Businesses need transparency to comply with energy efficient programmes

17th May 2013

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

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Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting solu- tions manufacturer LED Lighting South Africa CEO Pierre van Helden says rebate programmes initiated by State-owned power utility Eskom to manage electricity demand have done a great deal to spark interest in the lighting market for energy saving projects.

Although he endorses Eskom’s rebate programme for LED lighting retrofits, he believes that it is excessively complex. “There are numerous stakeholders influencing the requirements for Eskom’s rebate programme, which need to be consolidated and refined to avoid confusion and a consequent slowdown in the adoption of these technologies.”
Van Helden says Eskom needs to foster simplicity and clarity with regard to the requirements for the programme to avoid companies becoming frustrated by inconsistencies and frequent changes to requirements.

While many companies want to comply with Eskom’s rebate programmes, they can be discouraged by changes that may occur in requirements during the application process.

“Businesses need a consistent set of requirements and deliverables, with clear, predefined lead times for the inception of these requirements that they can refer to so that they easily understand how their projects will unfold and rebates will be paid.

“The common objective among the end- user, supplier and Eskom should be the rapid adoption of green technology. Regular changes and intricacies in the requirements mean that this objective is not met by these parties,” says Van Helden.

In response, Eskom states that it has been open and clear with regard to the requirements of its rebate programmes. The parastatal says a technology must comply with the relevant safety and performance standard and that Eskom and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) have been assessing the progress of the development of international standards for LED lighting technologies. In the interim, while the international standards are being finalised, Eskom has drafted a specification document for LED lighting technologies other than downlighters.

Further, an LED workshop was held at the Industrial and Commercial Use of Energy Conference in August last year where Eskom and those in the LED industry discussed the lack of standards and the current Eskom rebate programmes at length, and at which, Eskom says, Van Helden was a speaker.

“A decision was taken late in 2012 by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specification that luminaires equipped with LEDs will be considered standard luminaires and, therefore, the SABS will test luminaires based on South African National Standards (Sans) 60598-1 and the applicable Part 2 for safety testing.

“In addition to Sans 60598, LED lamps must be tested for safety compliance in accordance with IEC 62560. Safety is a key focus area for Eskom and, therefore, it will ensure that safe products are included in all Integrated Demand Management (IDM) rebate programmes. Version 2012 of Sans 475 was amended to incorporate the inclusion of LED light sources,” Eskom states.

The utility stresses that its specifications were not changed and that the Sans standards were amended to include LED light sources.

It adds that LED lighting is a fast developing field with technological advances made every day and, therefore, critical standards and specifications are required to ensure the regulation of high-quality products being introduced to the market to reduce the risks to consumers.

Eskom says in its commitment to save electricity and reduce demand pressure on the national electricity grid, it has been focused on driving the adoption of energy efficient lighting technologies in the home and in businesses across all sectors of the economy, adding that while much success has already been achieved with the rebate programmes, it is important for the consumer to be protected and to be made aware of the many factors that need to be considered.

The utility notes that up to now, energy efficiency lighting programmes have targeted the standard incandescent lamp, with the recommendation that it be replaced by the compact fluorescent lamp. Success has been achieved with this technology switch, resulting in big energy savings.

“The next lighting technology also in line with international trends is LED lighting. Eskom, therefore, targeted the replacement of 50 W, 50-mm-diameter quartz halogen lamp downlighters with LED downlighters. A minimum specification document was developed by Eskom in 2011, as international standards were absent. The minimum specification document clearly states the requirements that the lamps must comply with to be considered for inclusion in the standard product toolkit,” Eskom highlights.

LED Uptake
Van Helden says, in recent years, there has been a significant uptake in LED lighting in South Africa, owing to increased public awareness of the need to save energy and the convenience of not having to replace light sources regularly, as a result of major improvements in LED technology.

Van Helden adds that South Africa has become efficient enough in terms of adopting LED lighting and compares well on a global scale; however, he asserts that individuals should not focus on the initial costs of investing in the lighting solution, but on the long-term savings in which it will result.

Meanwhile, he notes that during the past 18 months, there have been several fly-by-night companies that have entered the LED industry with unrealistic claims, such as the range of their products’ life span, the lumen outputs of these products and their endorsement by Eskom’s energy-saving IDM initiative.

He believes that this has given the technology and the industry a bad name with some customers.

“Eskom has become more vigilant about standards and getting products endorsed, which is a step in the right direction. The test processes are time consuming and expensive, which deters fly-by-night companies. Eskom ensures that products have been tested by not allowing a rebate to go through with out the proof of test documentation,” Van Helden says.

LED Projects
LED Lighting SA is involved, along with local property groups, in several projects related to Eskom’s IDM programme.

Van Helden says one of these projects has been completed for V&A Waterfront Holdings, part of the V&A Waterfront group of companies, and entails LED Lighting SA replacing the halogen, compact fluorescent lamp and fluorescent lighting at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront with LED products.

Another project, undertaken on behalf of Old Mutual Properties, includes replacing the lighting at the Cavendish Square shopping centre. Other shopping centres owned by Old Mutual Properties will be completed over the next year or so.

Earlier this year, LED Lighting SA also replaced the lighting at Maponya Mall, in Soweto, Gauteng, for Zenprop Properties.

“We are also working on the Portside project: a new 27-storey building, in Cape Town. The building will use only LED lighting technology and all the fittings we have provided were custom built for the distribution of light and digital controls,” he states.

Further, LED Lighting SA has eight significant projects that qualify for Eskom rebates that are in the project submission and approval process.

Meanwhile, the company offers electricity consumers Eskom-approved energy efficient products to reduce energy consumption and the load on South Africa’s strained national electricity supply.

The products are manufactured to save the customer money on energy costs, as the products use less electricity and last longer than inefficient energy products, says Van Helden.

“Our clients are happy with their lighting but our role, on behalf of Eskom, is to show them that their current lighting costs are high and that we can save them money, with as little disruption as possible to their businesses by installing LED lighting solutions,” he says.

Van Helden adds that energy-saving initiatives and the newest products are necessary but not sufficient. Innovative services to complement the products are important, as it is a package deal that combines accurate measurement, cost analysis, product cost analysis that highlights savings and payback periods, and finance options.

The company’s service offering also includes customising product solutions to suit specific applications.

“We have a particularly good solution for replacing fluorescent tubes in cove lights at shopping centres, hotels and corporate buildings,” says Van Helden.

LED Lighting SA ensures that the LED technologies entering the local markets are the latest advancements and offer improved efficiencies when compared with older technologies.

However, Van Helden says companies in the LED industry hope that government will put more stringent standards and regulations in place to ensure that only quality products are on the market.

“Those in the LED industry that are creat- ing local jobs hope that the Department of Trade and Industry and the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation will continue to support and help the industry compete with cheap, low-quality imports from China, and international companies with big marketing budgets,” he says.

The majority of LED Lighting SA’s fittings are manufactured in Cape Town. This includes printed circuit boards, component population, aluminium extrusions and polycarb extrusions.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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