As South Africa’s energy grid evolves towards using more privately generated power, there are growing opportunities for companies employing steam turbines for their own sites to boost revenue through electricity sales. Staying ahead of the trend, WEG Africa provides a full service offering to support this move.
Alastair Gerrard, Executive Energy Systems at WEG Africa.
Steam turbines represent mission critical equipment for companies across a range of industries, from sugar and paper to steel and petrochemicals. WEG Africa suggests that there is now greater opportunity for these sectors to generate more energy to sell into the national grid.
Traditionally, companies using steam turbines have consumed all the energy they produce in their processes – taking advantage of benefits such as supply reliability and cost savings. As South Africa struggles to keep up with power demand, however, there are more opportunities for the private sector to produce excess electricity for sale into the grid.
Alastair Gerrard, Executive Energy Systems at WEG Africa, says this trend is already advanced in Brazil – the home of holding company WEG. Many steam turbine users in Brazil have capitalised on the opportunities there by increasing their boiler efficiency.
“Although it may be common in South Africa’s sugar industry, for example, to use medium pressure boilers, the Brazilian market uses high pressure boilers – up to 140 bar – and companies gain significant efficiencies with these higher pressures,” he says. “This allows the sugar producers, and other users, to upgrade their facilities and grow their revenues through the sale of electricity. In parallel, they are paying off their capital investments more quickly.”
Gerrard points to the establishment of the National Transmission Company of South Africa as a key step in transforming the country’s electricity supply industry. This will open doors for more private companies to ‘export’ excess electricity into the grid, helping to stabilise supply and strengthen the foundation for economic growth.
“This has been successfully achieved in countries like Brazil, and it is exciting to see that we are making progress on this journey in South Africa,” he says. “WEG Africa can play an important role in this endeavour – with our long experience in this field and our full service offering for steam turbine users.”
Cobus van Eeden, WEG Turbine Services Manager at WEG Africa, highlights that the company offers customers a turnkey capability. It sizes steam turbine solutions according to the specific operating parameters of the application and supplies a bespoke thermal power system. The service also includes installing the machines, commissioning and ongoing after-sales servicing and maintenance.
“As an OEM of steam turbines, gearboxes and generators, we can also help customers to assess their current equipment – whether these are WEG products or from other OEMs – and provide strategic options and recommendations,” says van Eeden. “In addition to our depth of engineering expertise for repairing such equipment, we can analyse the potential for enhancing operational efficiency and increasing power output of the equipment.”
The company provides long-term service level agreements, including contracts for preventive maintenance. WEG Africa also works with customers on their forward planning, which may include considering the transition to electricity exporting.
Gerrard says this approach is built on WEG’s commitment, as an OEM, to stand alongside customers throughout the lifecycle of the equipment supplied. He notes that, while there has in the past been some acceptance of third-party support in this field, WEG Africa favours in-house OEM support for its solutions, managed through service level agreements that give customers confidence in the total lifecycle cost of their purchase.
“Our field service technicians – active in many African countries and offshore – work on site with customers, to develop a thorough understanding of their equipment and requirements,” he says. “We integrate this information within our various functions to deliver the most appropriate response and guidance on maintenance scheduling.”
Van Eeden also highlights WEG Africa’s extensive engineering capability, which includes machine servicing on customers’ sites – from gearboxes and turbines to generators and control systems. Equipment requiring more intensive work can be transported to the company’s 1 200 m2 workshop east of Johannesburg, which prides itself on quick turnarounds.
“Our facility includes full engineering capabilities, the repair and manufacture of turbine bearings as well as the ability to conduct aftermarket engineering and optimisation of numerous components,” he says. “We have skilled machinists and technical staff in-house, working with sophisticated scanning and engineering tools.”
In-house access to specialised facilities such as a labyrinth rolling machine for sealing strips, as well as a sandblasting booth for preparing components, also supports the quality of workmanship and efficiency – minimising downtime for customers.
For more information visit: www.weg.net
