Electricity and Control October 2021

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + THE INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

Committed to South Africa’s energy transition Malvin Naicker, MD, Hitachi ABB Power Grids The government’s announcement of an increase in the threshold for generation

Malvin Naicker, MD, Hitachi ABB Power Grids.

licence exemptions for embedded generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW is likely to result in an uptick of innovative new technologies in South Africa’s energy sector.The shift opens the door for independent power producers (IPPs) to ramp up their power generation capacity to alleviate the electricity supply constraints that continue to affect residential, commercial and industrial sectors.

F or IPPs that focus on renewable energy, microgrid solutions with battery energy storage systems (BESS) are ideal to ensure stable and sustainable power supply by harnessing solar energy; they also offer a model for a clean energy future. Although coal continues to play a dominant role in South Africa’s power generation, the country can leverage the massive opportunity of distributed energy resources. What this means, and we see it happening in South Africa at present, is the complete transformation of the energy system, encompassing generation, transmission, storage, monitoring and control. As renewables, over time, replace fossil fuels, power grids must remain resilient and will need to become more flexible to adapt to fast-changing demands. While solar energy currently constitutes a relatively small portion of overall sustainable power generation, it is the world’s fastest-growing energy source. However, delivering on the potential of utility-scale solar energy presents significant challenges: from integration with the grid to deployment and use of storage, to asset and operations management, generation and revenue forecasting and predictability, and the ever-increasing cost pressures and fast-track project cycles. Hitachi ABB Power Grids has industry-leading expertise and an extensive portfolio of technologies, solutions, software and services designed to support every stage of renewable project development. With over 130 years of engineering know-how in the power and industrial sector,

Transformer performance and quality have a major impact on the availability of power generated and the reliability of the network. the company probably has the largest installed fleet of components and systems in the space of power systems for electric utilities and large industries. Some of the leading technologies and services available from Hitachi ABB Power Grids are described below. Asset and work management Among the first joint offerings introduced earlier this year by Hitachi ABB Power Grids and Hitachi Vantara are Lumada Asset Performance Management (APM), Lumada Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Lumada Field Service Management (FSM). This asset and work management software portfolio enables energy companies to be more adaptive, collaborative, insightful and predictive. Hitachi ABB Power Grids has combined its deep domain expertise with Hitachi’s Lumada digital ecosystem, as well as the domain and services expertise of Hitachi Vantara, to guide customers in using technology to transform their businesses. Lumada features technologies such as machine learning, AI, advanced data analytics, hybrid cloud management and cybersecurity. This asset

Microgrids and energy storage offer one solution for distributed generation delivering off-grid power supply.

12 Electricity + Control OCTOBER 2021