Hydropower alternative As African economies grow, demand for sustainable energy supply is also increasing
1 336 MW of wind; 200 MW of CSP; 121 MW of small hydro; and 110 MW of biomass, biogas and landfill gas.
This is to be addressed in the fourth round of bidding, which will create significant further opportunities for equipment suppliers. The REIPPPP also has significant economic benefits due to its job creation potential and the promotion of local content.
Altron subsidiary Powertech has been successful in phases one and two of the REIPPPP, securing more than R350m worth of orders. It currently supplies products such as cables, transformers and turnkey substations to the renewable energy project owners.
Powertech QuadPro, a turnkey substation provider and a recent acquisition by Altron, has been particularly successful in winning contracts in the renewable energy field. Among these are contracts for two wind farm projects — Eskom’s Sere wind farm project near Vredendal in the Western Cape and Acciona’s/Aveng Labonne project near Gouda, also in the Western Cape. The combined value of these two contracts is almost R80m.
Powertech QuadPro has benefited from its strategy of offering a packaged solution to customers and, as such, it exemplifies a newly adopted approach where the emphasis has shifted from producing and selling single products to offering an integrated solution to customers. This consists of the manufactured products, advice, project management, implementation, maintenance and integration of the solution.
Also in the renewables field, Aberdare Cables has developed its Solardac cable, used for interconnecting solar PV panels. It is a cheap and durable alternative to imported products, and was designed following the development of new specifications to cater for local environmental conditions.
An ability to provide not only world-class, home-grown products to support the development of renewables, but also offer the insights and expertise to ensure project implementations are successful, puts Powertech and its subsidiaries in a strong position. The company’s market and sector experience is unparalleled and it is upbeat about its role in partnering government and the private sector in Africa’s journey to sustainable infrastructure development. Kayton is CEO of Powertech
(Altron Power)