South Africa’s energy transition

Creamer Media’s Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about more signs that the energy transition is starting to have a real impact in South Africa with Engen’s planned refinery closure, moves by the eThekwini municipality to buy electricity from independent power producers and a new report on job creation potential in the solar power industry.
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Govt has eight weeks to decide on powership project after it clears environmental hurdle

Karpowership, the company bidding to moor five powerships in South African harbours for 20 years, cleared another hurdle when its environmental assessors found that the projects at the ports of Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay and Ngqura could go ahead. Balito-based Triplo4, which carried out the assessments on behalf of Karpowership, submitted the final environmental impact assessments for the three ports earlier in the week, following a period of public comment. It found that the projects should go ahead, subject to a number of mitigations measures.
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Eskom to conduct wage talks next week

State-owned power utility Eskom will start regular wage discussions with the company’s recognised labour representative unions on May 4. It warns that these discussions may be “unpredictable” and that it may result in rising tensions.
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DNG Energy takes legal action to halt RMIPPPP

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.
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Nuclear power station maintenance under way

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.
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Tech integrated in maintenance services

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.
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Internationally used products in demand and available locally

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.
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Big potential for offshore energy

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.
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Hydrogen companies enter green economy MoU

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.
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eThekwini aiming to conclude first IPP contract in 2022 as city mulls hydrogen role

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.
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