In his Comment in this October 2023 issue of Electricity + Control, Editorial Technical Director Professor Ian Jandrell reminds us – in the context of South Africa’s loadshedding siege – how important it is to make best use of the energy we do have. He notes that it is easy to become preoccupied in handling the crisis hours – but essential to institute efficient energy management regimes which can reduce demand, adjust loads and save costs, in industry as much as at home.
Eskom recently presented its outlook for summer 2023/24, when it anticipates more generation capacity being returned to service as a result of effective maintenance and, over the same period, continuing higher levels of maintenance to restore power station performance and stabilise supply going forward. The outlook seems promising although, as we know, the national power system remains unpredictable. So we hope for the best.
Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, also recently called for the private sector to participate in the development of grid infrastructure – which has become pressing as Eskom does not have the financial resources required to extend its transmission network and the need for grid access for IPP and self-generation projects continues to grow.
In the feature on Energy management + the industrial environment in this issue, Thava Govender of Babcock Engineering outlines how OEMs, and particularly those that were involved in the construction of Eskom’s older power stations, can play a valuable role in providing the standard of maintenance and the appropriate skills, equipment and components required to restore those power stations to deliver a much higher level of energy availability.
On the renewable energy front, where solar energy has become an important part of South Africa’s evolving energy mix, Werner Fortuin of SolarAfrica cautions that many service providers in this fast-growing industry are still ‘unregulated’. He shares some insight into the dangers posed by unregulated installations and what prospective customers should be looking for when choosing solar providers.
Looking at energy efficiency, we see how Beckhoff’s PC based control and EtherCAT connectivity support an 85% efficiency level in a trigeneration plant – a natural gas driven backup power plant where waste heat is used to generate heat and cooling in an efficiently managed system.
All these articles point to the various ways in which we can make best use of the energy we do have.
In the age of Industry 4.0 + IIoT, data and connectivity have become central to efficient industrial operations. Benjamin Coetzer of cloud services provider Routed, notes that for businesses planning a move to cloud-based connectivity, as many are, CIOs need to be aware of the challenges that may arise – particularly around costs, compatibility and experienced skills.
Time sensitive networking – or TSN – is one of the newly emerging network technologies enabling IIoT in future-focused industries. John Browett of CLPA Europe reports how CC-Link IE TSN was chosen by a leading producer of automated lithium-ion battery manufacturing lines to improve the productivity of its systems, while simplifying their design and reducing time to market.
In Measurement + instrumentation we look at a range of instruments and technologies used across diverse industries: from acoustic imaging used to detect air leaks in compressed air systems, to ultrasonic flowmeters used to reduce non-revenue water losses, rugged handheld scanners used to identify direct part marking, X-ray fluorescence technology used in the sorting of metals for recycling, and non-contact inductive sensing technology used to monitor speed of conveyor belts.
In Safety of plant, equipment + people, as well as some of the products that help to ensure safe electrical installations, we see how data made available through smart technologies and connectivity supports safety in hazardous industrial environments.
Especially interesting as South Africa looks for the path to achieve a just energy transition – in our column Engineering the future we share the IEA’s exploration of community-based clean energy projects – including South Africa’s smart embedded residential microgrid in the community of Lynedoch near Stellenbosch.
And Write @ the back, presenting a fresh perspective on how communications technology developed for industry can be adopted to serve in a completely different environment too, Ian Loudon of Omniflex shares how wireless radio telemetry is being used to enable remote monitoring of water reservoirs in rhino conservation reserves.
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