A growing rental market and the provision of expert services, including electrical engineering services, are providing global generator manufacturer Himoinsa with good growth in Southern Africa, says Himoinsa Southern Africa business development director Matt Bell.

The rental market provides the company with long-term growth as its power-as-a-service offerings and high service levels underpin demand for permanent power generation solutions.

The company provides remote technical support, including predictive and preventive maintenance, as well as very high service levels to ensure uptime.

A key differentiator for Himoinsa is its engineering services, as well as the ease of use and reliability of its equipment, explains Bell.

“Our research and development facility at our headquarters in Spain focuses on the integration of all components and subsystems to ensure that they function according to the design. Integration also enables us to ensure very high levels of production and availability from any of our systems, from small to large, as well as to monitor the performance of the equipment in use.”

Each system is designed to client specifications, whether rental or long-term and permanent solutions.

“While bespoke systems might seem difficult to support in the field, we produce all the components and spares ourselves and store them in our bonded warehouse in Port Elizabeth and at our facility in Midrand, Gauteng. The engineering, monitoring, spares availability and in-field service capabilities enable us to provide customised services and equipment,” he says.

The rental units are equipped with International Standards Organisation-compliant quick coupling ports based on commonly used equipment in the various industries to ensure ease and safety of use.

The company also operates through a partner and channel model and provides significant training for its partners to serve clients and maintain the machinery in good working order.

Significantly, Himoinsa’s channel and partner approach helps to meet high service-level agreements, as a range of channel partners can respond to any service request or emergency from clients across Southern Africa, explains Himoinsa Southern Africa head of services Chris Davison.

“Rental is a busy market for us currently and constitutes a new approach being piloted in Southern and sub-Saharan Africa,” agrees Bell.

Crucially, the use rates of the rental fleet are above 90%, and clients often use these rental and standby systems for power, while the bespoke designed permanent solution is being designed and manufactured, he adds.

The company specifically designs its rental fleet to be robust, but also uses remote monitoring and control to ensure that the systems perform well.

Additionally, the integration that Himoinsa can achieve with its systems and subsystems enables it to synchronise a range of generators, distribute the load evenly to provide power for larger applications, and serve as full-scale industrial power plants.

The company serves the construction, telecommunications, mining and manufacturing industries, as well as municipalities. It provides hybrid solutions that can leverage renewable energy and builds gas-fired generators.

The company also has load banks – an array of heating elements that act as a dummy load (to test a generation solution) – that it uses to test load shifting and how long it will take the generators to take up the full load during emergencies or outages.

“We also provide advice for mines to stagger their start-up processes for various systems to reduce maximum consumption, which also helps to reduce the overall size of the power generation capacity they require,” says Davison.

Bell points to the Tschudi copper mine, in Namibia, which has two 1 MW solutions installed within a powerhouse that serves as its permanent power source.

“The rental service enables us to provide power immediately for a client, either for the duration of the project, temporarily or while we are building the customised permanent solution,” concludes Bell.