MechChem Africa November-December 2020

SA wins highest international energy project award Following the 2020 Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) International Awards ceremony on October 14, MechChem Africa talks to Alfred Hartzenburg, national project manager of SouthAfrica’s National Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) Project, about why it was a worthy winner and the project’s ongoing importance for South Africa.

A t the 2020 Association of En- ergy Engineers (AEE) International Awards ceremony held via a global virtual ceremony on October 14, The International Energy Project of the Year award, the highest international accolade for an energy programme, was won by the South African National Industrial Energy Efficiency Project (IEE Project). South Africa’s IEE Project, which has been led since 2010 by the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC- SA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), re- ceived the award in recognitionof its success- ful efforts to transform energy use patterns in South African industry, by mainstreaming energymanagement systems and pioneering energytrainingandprofessionaldevelopment across economic sectors. Since its first implementation projects in 2011, the IEE Project team has assisted industrial companies to save 6.5 TWh of energy, translating to cumulative cost savings of R5.3-billion in these companies. “This is ap- proximately equivalent tofive years of Eskom load shedding at the recently-experienced highest rates (1.325 TWh/year in 2019),” Hartzenburg points out. “At the end of the day, energy efficiency is about doing basic things better, which is not always that exciting. But our relentless

pursuit of project outputs in the energy space has laid the groundwork for a multitude of achievements. We are so proud that, after more than 10 years of hard work and against the best initiatives the world has to offer, our IEE Project has been acknowledged as exceptional,” he says. The NCPC-SAwas first conceived in 2002 at the worldwide sustainable summit in Johannesburg and founded with financial aid from the Austrian and Swiss Governments. “Our mission was to reduce waste streams in three areas, water, energy and materials. We have since added industrial symbiosis and reuse, but essentially our core purpose is unchanged,” he tells MechChem Africa . He says that the rolling blackouts of 2007/2008 were a wake a up call for the ‘bewildered’ industrial community in South Africa. At the same time, with growth in energy demand having shifted towards non- OECDcountries, international bodies started tohelpdeveloping countries tobettermanage energy use. “After the blackouts, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy met with UNIDOtodraftaprojectplanand,in2010,the IEE-Projectwas launched through theNCPC- SA, with funding from the British (DFID) and Swiss (SECO) funding agencies and additional contributions from our own Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic).

Alf Hartzenburg.

“This was a world first and it became the model for the rest of world, which now has IEE projects in 30 different countries,” Hartzenburg says. Initially, the project encountered great suspicion: “Why are you talking to us, why are you not talking to Eskom?” was routinely asked at industry sites. He tells of an early experience at Johnson Matthey’s Germiston factory, the producer of platinumgroup cata- lysts for catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells. “Our consultant made an appoint- ment, was met in reception and given three minutes to present our case. “That was in 2012. One year later, an en- ergy management system was implemented and the company had saved 9.4 GWh of energy, worth R8.7-million at that time. Two years later, the Germiston factory was ISO 50001-certified, and in 2016 we were called back to capture the good work done. By then, Johnson Matthey had reduced its total demand by 30%. As a result, the British head office asked theGermiston plant to lead international energy management initiatives across the company’s nine other plants,” Hartzenburg recalls. Many of the early interventions were simple: Alarms to indicate when there was no load on conveyors, for example, reminding someone to manually switch the motor off. Compressed air systems were optimised and leaks were proactively found and repaired. The Johnson Matthey plant also invested R600 000 to refurbish a calcining oven to improve insulation and temperature control, which added a significant percentage to the initial R8.7-million in savings,” Hartzenburg informs MechChem Africa . “Because our energy was cheap, indus- try had become wasteful. The start of load shedding created the ‘burning platform’ that focused the minds of plant management to the need for change. For ArcelorMittal, for example, softening steel prices, shrinking market share and rising costs of input energy –cokingcoalandelectricity–werekeydrivers

The IEE Project team has assisted industrial companies to save 6.5 TWh of energy, translating to cumulative cost savings of R5.3-billion and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 6.4-million tCO 2 e.

4 ¦ MechChem Africa • November-December 2020