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Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

A spokesperson said on Tuesday that State-owned power utility Eskom hoped to implement its energy conservation scheme during the first quarter of 2009. The rules surrounding the scheme would be promulgated over the next few months.

The plan would set out how much power users can consume over a 12-month period. It would prescribe fines for excessive consumption.

Eskom's Corrie Visagie said that although there were still some regulatory issues surrounding the scheme, it was hoped that implementation could start in early 2009.

The first phase of the energy conservation plan would require major energy users, those who required about 25 GWh or higher a year, to cut back about 10% of their annual use. Visagie said that about 500 end users nationwide would be influenced by the first phase. These would include large industry players, shopping malls, and commercial plants.

Market research company Synovate reported on Tuesday that the vehicle manufacturing industry has again made "exceptional progress" in terms of improving its product quality.

Synovate automotive client services director Richard Rice said that the average problem count on passenger vehicles in South Africa had declined from 182 problems for each 100 vehicles in 2001, to 117 last year and to 103 in 2008.

The research formed part of Synovate's competitive customer satisfaction research. This is the largest survey of its kind in the South African market. Part of this survey included a product quality measurement.

The survey is used to measure the number of problems new car owners experienced with their vehicles in the first few months of ownership.

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Also making headlines:

Nissan turns to microdot technology in its battle against copper thieves.
Oil falls toward $78 on recession and demand concerns.
International bank bail-outs are seen to be benefiting the India-Brazil-South Africa economies.
And, Mandisi Mpahlwa sees a 'compelling' case for stronger South-South trade links.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.