ISSN 2412-7779 REGULARS

INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

6 14

VOL . 37 - NO . 2 | MAY 2023

16 Continued on 26

REGULARS

3 Editors column 33 Products 34 Buyer ’ s guide 35 Wordsearch

NEWS

4 Closing the hydrogen skills gap 5 MBA sounds alarm at company closures

ASSOCIATIONS

6 SAQCC Gas celebrates 15 years 7 SAQCC Gas announces end of the road for paper CoCs

AUTOMATION & TECHNOLOGY

8 Ethics and sustainability not ( yet ) top concerns of SA businesses

TECHNICAL

10 R744 booster systems in commercial refrigeration

EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

13 GCCA hosts seminar on the major risks experienced by the cold storage industry

14 Photographs from visit to IIAR conference in Long Beach California March 2023 ( Part 1 ))

CONTRIBUTORS

25 Comments of first day at the IIAR Conference

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These included European IPPs ( Independent Power Producers ), representatives from the European Investment Bank , CEOs of large multinationals as well as local representatives , and a representative from the President ’ s office .

The discussions revolved around challenges involving the future of the coal-fired power stations and how to get traction on new renewable energy projects quickly ; while the biggest frustration expressed related to the transmission grid and government obduracy in freeing up the market .

One German CEO described how his company had for years been offering to build their own grid to integrate into Eskom ’ s national grid – an offer continually rebuffed by government ’ s excessive red tape .

A behavioural issue was highlighted whereby South Africans were historically accustomed to cheap electricity and at a consumer and business level were still not focusing sufficiently on energy efficiency

or even taking elementary measures such as installing solar geysers . The European Investment Bank noted from its experiments that solar geysers alone give an average 30 % saving in electricity consumption .

The positives from the Roundtable were the amount of IP and capital on display in the room that will be imminently invested in South Africa ; as well as the absolute awareness of South Africa ' s challenges relating to crime and corruption . Investors made it plain they won ’ t have their capital go via government but rather directly to IPPs . To achieve this , they ' ve set up conduits to manage the flow of funds to make this work . The cautious consensus in the room was that the appointment of the Electricity Minister seemed to be a good thing , as that level of focus was key . There was also widespread material support for the task team set up by Minster Patel to remove investment bottlenecks in renewable energy , and there ' s clearly a lot of initiatives under way . Pleasant surprise was expressed among delegates as to the amount happening in the sector . The consensus in the room was that there will be 18 to 24 months of real pain ahead before private sector IPP-type solutions would make a noticeable impact .

Another question raised concerned the role of the African continental bloc in establishing a coordinated power grid . It was this factor which had greatly assisted Europe in the wake of the Ukraine-Russia war , to redeploy power from other regions

to replace Russian power . There is no equivalent in Africa .

While Africa has different challenges , a decentralised power grid was suggested as a part-solution which would enable a generation or two of technology advancement to be skipped , much as had occurred with mobile telephony allowing it to spread throughout Africa without a ubiquitous national phone service ever having been established in most countries .

In the power sector , decentralised hydrogen cells represent the potential to replace a centralised grid with a vast number of standalone units throughout rural parts of Africa , as these hydrogen cells are batteries “ on steroids ”.

Foreign interest in Africa lies at the bottom of the many initiatives under way in South Africa . There was a palpable – almost desperate – intent to make a success in South Africa , so as to develop a springboard into the rest of Africa for investors . The international backers present are ones who already have a deep knowledge of Africa and its challenges and are impressive people with impressive IP .

Notwithstanding widespread scepticism , there is more happening in the energy sector than most people are commonly aware of , which in aggregate is the output of a Medupi power station .

The major takeaway theme was an intent to fix the energy problem despite government , and that the top CEOs and foreign investors are in the process of

EDITOR ’ S COLUMN

expressing their extreme frustration directly to President Ramaphosa as to the poor return the country is getting from its taxes . The only thing that prevents a solution emerging more quickly is that government stops it from happening .

That may be changing : there appears to be a trend for government to loosen up on allowing IPPs to start integrating and on private sector focus on transmission . While the Eskom grid has always been – and currently still is – untouchable , the consensus in the room was that the transmission grid is becoming a bit more collaborative in terms of finding solutions . CLA

Eamonn