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by Sicelo Xulu, City Power
Gauteng is the economic hub of South Africa and Africa's economic powerhouse. Disturbingly, the province accounts for a disproportionate amount of cable theft and vandalism. What is more distressing is that we have become "used" to the debilitating impact of criminally-induced power outages... (more)
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by roger Lilley, editor, Energize
Eskom predicts that it will post a net loss of R8,8-billion for the six month period from September 2014. This loss will virtually wipe out the utility's R9,3-billion profit by 31 March 2015, undermine the utility's capex and opex budgets, and put the utility's sustainability at risk... ( more)
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Delay in first synchronisation of Unit 6 at Medupi likely
by Chris Yelland, investigative editor, EE Publishers
At a briefing by Eskom's Medupi project manager, Roman Crookes, and the head of capital projects, Dan Morakane, it was indicated that a further delay in the first synchronisation of Unit 6 at Medupi power station is increasingly likely, and that the minister of Public Enterprises and other key stakeholders were being informed of this eventuality... (more)
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Information from the International Energy Agency
Inadequate energy infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa restricts urgently needed improvements in living standards. Although the region is rich in energy resources, it is very poor in energy supply. Access to reliable and affordable energy is critical to the development of a region which accounts for 13% of the world's population.... (more)
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The rise of the carbon management accountant
by Roger Lilley, editor
 Dr. Marco Lotz, speaking at SANEA's Johannesburg lecture, described the trading of carbon as being unique, saying that while trade usually involves the purchase or selling of an asset of some type, carbon trading is the purchasing of someone else's lack of pollution... (more)
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A call for local designs
by Roger Lilley, editor
 Prince Moyo, the general manager for power delivery engineering at Eskom, speaking at the Cigre feedback session recently, said that Cigre's congresses should enable local companies to design solutions locally rather than depend on foreign consultants... (more)
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by Manie de Waal, Energy Partners
Eskom's recent request for its customers to reduce energy consumption, even if it means reducing production, together with ordered blackouts, poses a real threat to the growth of corporate South Africa... ( more)
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Sir The recent annual AMEU convention caused me to reflect on the curious habit of congregating in what is styled a "conference" - although now often referred to by as many different nomenclatures as there are specialised fields for trooping together in these ritual gatherings... ( more)
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This month's letters include a concern regarding Eskom's transmission plans and a response to last month's Jacob Marley column... ( more) |
Information from EEnergy Informer
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the sun will be the dominant source of energy by 2050. The agency has released Technology roadmap: Solar PV energy, which speculates that the cost of energy generated from solar PVs will fall to around US$0,04/kWh in coming decades... ( more)
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by Ryno Nell and Florin Stoicu, Steinmüller Africa
High pressure piping systems in petrochemical, mining and power generation applications need specially designed expansion joints to improve flexibility in their installation. This article describes the design and manufacturing of these important piping components... ( more)
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Evaluating energy efficiency on a coal power plant's performance
by Stephen Tangwe, Michael Simon and Edison Meyer, Fort Hare Institute of Technology
Eskom has embarked on energy efficiency initiatives on its coal boiler plants in a bid to decrease the amount of coal burnt and in turn increase the electricity generated. This study focused on the analysis of the before and after outage data... (more) |
by Amos Amadi and Prof. Jan de Kock, North-West University
Forty-eight years after the birth of the first edition of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS 780: 1966), little has been done in South Africa to reduce the distribution transformer losses as compared to first-world and BRICS countries... ( more)
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Hierarchical control in a 5-terminal VSC-HVDC project
by Wang Hao, Lori Luo, and Wu Dianfeng, NR Electric; and Dale Pudney, HVT Power Systems
The world's first 5-terminal ±200 kV VSC-HVDC project connects China's mainland to five isolated islands. The project presented some significant technical challenges. A hierarchical control system was implemented to successfully overcome them... ( more) |
by Dennis Lin, Eleanor Huang, Johnny Fang and Ryan Teng, Moxa
An efficient and visually represented PRP/HSR network using power SCADA with specially designed management middleware can effectively avoid many control problems... (more)
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An efficient new light rail train system in Turkey, which runs on non-polluting electricity, has greatly benefited the general populace; but the system's poor power factor has created a challenge for the power utility, as well as for the train's system operators... ( more) |
by William Lewis, Power Engineers
The Kizildere site is located in the Menderes Graben area of Anatolia with geological features known for relatively accessible hydrothermal resources with geothermal potential. Zorlu Energy decided to develop the resource and expand by developing a new, 60 MW (gross) power plant... (more)
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The stator of a hydro generator is usually designed and constructed with open slots. Open slots result in slot harmonics which have an effect on some of the characteristics of the generator. One of the ways for reducing the negative effects of slot harmonics is the utilisation of magnetic wedges... (more)
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Today's power systems have the potential to be more reliable, easier to maintain, and simpler to diagnose than ever before. This is made possible by the advent of microprocessors now available in everything from protective devices to programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to monitoring and diagnostic devices... (more)
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Standby and portable generator maintenance has become almost synonymous with achieving reliability, with the role of the maintenance professional being to maintain generation equipment at its peak operating reliability in the most cost effective manner possible... (more)
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Compiled by Peter Adams, EE Publishers
- Botswana renews diesel contract
- Djibouti looks to renewable power
- Ethiopia hydro project under threat
- Ghana to get largest solar plant
- Kenya to launch geothermal plants
- Malawi opens new power plant
- Mauritius uses sea water for cooling
- Zimbabwe to get coal-fired plant... (more)
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