Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) says a proposed amendment to Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act, which would raise the licence exemption threshold for private distributed-generation plants from 1 MW to 10 MW, “does not go far enough”. Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe released the proposed amendment in a Gazette notice on April 23 and called on interested persons and organisations to submit written comments to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy within 30 days.
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The Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission (PCCCC), which held its second meeting on Friday, intends building on the work already done by the National Planning Commission (NPC) as it seeks to finalise a national ‘just transition framework’ for South Africa’s shift to a climate resilient society and economy. Deputy chairperson Valli Moosa stressed that the commission had no intention of “reinventing the wheel” and would, thus, also incorporate the extensive research and work completed on the just transition by labour, business and civil society groupings, as well as the research community.
Nonprofit association the Energy Intensive User Group (EIUG) on April 30 said its new member Namibian and South African zinc mining company Black Mountain Mining (BMM) will strengthen the association and diversify its portfolio through the addition of the zinc industry. The EIUG is committed to working with government, power utilities and other stakeholders to ensure South Africa has an energy supply industry that is financially viable, technically healthy and well managed. The membership will enable BMM to double up its mining production and potentially anchor beneficiation of zinc metal in South Africa, which will, in turn, make South Africa a net exporter of zinc, the association noted.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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