https://www.engineeringnews.co.za
Africa|Business|Coal|Copper|Efficiency|Energy|Eskom|Flow|generation|Gold|Indaba|Manufacturing|Mining|Modular|Power|PROJECT|Projects|Renewable Energy|Renewable-Energy|Resources|SECURITY|Solar|Sustainable|System|Water|Flow|Power Generation|Power-generation|Solutions|Operations
Africa|Business|Coal|Copper|Efficiency|Energy|Eskom|Flow|generation|Gold|Indaba|Manufacturing|Mining|Modular|Power|PROJECT|Projects|Renewable Energy|Renewable-Energy|Resources|SECURITY|Solar|Sustainable|System|Water|Flow|Power Generation|Power-generation|Solutions|Operations
africa|business|coal|copper|efficiency|energy|eskom|flow-company|generation|gold|indaba|manufacturing|mining|modular|power|project|projects|renewable-energy|renewable-energy-company|resources|security|solar|sustainable|system|water|flow-industry-term|power-generation|power-generation-industry-term|solutions|operations

Renewable energy punted as a viable option as load-shedding bites

15th May 2015

By: Zandile Mavuso

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The availability of a reliable electricity supply is crucial to ensuring uninterrupted production in the mining industry, which accounts for about 18% of South Africa’s gross domestic product.

However, State-owned power utility Eskom has had to implement load-shedding in an effort to regulate the country’s overloaded system, which has affected mining productivity negatively.

As a result, alternative energy sources, such as renewable energy, are deemed to be viable options for mining companies to invest in to ensure continuous production. Renewable energy is believed to not only have the ability to guarantee reliable energy supply but also be a cost-saving initiative for mining companies in the long term.

Energy solutions company Energy Partners spokesperson Cala van der Westhuizen says considering renewable energy as an alternative energy source in the mining sector will not only ensure continuous energy supply but also reduce energy costs for mining companies.

“Energy costs can constitute anywhere between 15% and 40% of the operating budget of a mine, which is a major driving force for management teams to closely evaluate the expenditure,” he explains.

Van der Westhuizen notes, however, that, while renewable energy is generating much interest, companies must also consider the implementation of energy efficiency models.

“From an efficiency point of view, there are many opportunities for mining companies to save costs. Such opportunities could include the efficient cooling and heating of air and water, as well as optimised processing in manufacturing, which could all lead to large [reductions] in total energy consumption. This will effectively lead to the energy savings required to keep a mining company sustainable and profitable.”

Drawing examples from mining operations in other countries, Van der Westhuizen says that mines have implemented alternative energy and energy efficient models in their operations and have enjoyed the cost benefits of switching to off-grid energy supply.

He cites, as an example, mining operations in Chile, where many mines have been successfully implementing solar and wind as renewable-energy resources. “In some cases, solar energy is providing more than 10% of the yearly electricity demand. “At the Collahuasi copper mine, savings pertaining to renewable energy equate to 60 GWh a year.”

Van der Westhuizen states that there have been a few promising projects in South Africa, such as the solar-diesel hybrid plant by Cronimet Mining Power Solutions, in Thabazimbi, and diversified miner Anglo American’s photovoltaic project, in Mpumalanga, which have been working well for the respective operations.

Mining Weekly reported earlier this year that gold miner Sibanye Gold was planning to build a R3-billion 150 MW solar power plant to ease its reliance on the costly and unreliable electricity supply from Eskom.

Despite reducing electricity consumption by about 20% since 2007, Sibanye’s electricity costs increased rapidly, accounting for 9%, or R757-million, of its operating costs and 20% currently. Current costs could represent a potential bill of about R3.1-billion in 2015. According to Sibanye, electricity cost the company about R2.8-billion in 2014.

Further, with labour costs accounting for another 55%, this meant that 75% of the gold miner’s operating costs were beyond its control.

“To mitigate the short-term risk, we have continued to work with Eskom to manage and reduce the impact of load-shedding on our operations; however, the security of electricity supply and rising costs will remain an issue,” said Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman.

Owing to this, the modular plant that the company plans to build is expected to come on line in phased 50 MW stages at a site near Driefontein, in Mpumalanga, in 2017. This will reduce the company’s average daily energy requirements from the national grid by 10%.

While the plant will provide only a portion of the company’s 500 MW demand, Froneman noted that the company had undertaken an in-depth assessment of the feasibility of constructing coal-fired power stations that could each produce between 200 MW/y and 600 MW/y.

The company is also engaging various independent power producers to develop deeper insight into independent power generation in order to improve the supply of energy in the future.

Reliable Partnerships
In developing renewable-energy operations, Van der Westhuizen says it is important to partner with a company that has extensive experience and expertise in renewable- and alternative-energy management.

“The correct partner will enable the business to determine its own energy consumption footprint at the highest level and will play an instrumental role in implementing effective monitoring processes to ensure that results can be determined accurately,” he explains.

Also, once the energy consumption footprint has been analysed, Van der Westhuizen says, it then becomes possible to determine where improved processes, machinery or other resources can be applied.

To ensure this, it becomes important to constantly monitor and manage the changes to determine the true realisation of the improved methods and react immediately when adaptation or further improvements are needed.

“To assist mining companies with renewable energy, there are energy companies that are willing to invest their capital and core business expertise in other businesses. “This ensures not only the most efficient energy solutions for the business but also savings and a positive cash flow for the companies,” Van der Westhuizen points out.

Industry Resolutions
Owing to this, in an article published in February on the Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa (Tralac) website, researcher Gavin van der Nest comments on the current electricity crisis in South Africa.

In the article, he highlights that South Africa relies strongly on the exports of its precious metals – which are energy intensive – to finance its current account deficit. However, the impact of load-shedding on mining operations has led to a strong depreciation of the rand, a stalling of economic growth and downward revisions in growth forecasts.

“Owing to this, it was suggested at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town, in February, that mining operations in the country should pay more attention to renewable energy as an alternative power generation source,” he points out in the article.

With South Africa’s rich mineral deposits and an abundance of sunlight, renewable energy – in the form of solar energy – could prove to be an invaluable investment for the industry and mitigate the negative impact of an overloaded power grid has on production, Van der Nest adds.

“When load-shedding occurs, mining operations are shut down and, in many instances, it takes several hours for miners to be evacuated from mines. “This wastes productive time and is costly,” he comments.

As these issues have been raised as a concern by industry, solutions presented by switching to renewable energy could prove beneficial to the industry and mining companies which implement off-grid electricity at their operations.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)
SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)

Education: Consulting with member companies to obtain the optimal benefits from their B-BBEE spending, skills resources as well as B-BBEE points

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Stewarts & Lloyds
Stewarts & Lloyds

Stewarts & Lloyds today supplies steel and tube, pipe and fittings, valves, pumps, irrigation, fencing, profiling and roofing products. The cash...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.078 0.131s - 162pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now