The future of residential estates
Information from Itron
Over the past 12 months, business and property developers in the high-income sector (houses priced at over R1-million) have started to leverage existing infrastructure to encourage the use of gas. They have implemented gas-to-power and gas-to-heat technologies... (more) |
The Jacob Marley column: Christmas wishes
Sir, as usual at this time of the year, I went to visit the Three Ghosts of Christmas to enquire what their wishes in this season of goodwill would be. The senior Ghost of Christmas Past was naturally hankering back to the good old days of sixpacks, cheap coal and even cheaper electricity in abundant and secure supply... (more) |
Energize Inbox
This month's winning letter
Our winning letter-writer this month compares the NERSA compliance scores of municipalities which have outsourced their maintenance to those that have not... ( more) |
Why nuclear must improve its communications efforts
by James Sampson, Nuclear Energy Insider
Communications around the Fukushima accident were never going to be easy. But a carefree handling of the safety scale used has possibly done more harm than good. The nuclear industry has been growing increasingly impatient with the way recent developments have been communicated... ( more) |
Energy efficiency is energy gain
by Perry Sioshansi, EEnergy Informer
Like many other perennial debates, the one about the rebound effect simply refuses to go away. The basic argument is that if you replace an inefficient device, the typical consumer will simply use the new device more, thus cancelling out any efficiency gains... ( more) |
Nuclear's prospects: Glass half full or half empty?
Information from EEnergy Informer
Half empty in the West, and half full in a handful of centrally planned economies, nuclear power's prospects appear to be doomed in markets where private investors tend to make the decisions and assume the risks... (more) |
Beyond the smart grid: Global impact report overview
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
Experts have discussed theoretical smart grid models for over a decade, but until now there has been no way to benchmark results globally. Ventyx and ABB selected VaasaETT, a global think tank, to develop a smart grid global impact report, a global report into smart grids and their outcomes... (more) |
How smart can the grid really be?
by Dale Pudney, HVT Power Systems and Luo Wei, NR Electric
With the improvement of electronic communications and computing technology, it becomes possible to integrate and improve the capabilities of the protection and automation systems on our power grids... (more)
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Back to the beginning through smart grid
by EK Onwunta and MTE Kahn, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
In the beginning generation was local and supplied local demand. That changed because of technological advancements with improved efficiency and economies of scale. A revival of interest in distributed generation implies a full circle in the generation of electricity... (more) |
Solar-aided power generation compared to stand-alone CSP
Information from Aurecon
A recent academic study compared solar-aided power generation (SAPG) solutions with that of a similar-sized stand-alone concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the South African context. The objective was to determine the real advantages of these technologies... (more)
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Ride-through testing of wind turbine converters
by Jouko Niiranen, Slavomir Seman, Jari-Pekka Matsinen, Reijo Virtanen, and Antti Vilhunen, ABB
The testing of low-voltage, ride-through capability of wind turbine converters has recently been standardised in the 2nd edition of IEC 61400-21. Thus, testing the converters in the factory is important to shorten the on-site testing time required to meet IEC 61400-21 requirements... (more) |
Electricity from wastewater treatment
by Mike Rycroft, features editor
New developments have shown that it is possible to generate sufficient energy from organic material contained in a variety of wastewater streams to provide a significant portion of the energy required to run the plant. It is however, an energy intensive operation... (more) |
Investigation of short-circuit analysis conducted at Kromco
by Bantubonke Matika and Alan Meru, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
This article presents a short-circuit analysis conducted for the Kromco electrical power system using power system modelling, analysis and simulation software called "DIgSilent PowerFactory". The main focus is determining the maximum short-circuit currents and fault levels at various locations on the network... (more) |
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