One of the greatest opportunities currently for electrical contractors to gain new business is to become familiar with the new technologies that conserve power in both the industrial and domestic sectors, says industry body Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) of South Africa national director Chris Greager.

“With the cost of electricity increasing enormously, these technologies will be essential to reduce the load on the electricity grid and the amount of electricity currently being used by consumers,” he says.

Distribution automation, substation automation and smart metering are some of the new technologies and techniques available to make electricity generation and distribution more efficient.

State-owned power utility Eskom, together with regulatory body the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and govern- ment, plans to use smart meters and a residential time-of-use tariff to attempt to control demand without having to carry out load-shedding.

The ECA has over 3 600 member companies that represent about 65% of all employers in the electricity contractors industry. However, members of the ECA employ about 75% of all workers registered with the National Bargaining Council for the Electrical Industry.

The ECA will focus on increasing its membership in 2010 and expanding the services it offers. Coupled to this, the ECA will try to get more employers to indenture apprentices to replace electricians being lost to retirement and emigration. Many contracts were completed at the end of 2009 but, owing to the economic downturn, commerce and industry are currently reluctant to invest in new capital projects.

This has caused a dramatic reduction in available work and, if this situation continues, many businesses will be forced to close their doors and employees, who have many years of experience, could be retrenched and lost to the industry.

“Therefore, we must assist where we can in securing alternative employment for employees so that skills are retained,” Greager says.

When the recession ends, the electrical contractors industry will still be faced with serious skills shortages. The Energy Sector Education and Training Authority must deal with the crisis, work closely with industry and compensate smaller contractors for training apprentices to deal with the expected shortage, he adds.

The value of the work (which excludes the value of Eskom and municipal contracts) is estimated at about R1,6-billion. The electrical contracting industry is primarily involved in installation, extension, modification and the repair of electrical systems for industrial, commercial and residential use, Greager says.

Preparations for the FIFA World Cup did not help the electrical industry to weather the global economic downturn because less than 5% of all electrical contractors in South Africa benefited directly from the 2010 infrastructure development. Most of the work was awarded to larger electrical contractors, who, in turn, subcontracted some of the work to smaller contractors, he adds.

There is not a strong enough focus on alter- native energy generation sources, Greager says. Eskom is in the process of constructing high-voltage electrical reticulation systems and building or recommissioning power stations, but has not said much on the development of other means of generating power.

“For a long time to come, I doubt whether we will see many private producers of electricity in South Africa. Some might produce power for their own use, such as petrochemicals giant Sasol, the mines and aluminium smelters, but I cannot see any generating sufficient power to sell to the average consumer,” Greager concludes.

However, Nersa announced on November 2, 2009, that it had approved the second phase of its renewable-energy feed-in tariffs (Refit).

The basic economic principle underpinning Refits is the establishment of a price that covers the cost of generation and a “reasonable profit” to induce developers to invest, says Nersa regulator member primarily responsible for electricity Thembani Bukula.

The approval of the second phase of Refit is a significant milestone in creating an enabl-ing environment for achieving government’s 10 000-GWh renewable-energy target by 2013 and sustaining growth beyond that target, he says.