Sparks Electrical News July 2019

STANDBY AND EMERGENCY POWER

15

LEONARDO FITTED WITH BACKUP POWER FROM ZEST WEG GROUP

A s Sandton anticipates the completion this year of the Leonardo, the top-end mixed- use skyscraper being constructed by Aveng- Grinaker LTA, Level 1 BBBEE-rated Zest WEG Group has supplied generator sets to keep lights on during outages. The iconic structure, that will dominate the skyline as the tallest building in Africa, is being built for 75 on Maude (Pty) Ltd, a partnership between Legacy Group and Nedbank Limited. According to Craig Bouwer, projects and prod- uct manager at Zest WEG Group genset division, the commissioning of the units was undertaken in the first quarter of 2019 with practical comple- tion expected to be reached in the second quarter of 2019. This follows the original awarding of the tender in November 2017. “We are proud to have designed, manufactured and supplied the two 2 000 kVA, 11 kV generator sets which we are installed in the Leonardo’s dedi- cated plant room on ground level,” says Bouwer. “Our contract included delivering the units to site and placing them in position, which was done in September last year. We were also responsible for the complete installation, testing, commissioning and handing over to the client in full working order.” The gensets will provide the building with emergency power backup and comprise prime- rated Mitsubishi-powered diesel generators cou- the country to harness new technologies. “En- ergy storage, which will be a critical element of a modern power system, offers potential for local industrialisation and job creation,” says Alessan- dra Pardini, a Partner at Webber Wentzel. South Africans, rattled by Eskom’s latest round of load shedding, may have to expe- rience more inconvenience in the longer term as the country makes the transition to greener power. New technologies could ease this transition. In selecting the technologies that are developing fast to complement renewable energy and will help to relocate the coun- try’s main power sources, priority should be those that also deliver jobs. At present, the bulk of SA’s energy is gen- erated from the coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga, relatively close to the indus- tries (located predominantly in Gauteng) that consume most of the electricity. But generation is shifting. Under the Paris Agreement, SA has com- mitted to cut its greenhouse gas emis- A new panel-mounted power-monitoring device (PMD) from Socomec has been launched locally by ElectroMechanica (EM). The Socomec DIRIS A-40 has been de- signed for measuring, monitoring, and reporting electrical energy. The latest PMD offers a range of functions for measuring voltage, current, pow- er, energy and power quality. Compliant with IEC 61557-12, imple- mentation is quick and efficient. The three current technologies – namely solid-core, split-core, and flexible (TE, TF and TR/iTR) – allow for a monitoring solution to be im- plemented on new and existing installations. IEC 61557-12 is a specific standard for all PMDs designed to measure and moni- tor electrical parameters in distribution networks. Compliance with the standard ensures a high level of equipment perfor- mance, metrology and the mechanical and environmental aspects. A configuration wizard provides step-by- step instructions for the end user, in addi-

pled to WEG alternators. To reduce noise levels to local council requirements, Zest WEG Group supplied and installed inlet and outlet splitter at- tenuators. The fuel storage and transfer system ensures eight hours of operation, with bulk and day fuel tanks installed in compliance with local fire regulations. The company also installed medium voltage (MV) generator protection and a control panel, as well as a main MV distribution panel for the building, comprising six tiers for all incoming sup- ply and feeder breakers. All the related cabling for the MV and low voltage (LV) reticulation was also provided for the generator sets, fuel system and auxiliary control equipment. Significantly, Zest WEG Group holds a Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) rating of 6EB for electrical engineering work in buildings, as well as a 9EP rating for infrastructural electrical engineering work. “We conducted full in-house MV testing of the system at our modern Cape Town facility before delivery to site,” Bouwer says. “We were assisted by our transformer division with the supply of three 500 kVA, 11 kV to 400 V step-down trans- formers to enable load testing at 400 V. This al- lowed us to conduct functional and load tests on the generator sets in our workshop, testing them

“Due to the weight of the equipment, special rig- ging equipment was required inside the plant room to facilitate the re-assembly process.”

individually as well as in full synchronisation and load share operation.” Bouwer adds that the location of the generator plant room and the physical size of the generator sets meant that the generator sets could not be installed as fully assembled units.

Enquiries: www.zestweg.com

“This challenge was overcome by disassembling the generator sets prior to delivery and re-assembling them in the generator plant room,” he says.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES EASE SA INTO A LOW-CARBON FUTURE P ower shortages and a transition to a lower-carbon future, in line with SA’s Paris Agreement commitments, will require sions to a range of 398-614 million tonnes of CO 2 equivalent by 2025-2030. Apart eration, or located at strategic points along the transmission infrastructure to reduce line losses or allow incremental increases in transmission capacity.

tion to detecting and correcting configura- tion errors, thereby slashing commissioning time by half in order to guarantee a reliable monitoring system. The Socomec DIRIS range consists of Internet of Things (IoT)-ready connected products that can export data automatically for remote processing, without any restric- tions on time and storage. Metering con- sists of the measurement of active, reactive, and apparent energies; an historic record of measurements; a graphical display on a monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly basis; and automatic data export via FTPS in CSV for- mat. Monitoring includes real-time meas- urement of electrical values; viewing data as graphs or tables; and power-quality analysis of the utility supply and loads. The Socomec DIRIS A-40s are panel- mounted measurement units ensuring that the end user has access to all the measure- ments required for carrying out successful energy-efficiency projects, as well as moni- from meeting these commitments, Eskom will also have to close down several of its older coal-fired power stations in the next few years as they are approaching obso- lescence. Its coal-fired power will then be largely derived from Kusile and Medupi. In addition, Koeberg Power Station reaches the end of its life in 2024. While renewable energy will become in- creasingly important, it cannot contribute to the grid without baseload or other sup- port. SA’s solar generation is located mainly in the Northern Cape. Wind also generates power along the southern and eastern Cape coasts and nuclear energy is generated from Koeberg outside Cape Town. Most of this energy is carried along long transmis- sion lines (with significant transmission losses) to the Highveld. Solar PV and wind will have to be com- plemented with some kind of stabilising technology. Options include gas or nucle- ar generation or storage. Storage implies that batteries will be required either in the Northern Cape, near most of the solar gen-

Some of the battery technologies cur- rently being tested in SA include platinum fuel-cell batteries, which use platinum as a catalyst, and vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) using vanadium in an electrolyte solution. “Like solar photovoltaic technol- ogy, we have seen the installed cost of BESS reduce significantly in the past five years and this is likely to reduce even further, making BESS a financially-viable option,” says Pardini. The future decommissioning of coal-fired power will affect jobs at both power stations and coal mines. It is critical to replace these jobs with opportunities elsewhere, prefer- ably those with longer-term security and re- quiring higher skills transfer. One possible solution to solve grid stability, build incre- mental transmission capacity and alleviate job losses could be through developing a battery industry in SA.

Enquiries: www.webberwentzel.com

LATEST POWER-MONITORING DEVICE

toring electrical distribution. All of this in- formation can be analysed remotely using an energy-management software solution. Thanks to its large backlit LCD display and its multiple viewing screens with di- rect pushbutton access, the Socomec DIRIS A-4x provides clear readings and is easy to use. It directly displays a number of multi- measurement and metering values.

Enquiries: +27 (0)11 249 5000

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

JULY 2019