Amid ongoing power outages and energy constraints, new approaches to fuel selection and efficiency among chemical plants have become necessary, says boiler and energy plant operations and maintenance service provider Associated Energy Services (AES) commercial director Dennis Williams. Any opportunity to manage the efficient generation and supply of energy carriers, such as steam or thermal oil, presents an opportunity to improve efficiencies in a chemical plant’s main production process, owing to chemical plants being energy intensive.
Global solutions provider Tenova and leading power conversion company GE Power Conversion signed a Cooperation Agreement in June, combining their efforts on target projects that are aimed at offering and implementing innovative power feeding solutions based on medium-voltage power converters, for electric arc furnace (EAF) or submerged arc furnace (SAF) technologies. Tenova and GE’s collaboration was formed to jointly design and market tailored medium-voltage power feeding systems for EAFs and SAFs, allowing the effective use of high electric power even on constrained grids, while reducing both operating costs and the environmental impact of new and pre-existing furnaces.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has given an assurance that there is no plan to privatise any of the three Eskom entities of generation, transmission and distribution currently being unbundled in line with a policy initially outline in the so-called ‘Eskom Roadmap’ of 2019. In a statement clarifying a letter sent to the Eskom board regarding the restructuring of the distribution company, but which included the words “approval for sale”, sparking speculation that the business was being privatised, Gordhan insisted that the entity would remain fully State owned.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom has confirmed that Unit 1 at the Koeberg nuclear power station, in the Western Cape, is currently scheduled to return to service only on November 3. The unit entered an extended outage on December 10 last year, which was initially scheduled to be completed in 180 days and returned to service in June.
JSE-listed chemicals group AECI has installed and commissioned a 1MW solar project at Chem Park, its AECI Chemicals manufacturing site, in Johannesburg. The Chem Park project marks the first stage of a four-phase solar programme approved by the AECI executive committee in 2021, and the company plans to eventually install 14.3 MW solar capacity at selected AECI operating sites in South Africa.
The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), consultants and contractors on the Polihali dam have marked an early construction milestone – the diversion of the Senqu river by the pre-cofferdam, and the subsequent diversion of the river into and through the diversion tunnels ahead of the construction of the cofferdam upstream of the Polihali dam wall. “This is quite an achievement to the engineering fraternity. It is a key moment of the construction programme because unless this happens, no other elements of dam construction can happen. It had to happen now because the timing of it during the winter season without rain was critical. If you miss it by a week or two, you may miss the entire window by another 12 months.
The Presidency is exploring several avenues for increasing the grant component in the financing of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP), following broad-based stakeholder criticism about the limited nature of such funding in the initial $8.5-billion pledge made by various developed countries. The head of the Presidency’s JET-IP project management unit (PMU), Joanne Yawitch, reports that discussions are under way with multilateral funding institutions, philanthropic organisations and developed economy governments about additional grant allocations for JET-IP projects and that the details are currently being finalised.
Stanlib Asset Management has acquired 51% of Solareff, through its Stanlib Infrastructure Fund II. Stanlib Asset Management is a local investor in sustainable infrastructure.
Financial services provider FNB will install solar power systems at 100 of its branches across the country to prevent downtime during times of loadshedding, while also mitigating the environmental impact of its operations. The initiative will start with branches in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape; Bethlehem and Phuthaditjhaba, in the Free State; and Zeerust, in the North West. It is part of the bank’s commitment to environmental sustainability and operational resilience.
A total of 17 bids have been received in response to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE’s) inaugural public procurement for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects. The BESS request for proposals was launched on March 7 with an initial bid submission deadline of July 5, which was subsequently postponed to August 2 as a result of delays to the issuance of cost estimate letters for grid connections.
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