Electricity and Control January-February 2025

Energy management + energy e iciency WRITE @ THE BACK

late the respective returns and determine the payback period. They will also look at tari€ structures, time of use, and the po tential for peak shi‘ing or peak shaving.” In closing Olinga says he is encouraged that the govern ment in South Africa is now taking a more proactive stance in refocusing on demand management and energy e€iciency. He says the SAEEC has had conversations with the Deputy Min ister of Electricity and Energy, Samantha Graham-Maré, and notes that at government level, SA is engaging with the IEA for advice and guidance in this respect. Note: [1] The European Union’s proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, set to take e ect in 2026. The Southern African Energy E€iciency Confederation (SAEEC) is the local chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers® (AEE), which is based in Georgia in the USA, and the first chapter established in Africa. AEE services more than 100 countries with over 90 local and international chapters. The SAEEC supports a membership of more than 900 professionals in Southern Africa who are committed to helping their companies and clients increase energy e€i ciency, adopt innovative energy service options, enhance environmental management programmes, upgrade facility operations, and improve operational performance.

companies, with a focus on achieving best practice in terms of SANS 50001– Energy management systems, among other improvements in resource management. A new industry and new jobs Assessing energy e€iciency and resource e€iciency, monitor ing emissions and emissions reductions, are all relatively new areas of industry and present new business opportunities and the potential for new jobs. Installing variable speed drives and smart metering technologies, for instance, require new skills and bring new value to the economy; energy audits, action plans and implementation – all present new work opportuni ties. The IEA has said that energy e€iciency can contribute 33% of the new jobs created through the energy transition. Olinga voices a concern that in South Africa, and perhaps globally, energy e€iciency has been pushed aside by the focus on renewable energy, security of supply, and the push to clean energy. He acknowledges that they all have a role to play, they are all important, but he emphasises that the first step must be measurement. “You need to know how much energy you are using. The next step must be improving e€iciencies. If you don’t optimise e€iciencies in energy usage before investing in alternative energy sources to supplement supply – you are just baking in ine€iciencies and ignoring the root cause of high energy costs. You would be masking potential improvements and sacrificing potentially significant energy and cost savings. “Energy engineers can assist businesses to identify energy saving opportunities, energy conservation measures, per site, per process, to assess energy demand per load and determine the potential savings. In this way they can prepare the busi ness case for investing in new equipment or systems, calcu

[All images courtesy of Zadok Olinga, unless noted otherwise.]

For more information visit: https://www.saeeconfed.org.za/

Energy e”iciency improvements can o“en also be made in the power supply system itself, Olinga says.

14 Electricity + Control JAN-FEB 2025