South Africa’s cable industry has the capacity and expertise to support grid optimisation, but only if it is protected against substandard imports that are undermining the safety and performance of industrial, domestic and renewable-energy installations, notes wire and electric cable manufacturer South Ocean Electric Wire (SOEW) CEO Andre Smith. He says the grid faces growing demand from renewable-energy integration, industrial recovery and electrification goals, with utilities, such as State-owned power utility Eskom and municipalities, increasingly relying on innovative reconductoring and uprating solutions to unlock additional capacity on existing corridors without lengthy environmental approvals or new tower construction.
