Despite falling electricity demand in South Africa, global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) group Black & Veatch remains optimistic about prospects for the country’s power market, as well as energy prospects across Africa, where increased attention is being given to addressing the prevailing electricity constraint.

Sub-Saharan Africa business development director Webb Meko tells Engineering News Online that the $3-billion, employee-owned group has consolidated its presence in the region through the creation of Black & Veatch South Africa, a level four broad-based black economic-empowerment-rated company.

Its Johannesburg office, which was formally established in 2015 and includes 50 of Black & Veatch’s roughly 135 regionally-based professionals, has also been identified as the initial base from which the company will pursue power market prospects in Southern, East and West Africa.

Black & Veatch’s largest activity on the continent remains its EPC and owner’s engineer role at Eskom’s R161-billion, 4 800 MW Kusile coal-fired power station project, in Mpumalanga.

Representing one of the most complex power infrastructure projects in the southern hemisphere, Meko says the project is currently on a more stable footing, with synchronisation of the first 800 MW unit scheduled for late-2016. Eskom states that plant will only enter commercial operation in the second half of 2018, with the other five units to be introduced in stages between then and 2022.

However, he stresses that its client base has continued to broaden to include renewable-energy and conventional power-station developers, mining interests and the oil and gas sector, as well as construction management and EPC services.

Meko acknowledges there could be a slowing in the pace of new project activity. However, he believes there is still a strong business case for continued investment, in light of the country’s aging coal fleet and related environmental pressure to reduce emissions. He adds that the opening of the independent power producer (IPP) market to private firms has increased the number of projects, with activity on the rise.

Black & Veatch is particularly interested in South Africa’s plan to deploy 3 700 MW of gas-to-power projects through IPPs and public-private partnerships, as well as in the creation of the gas-importation infrastructure at either the ports of Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay, or Ngqura.

Meko notes that the firm has its own proprietary liquefied natural gas technologies and is, therefore, working to participate directly in the infrastructure and power generation components of these complex gas–to-power projects.

It is also directly participating in South Africa’s coal baseload IPP programme and positioning for other coal and gas IPP projects in locations such as Botswana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. South Africa’s evolving oil and gas projects and future nuclear expansion have also captured the company’s attention.

Black & Veatch is a strong supporter of US President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative, with its global CFO, Karen Daniel, serving as vice-chair of a panel appointed to advise Obama on how US firms can facilitate infrastructure and business development in Africa.

“We believe that sub-Saharan Africa is a region of tremendous near term potential and will be one of the key contributors to the next growth phase of Black & Veatch,” Meko asserts.