DNG Energy, a South African company that’s aiming to develop liquefied natural gas facilities, said it has taken legal action to have the government’s award of emergency power generation contracts halted. Last month, the government awarded the right to develop 1 845 mw of generation capacity to eight companies at a cost of R45-billion by August next year to alleviate intermittent power shortages. The award attracted criticism mainly because Turkey’s Karpowership won the bulk of the contracts and the right to produce electricity from power ships moored off the South African coast for 20 years.
In the recent system status and outlook briefing by State-owned power utility Eskom that took place on March 15, 2021, details of the refuelling and maintenance outage of the Koeberg nuclear power station were provided. The maintenance outage of Unit 1, which is currently in progress, started on January 3 this year. The outage started five weeks earlier than planned with the forced shut down caused by a steam generator tube leak.
Filtration services provider Perfect Filtration is incorporating intelligent software technology and services into its filtration and preventive maintenance measures for hydraulic equipment. Perfect Filtration technical director Melvin Schmidt explains that, initially, Perfect Filtration used a programmable logic controller (PLC). This assisted technicians on site when monitoring hydraulic equipment, as they would receive messages on their mobile devices, informing them about the condition of the hydraulic machine.
Two of motion and control technologies supplier Parker Hannifin’s products have been used in overseas development projects this year and have received significant demand from the local market, for which they are available. Parker Hannifin accounts manager Kyle Cambridge notes that the company worked in collaboration with US-based equipment supplier Crash Rescue Equipment to design and manufacture a telescoping nozzle on fire trucks that enables the nozzle to penetrate composite fibres.
The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has come out in support of feasibility studies into offshore wind energy, saying this could solve South Africa’s energy woes.
Green hydrogen technology company Nel Hydrogen has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with global chemicals and refining industry catalysts, technology, and services supplier Haldor Topsoe.
The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal, is aiming to sign its first independent power producer (IPP) contract next year following the publication of the eThekwini Integrated Resource Plan (EIRP) in 2020, which it described as the first IRP for a local government in South Africa. The head of the eThekwini Energy Office, Sbu Ntshalintshali, reported on Thursday that the municipality was making steady progress with its 12-stage implementation of the EIRP, which outlines a long-term clean energy strategy to 2050, by which stage the city aims to be carbon neutral.
State-owned power utility Eskom has entered into an active partnership agreement with the Msunduzi municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal, whereby Eskom has been appointed as network maintenance services agent.
Eskom will also assist the municipality with capacity building and skills transfer.
South Africa’s emerging solar photovoltaic (PV) value chain has significant potential to create employment over the current decade as utility scale and small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) capacity is added in response to the country’s Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP 2019) and moves by businesses and households to bolster security of supply through rooftop investments. A new ‘Solar PV Industry Jobs Report’ states that between 11 000 and 13 000 permanent operations and maintenance (O&M) jobs could be created by 2030, along with up to 40 000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs every year in the preparation, development and construction of domestic solar projects.
By December 2022, some nonresidential buildings will be required by law to display an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), which is done by measuring the building’s energy use intensity and giving it a colour-coded score from A to G, sustainable structures organisation the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) says. “It is hoped that this will be a great boost for energy efficiency in South Africa, since the first step toward lowering energy consumption is knowing energy consumption. The new regulation requires that energy data is collected over the period of a year, to get an adequate measure of the building’s energy use.
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