The past month has seen some notable developments in South Africa’s energy sector, signalling fresh momentum. The Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa announced an ambitious Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 aimed at resolving the country’s longstanding electricity shortfall and jump-starting economic growth. The plan reflects government’s intention to invest R2.2 trillion in a comprehensive energy transformation strategy to ensure the country’s energy demand is met sustainably and cost-effectively. It marks a clear shift in the country’s energy mix, with cleaner energy sources like hydro, nuclear, wind, and solar set to surpass coal for the first time in the nation’s history. In presenting the latest IRP, Ramokgopa said energy and electricity can be a catalyst for growth, re-industrialisation, and building new skills.

In early October the Southern African Energy Efficiency Confederation – SAEEC – hosted its 20th annual conference at a venue just north of Johannesburg. Delivering the opening keynote address at the conference, Deputy Minister of Electricity & Energy, Samantha Graham-Maré, expressed her strong support for the drive to improve energy efficiency, citing it, as highlighted by the IEA, as the first fuel of the energy transition – in terms of reducing use of fossil-fuel generated electricity and refining, managing, optimising, the ongoing demand for electricity as it continues to rise.

Graham-Maré also emphasised the parallel importance of engendering circularity in the fast-growing renewable energy sector, making the point that worldwide, we need to be ready to manage the disposal – recycling, repurposing, reuse – of the equipment and materials used in the first boom of building solar and wind energy plants and battery storage systems – when they reach their end of ‘first’ life. And that circularity needs to be engineered into new products, equipment and apparatus used in renewable energy plants going forward. Without it, she suggested, renewable energy cannot claim to be clean energy. She highlighted too that there is indeed value to be realised in integrating circularity into the industry.

Energy management + energy efficiency is one of the features in focus in this October 2025 issue of Electricity + Control, together with Industry 4.0 + IIoT, Measurement + instrumentation, and Safety of plant, equipment + people.

This issue of Electricity + Control is released for publication as Eskom shares its  2025/26 Summer Outlook – forecasting no load shedding for the summer period. This turnaround is in large part a result of the utility’s focused and ongoing commitment in implementing its Generation Recovery Plan which has enabled the progressive improvement in levels of energy availability and stability of supply through the past year. It must be acknowledged, however, that it is also in large part due to the now much higher share of renewable energy generation, driven mostly by the private sector. SAPVIA notes  that total solar capacity in South Africa had grown to 8.97 GW by 2024, with a significant portion coming from the private off-take market. This has given Eskom the space to address long-neglected maintenance demands in its aging power generation fleet. All round, it is good news for the country and for the economy.

In his comment upfront in this August 2025 issue of Electricity + Control, Technical Editorial Consultant Professor Ian Jandrell, proposes the view that Industry 4.0, rather than being seen as a revolution (bringing with it some sense of chaos and danger) is essentially about the digitalisation of all those steps that have always been part of optimising plant operations: a process of progressive transformation, making modern plants smarter and faster.

Digitalisation also gives rise to a lot more data than has ever had to be managed by plants before. And for plants looking to use artificial intelligence to optimise efficiencies and performance, relevant data is fundamental. In our feature on Industry 4.0 + IIoT, Sam Veng of Belden sets out the steps for building a data foundation to enable AI in manufacturing, as he shared in a recent blog post.

In this July 2025 issue of Electricity + Control we see how industrial technologies continue to evolve to provide integrated solutions that optimise operational efficiencies and advance performance across various industry sectors.

Looking at Control systems + automation, we learn that for TME, a machine builder specialising in machines for the packaging of powdered foods, Beckhoff PC-based control technology was a clear preference for its latest Cialdy Evo machine series. Factors favouring this decision included the scope it enables for innovation in TME’s packaging machines – through its flexibility, scalability, and openness.