Electricity and Control September 2021

COMMENT

INDUSTRY 4.0 + IIOT

In an automated world, it’s people who keep plants working A s I was reflecting on the focus for this month’s comment with our editor, Leigh

something, really, it is. It’s far harder to control it, and harder still to control it automatically. This last mentioned requires a real understanding of the process, what its performance depends on, what needs to be measured, and what must be done with the information gleaned from the measurements. And in many cases this falls upon an operator. Indeed, in times of crisis, quite often it is the operator who takes control, who figures out what all the data means – and what needs to be done to stabilise the situation. This applies as much in an industrial setting as, quite frankly, it does in a leadership one. In many such cases people need to make decisions based on limited information and usually in a very short space of time. Unless they have a deep understanding of what it is that they are doing, and why, the implications of an error can be dire indeed. For this and other reasons, operating procedures are always put in place, people are trained on how to react, and decision- making is coded (as it were) by very careful scenario planning. In most cases this is not complex; in others it can be. My sense is that, whatever the findings ultimately are around the very unfortunate Medupi incident, we should all take heed that on our own plants there are procedures and processes that simply must be managed by people. Sometimes this is part of the normal proceedings, and sometimes it is only during times of crisis. But it happens. Use this as the moment to refresh your procedures, to renew training, to realign everyone on your site. We have traversed remarkably difficult times, and my sense is that the human factor needs some special attention as, slowly (but hopefully), we return to a more normal time again. Enjoy this edition.

Darroll, we obviously considered the content of this edition of Electricity+Control – and the context then of the initial good news regarding Medupi, and the expectation around gazetting the regulations relating to embedded generation. The announcement of 100 MW now being on the table has been, by all accounts, very well received – especially during these times of severe energy uncertainty. (More on this in Write @ the back in this issue.) As we have noted in the past, the devil always seems to be in the detail. This month we cover a variety of topics, from Control systems and automation, to Drives, motors and switchgear; from Measurement and instrumentation to Transformers, substations and cabling – all good staples of a successful industrial sector. Energy security is critical to our industry as well. And while crafting this comment, we received the incredibly bad news about an explosion at Medupi. A phenomenal event; and one that would surely not be expected in such a new and benchmark-setting station. Much has been written and said about what happened – but we should pause to reflect that similar events could happen on any of our plants. What causes them, and how can we avoid them? Without for a moment suggesting any- thing, we need to consider that no matter how much we automate, instrument and control our plants, at the end of the day it is us, people, who keep the lights on. Whereas motors are no longer the largest consumers of energy in industry – that accolade has now apparently moved to data centres – we are reminded how easy it may seem to take people out of the loop, as it were. We live in a data-centric environment; we live in an automated world; but is it really controlled? It is worth reminding ourselves, for instance, of the fundamental difference between automating a process versus controlling it. It’s easy to automate

energy + information in industry

ArmCoil highlights the capabilities of South African manufacturers of trans- formers and mini substations, equipped to supply packaged and customised technical solutions to renewable energy

development projects. (Read more on page 3.)

Editor: Leigh Darroll Design & Layout: Darryl James Advertising Manager: Heidi Jandrell Circulation: Karen Smith Editorial Technical Director: Ian Jandrell Publisher: Karen Grant Deputy Publisher: Wilhelm du Plessis

Audited circulation Quarter 2 (April-June) 2021 Total print and e-editions 9868

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Ian Jandrell PrEng IntPE(SA), BSc(Eng) GDE PhD, FSAAE FSAIEE SMIEEE

1 Electricity + Control SEPTEMBER 2021

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