In this October 2021 edition of Electricity + Control we cover the topical issues of Industry 4.0 + IIoT, Energy management + the industrial environment, as well as the always fundamental considerations in industry of Measurement + instrumentation and Safety of plant, equipment + people.
In the context of Industry 4.0 + IIoT, Canninah Mapena, Managing Director of Rockwell Automation in Africa, highlights the benefits of advances in technology and outlines five principles to guide businesses in Africa in adopting new technologies appropriate to their needs and to building their global competitiveness.
Johannesburg-based Omron Industrial Automation presents the options in data storage and considers those best suited to different applications and to optimising safe data storage, easy access and efficient management to gain value.
Turning to Energy management + the industrial environment, as the impacts of climate change become increasingly clear and delegations from around the world gear up for this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26, to be held in Glasgow in the UK in early November, David Baudains, Climate Change Specialist and Project Manager at TEPM, questions whether the target of ‘net zero’ in greenhouse gas emissions is actually achievable by 2050.
Malvin Naicker, CEO of Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Sub-Saharan Africa, confirms the company’s commitment, and its expertise, to supporting the energy transition in South Africa and the region – and says multiple solutions from many different players will be needed to ensure a sustainable, stable and efficient power network.
In Measurement + instrumentation, R&C Instrumentation highlights the critical temperature monitoring points in cement kilns and the benefits of using non-contact infrared temperature measuring instruments to support the efficient performance and longevity of the plant.
Looking at Safety of plant, equipment + people, surge protection is an essential element in all process plants. Pepperl+Fuchs has introduced two new surge protection devices which reduce regular testing requirements, minimise plant interruptions and optimise plant availability.
There is also plenty of news on products and services in each feature. And in our regular columns we explore a number of different concerns in the current industrial environment: reskilling and upskilling the workforce, at all levels, as two young engineers from Knight Piésold take on master’s programmes at Imperial College London; the need for an effective recovery strategy, as recommended by Infinidat, in the event of a cybersecurity breach; ways of managing water losses in municipal water supplies to minimise wastage of this vital resource, as addressed at the recent regional summit of the IWA’s South African Water Loss Specialist Group; and, looking to South Africa’s amended EPR regulations due to come into effect in November, we learn that non-profit organisation Polyco will now handle recycling of all categories of plastics to make it easier for plastics producers and users across the spectrum to comply with mandatory end-of-life processing/recycling of their products, as the regulations require.
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