Housing in Southern Africa April 2015

Energy Efficiency, Green Building & IBTs

Monitoring energy consumption Inpartnershipwithenergy servicecompanyHVAC, SouthAfrica’s leading cement manufacturer, PPC, has been doing its part to take the stress off the national energy grid through predictive production software.

H VAC has been providing tech- nology to PPC’s Hercules plant in Pretoria to helpmoni- tor electricity consumption and pro- duction levels, in order to plan pro- duction around peak times. PPC Group Energy Manager, Egmont Ottermann says, “We have been working with HVAC since 2006, constantly trying to optimise the per- formance of our equipment sowe can minimise energy costs. Essentially, this software helps usmonitor factory production and silo levels to ensure stock levels are high enough for us to switch off a unit during peak times.” This energy saving initiative has already been rolled out to five PPC plants and plugs directly into PPC’s control systems. According to Ot- termann, the Hercules plant alone can consume up to 10 megawatts, depending on which equipment is

being used. Ottermann believes this project has been a resounding suc- cess and has improved profitability. “Load shifting is an important part of reducing the likelihood of load shedding and although each single contribution seems like a drop in the ocean, everyone needs to do their part,” implores Ottermann. “If this power crisis is going to last five years, then we all need to do as much as possible to become energy efficient. This will help reduce the occurrences of load shedding by cutting our peak time use, we can al- low that electricity to be distributed elsewhere.” Ottermann says that industry in South Africa is actually on the leading edge of energy efficiency measures. It is not simply a nice to have, it is an absolute business imperative,” he says. ■