The dinosaur falls – Part 2

In my last column, I wrote that State-owned electricity utility Eskom has been most comprehensively messed up. A combination of black economic empowerment, government incompetence, employee... 

The dinosaur falls

State-owned electricity utility Eskom has been most comprehensively messed up. Stronger words apply . . . but anyway. Black economic empowerment (BEE), government incompetence, employee... 

Death of the small consulting practice

I am not sure how much we are owed in total. This is 'we' as in my consulting practice. A figure of R1 030 000 springs to mind. Certain debtors do stand out. There is the dear old North West... 

Large storage batteries

Before cellphones, the only rechargeable batteries were NiCad batteries, and they were not terribly good. There was a drive to come up with something better, and so the lithium-ion battery was... 

Outsourcing and insourcing

The wonder of politicians is their extreme stupidity. Somebody once explained to me that rocket scientists know lots about rockets but not much about anything else. Knowing lots about one thing.... 

Power system stability

Power system stability is the degree to which a power grid continues to supply power after an unexpected event. An example: he Zambia power system has a demand of about 1 900 MW. Thus, at any one... 

Robot wars

Daniel Faggella is the founder and CEO OF Emerj. He is an expert on the competitive strategy implications of artificial intelligence (AI). He writes: "Over the last two years, there has been a... 

Under the sun

I was on a Brazilian navy ship. I had been employed to design some noise-reduction measures but, as soon as I was on board, I was hustled down to the main electrical control room by the ship's... 

Dumbsday prepper

You know what a 'doomsday prepper' is? No? A doomsday prepper is a modern person who believes that an event will occur that will effectively end civilisation. Communities will be bereft of food,... 

Background noise

My brother Geoff is not an engineer – he works in information technology but qualified as a zoologist. He believes fervently  in climate change. Recently, he sent me a link to the South African... 

Oh, my Zimbabwe

There is plenty to cry about with regard to Zimbabwe. One of the engineers in our office is from Zimbabwe and so I regularly get updates on how things are in that country. By all accounts, there... 

Transmitting renewable energy

Last week I advised that, at the Data Center Dynamics conference, in San Francisco, in the US, the following was reported: "At this year’s Data Center Dynamics conference, in San Francisco, speaker... 

Renewable-energy transmission

At the Data Center Dynamics conference in San Francisco, in the US, the following is reported: "At this year’s Data Center Dynamics conference . . . speaker after speaker took to the stage to... 

A few snippets

Often, when I drink too much (oh . . . maybe once ot twice a year) I lapse into the telling of old tales and stories. Let me hasten to add that this happens if I drink too much whiskey or too much... 

Electronic ants

The term to 'white ant' implies that somebody or an organisation is to eat the person or the organisation away by internal rot. Like a white ant, something inside an organisation is causing the... 

Not just wool – the whole darn blanket

There is no doubt that there is money in the renewable-energy business. Few businesses have the general public so much in their favour, few have so much positive propaganda over their competition.... 

Electric vehicles

Everybody wants to do his or her bit to save the environment. Some want to be a bit more public about it and so graduate from recycling their rubbish to owning an electric vehicle (EV). It is the... 

CEO of Eskom

Dear Mr President, Members of Parliament and readers of Engineering News. May I present the new candidate for CEO of State-owned electricity utility Eskom? It is myself, Terence Eric Mackenzie Hoy.... 

Big Brother is still watching

Nineteen eighty-four is now 35 years ago. It is also the title of a book by George Orwell, 1984, published 70 years ago. The book begins: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were... 

Business lessons from life

Once upon a time, there was a ship called the Essex. She was a sailing ship, rigged out as a whaler. Whalers were use to kill whales and recover the whale oil for use in oil lanterns and for other... 

What we need is a good war

I am tired of hearing about all the soft ways in which we can 'stimulate the economy' and 'create jobs' and reduce inflation. The fact of the matter is that government has comprehensively messed up... 

Egyptian geese and aircraft beam navigation

I have a very tall pine tree on my property in Pinelands, Cape Town. On many past mornings, it has been the roosting place for a pair of Egyptian geese. Now understand – it is not their nesting... 

Both barrels: govt and small business

When Engineering News publishing editor Martin Creamer gave me the go-ahead to write this column, he set down certain topics to be avoided. Politics was one. However, I am allowed to criticise... 

Dear Mr President

Happily, if I google 'Ramaphosa', I get 12.7-billion hits. If I google 'Mackenzie-Hoy, it is 8.1-million, and if I google 'Alan Mulally, I get 462 000 hits. So, I am more famous than Mulally and... 

Plague of invisible rats

This column is for David and Linda Odd. A potential disaster exists in the form of the coming plague of invisible rats, which are responsible for sudden crop failure, power outages, outbreaks of... 

Oh Alex

After townships grew all over the areas around Johannesburg from 1950 (and earlier), they remained unelectrified. The authorities who could electrify them (Municipalities and State-owned power... 

Tilting at windmills

In Don Quixote, the book by Cervantes (you know, Don Key Oatie – the one where he is a knight who has a horse called Rocinante, pronounced Ros-sin-antey, and a servant, Sancho, and there a donkey... 

The rain is on the roof, Ahummm

Since we are acoustics engineers and have a website, we often get calls from flakes. A 'flake' is someone who has developed some previously unknown affliction to some noise. They phone me up and... 

Fully automated computer mistakes

Deep in the mainframe of the government computers is data that reflects my real name: Terence Eric Mackenzie, surname – Hoy. Well, at least that is what the government has. Over the years, we have... 

No, love, you’re not alone

An extract from a song by Jacques Brel: "The newsreel of our life/I'll play it in reverse / Your pain will fall away / We'll relive yesterday / And start where we began, love . . ." So, yes, we... 

Bitter evidence of coal, diesel corruption

So, State-owned utility Eskom says it spent R140-million in March 2019 on diesel fuel for Ankerlig and Gourikwa gas turbine generation. Assuming that 70% of the diesel was used by Ankerlig, in the... 

Scrooge McDucks’ electric car

Pinin is a protein associated with desmosome,  a structure which helps hold cells together. Farina (in Italian) is a form of milled wheat. On the other hand, Battista is the name of Scrooge Scrooge... 

The Electricity Regulation Act

Concerning the liability of a licensee for damage or injury, Section 26 of the Electricity Regulation Act states: "In any civil proceedings against a licensee arising out of damage or injury caused... 

Solving electricity generation issues

Load-shedding has become like an opera that has gone on for too long. The overture is over, the arias have been sung and the swan has died quite a few times. The audience is starting to fidget a... 

All-time record

One cannot not write about State-owned electricity utility Eskom. I would love to, but it reminds me of the time that Alastair Cooke broadcast Letter From America in the UK. In those times, there... 

The end of Moore

There are certainly some of you who have never seen a transistor or held one in your hand. Few will have ever made an electronic circuit using transistors. Briefly, a transistor is an electronic... 

Motorised pogo sticks

During World War 2, it was very important that signals from the various governments involved in the war to the various armies, navies and air forces be kept secret. Signals, or messages, had to be... 

Smart grids

An Internet definition of a smart grid is: "An electricity network based on digital technology that is used to supply electricity to consumers via two-way digital communication. This system allows... 

The perfect public address system

In September 2108, Patricia de Lille gave a speech in the Cape Town City Hall as part of the opening of a revamped hall, which project had taken nine months. Despite the hall having a reverberation... 

Beta testing

Recently, we (the okes in the office an' me) bought two of a device that is supposed to repel insects. Well, not only. The box (as seen on TV) has a statement that it is an "ultrasonic pest...