Association hosts conference alongside utility expo

1st May 2015

By: Pimani Baloyi

Creamer Media Writer

  

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The Southern African Asset Management Association (Saama) will, for the second year running, host an asset management conference alongside the African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition, which will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from May 12 to 14.

Saama VP Craig Henry tells Engineering News that the association will also have an exhibition stand at African Utility Week, where member organisations will showcase their asset management services.

He highlights that the 2013 yearly financial statistics from Statistics South Africa, which consolidates all industries’ statistics, indicate the total carrying value of all tangible or physi- cal assets to be R2-trillion, excluding government institutions, agriculture and financial intermediation sectors. The data also quantifies operating expenditure of at least R280-billion for 2013.

“The bottom line is that assets under manage-ment of the asset management discipline are valued in the trillions of rands, with operating expenditure in the hundreds of billions of rands a year. This means that asset management is a discipline that requires greater prominence because of the significant economic impact of good asset management; hence the [yearly] conference alongside an asset-intensive industry of utilities,” says Henry.

He adds that South Africa’s power shortages, for example, which have forced State-owned power utility Eskom to implement load-shedding, can be attributed to failed asset life-cycle management. He explains that good asset management has a holistic life-cycle approach, enabling timely decision-making to acquire or invest in additional asset capacity.

“The root cause of the utility’s, and consequently South Africa’s, dire economic state is the failure to have made timely decisions. It was always known that growth in an economy leads to growth in electricity demand; when one has limited and aged installed capacity, it is only a matter of time before demand exceeds supply capacity, if no investment is made to expand generating asset capacity. Hence, our dire situation.”

Meanwhile, Henry tells Engineering News that the theme of this year’s Saama conference is ‘Managing asset life-cycle cost’. Speakers from Indonesia, the US, the Netherlands, Canada, Dubai, Australia and South Africa will attend the conference.

He details that conference speakers include Indonesia-based asset management company PNL representatives Miftahul Janna and Herry Nugraha, who will deliver an address titled ‘Life-cycle costing analysis to achieve cost-effective maintenance planning on the operation of coal-fired power plants’.

Canada-based nonprofit association Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada programme manager Cindy Snedden will also give a presentation, providing an overview of maintenance and asset management certifications from Global Forum on Maintanance and Asset Management professional bodies, while youth empowerment organisation Eruditio US-based representative Shon Isenhour will give a presentation on the best practices in maintenance and life-cycle asset management training which should drive a return on educational investments.

Henry highlights that 2014 and 2015 have been notable years in terms of the development of asset management standards. He says Saama was instrumental in approaching the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) to participate in the development of international standards in asset management. The SABS published the South African National Asset Management Standards, SANS 5500x, in February, after the international standards, the ISO 5500x series, were published at the same time last year.

AUW Participation
Henry tells Engineering News that Saama president Anton Booyzen will serve as an expert panellist during a discussion on the asset management of power stations at the African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference on May 13.

He says Booyzen’s participation is part of Saama’s strategy to reach the decision-makers in the utilities that serve Africa to increase their awareness of the benefits of using proven asset management principles.

Saama will also contribute to the 60 free, continuing professional development-accredited technical workshops on the exhibition floor, which will be presented by several industry organisations, including South African Renewable Energy Technology, the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Southern Africa Association of Energy Efficiency.

Saama’s workshop will cover not only maintenance, but also topics that include new inspection tools, asset management strategies, operational maintenance solutions and effective fault identification.

Henry concludes that Saama is a member organisation of the Global Forum of Maintenance and Asset Management, which is an association of international associations representing more than nine countries. Saama is a founding member and is active in the global forum’s activities.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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