Author Archive for: Engineering News

Local electronic printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer Bosco is using a flow battery energy storage system alongside a rooftop solar energy and a battery management system (BMS) to keep a crucial production line and its engineering and sales departments free of disruptions caused by power outages that are common in South Africa. The main competitive advantage the company has over duty-free imported PCBs is its ability to serve its local clients quickly and accurately, which means it must prevent disruptions to its ability to engage with its clients, provide quotes and ensure its engineering and design department continues to operate, explains Bosco Director Philip Verheul.

Six steps could be taken immediately by the South African government and the energy regulator to unlock more self-generation investment by residential, commercial, industrial, mining and agricultural consumers so as to minimise power shortages and reduce the threat of load-shedding, a newly released paper argues. Published by Meridian Economics and authored by Dr Grové Steyn and Celeste Renaud the briefing note argues that distributed generation projects represent the quickest response to the country’s power crisis, but that they are currently being stymied by “regulatory red tape”.

The surge in borrowing costs affecting most African countries in the wake of the economic and fiscal harm that has accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic poses a serious risk to the much-needed recovery in energy investment across the continent, which is set to collapse by 30% in 2020. International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Dr Fatih Birol, who together with African Union Commission (AUC) infrastructure and energy commissioner Dr Amani Abou-Zeid co-chaired the AUC-IEA Second Ministerial Forum on Tuesday, stressed that a strong investment recovery was urgently required to improve energy access across the continent, which was poised to retreat for the first time in seven years in 2020.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says progress is being made in the unbundling of the utility and that “by April [2021], we should see a change”.

He noted that the negative impact of load-shedding on the economy is well known and it is something that Eskom wishes to put behind it as quickly as possible.

As South Africa emerges from the Covid-19-induced economic crisis, the most strategic objective would be to relieve the economy and its growth path from the stronghold of insufficient access to sustainable and competitive power generation, advisory Pan-African Investment and Research Services founder and CE Dr Iraj Abedian has said.

He has published a research paper on a just energy transition, which states that even before the pandemic struck, the country had already recorded a technical recession, it being the second in just two years, which is in part owing to the State-owned energy utility Eskom’s inability to supply adequate and reliable electricity.