Crisis? What crisis?
by Hannes Roos, AMEU
Most South Africans are inconvenienced by power interruptions at some time, and may believe that there is a crisis in the supply of electricity, but are unsure what caused it, where it is, or what can be done about it. A "crisis" is an event that could lead to an unstable and dangerous situation. Many South Africans will feel that this fairly describes the electricity industry in our country... ( more)
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In conversation with Eskom's Prince Moyo
by Roger Lilley, editor
Energize spoke to Prince Moyo, the general manager for power delivery engineering at Eskom about the utility's ageing generation fleet, about his opinion regarding the feasibility, and pros and cons, of power station refurbishment versus new build. The fulfillment of the promise of Medupi coming online this year remains a challenge, and our existing fleet of power stations is ageing fast... ( more)
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Information from Department of Energy
Ben Martins, minister of energy, met with the vice administrator of the China National Energy Administration, Tan Rongyao, in February, to discuss co-operation in the field of peaceful and civil uses of nuclear energy. China has expressed interest in participating in SA's civil nuclear energy projects, and has proposed an agreement...(more)
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The SA power line industry's existence remains under threat because of imports despite the fact that domestic production has been prescribed as "local content" in the public procurement system. According to the SA Institute of Steel Construction's (SAISC's) Kobus de Beer, the situation is dire and the industry continues to lose jobs... ( more) |
Energize Inbox - April 2014
Letters to the editor
This month's winning letter responds to a report on how British wind farms are paid not to generate electricity. Other letters focus on the published costs of coal power and criticisms of the IRP 2010 report... (more) |
Sir, One of your erudite readers recently wondered why information about climate change received so little attention these days. He seemed to think that there was a inexplicable hiatus, a drought even... ( more)
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Information from the
Free Market Foundation
The FMF recently said the IRP 2010 - 2030 update heralds a potential disaster and an exercise in speculative central planning, with key problems being a lack of independent transmission and distribution grids, no competing generating companies, no electricity trading, no competing retail suppliers and no consumer choice...(more)
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Summary of the 2014 World Energy Issues Monitor
Information from the World Energy Council
Christoph Frei, the secretary general of WEC, says the energy sector is going through a time of unprecedented uncertainty, and this when a secure, reliable, affordable, clean and equitable energy supply is essential to global economic growth and human development. He forecasts that energy demand will continue to increase... ( more)
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by Jac Messerschmidt, Pr. Eng.
Large scale electrification came into its own in the early 1990s when it rolled out to rural areas all over the country. Since then, it has become a beacon of light and hope to many and a signpost of progress - but has it achieved its goals?... ( more)
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Refurbishment, repowering and life extension of power plants in SA
by Dr. Klaus-Dieter Tigges, Babcock Borsig Steinmüller, and Mohamed Khan, Steinmüller Africa
Rehabilitation or new build? This question has to be answered by plant operators frequently during the lifetime of existing plants. Experience reveals that refurbishment and life time extension of existing plants is a good economical approach to assure generation capacity... ( more) |
Design of the Tronox Mineral Sands cogeneration power plant
by Roubaix Louw and Wynand Venter, Power Engineers
The term "cogeneration" is often used to describe the use of the thermal waste heat from a power plant in district heating. However, cogeneration means generating electric power from carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) rich furnace off-gas. Cogeneration was derived from the original term CO-generation, as in carbon monoxide generation... ( more) |
Vegetable oil as insulating fluid for transformers
by Mike Rycroft, features editor, EE Publishers
Oil constitutes a major component of power transformers. Conventionally, mineral or synthetic oils have been used. Vegetable oil has been considered as an alternative. Used in the industry for several decades it has proved to be a viable alternative to mineral oil and has several advantages over mineral oil... ( more) |
Efficiency analysis of a three-phase power transformer
by R Gouws and O Dobzhanskyi, North-West University
Metal, chemical, cement, concrete, automobile, mining and other industries struggle to increase the efficiency of the energy they use. Three-phase power transformers play a significant role in energy saving, and one method of improving efficiency is to ensure that power transformers operate within their rated loads... ( more)
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Wheeling and dealing: Connecting electricity suppliers and customers
by Mike Rycroft, features editor, EE Publishers
The emergence of IPPs and distributed generation has resulted in the need for transporting electricity between producer and consumer over a network owned by a third party. These arrangements can be simple or complex, depending on the network, and require well developed rules and regulations to operate properly... ( more)
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Biomass power projects in South Africa
by Lovemore Chilimanzi, Graeme Chown, PPA Energy; Bjorg Rhode, BJR Consulting; Joshua Mkhonto, Lindelinkosi Nyoni, Mponeng Holdgs
Mponeng Holdings engaged PPA Energy on three biomass projects in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. The projects were in response to the IPP Procurement Programme by the Department of Energy. Feedstock fuel was municipal solid waste at sites in varying environmental condition and with different requirements for project implementation... ( more)
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Ski resort power upgrade
Information from DuPont
In their latest configurations, small liquid-immersed power transformers offer a capacity and power handling ability - coupled with compactness and light weight - that can no longer be matched by conventional units... ( more) |
Heat recovery from slag improves energy efficiency of furnaces
by Mike Rycroft, features editor, EE Publishers
Metal smelting furnaces use huge amounts of energy, much of which is lost when molten metal and slag is cooled down. The current trend to use waste heat sources to generate electricity has focussed attention on this source of energy and several options are under consideration... ( more)
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Large turbo generator robotic inspections and testing
Information from Cigré
Turbo generators operate with very high load factors and are constantly exposed to the high electromagnetic stresses found in high voltage systems and are simultaneously exposed to extremely high mechanical torque, vibrations and centripetal forces transferred from the large high speed steam turbine rotors... ( more)
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Avoiding a substation explosion
by Barry Gass, High Voltage Training
An authorised person closed an 11 kV oil circuit breaker (OCB) on to a fault at a main substation. The OCB exploded and the force of the blast blew off the substation doors, seriously damaging the building. The person broke his right arm, when the door behind which he was standing was blown open... ( more)
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