Global ties place supplier ahead in energy efficiency game

28th October 2016

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

  

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Through the global resources afforded by its parent company, electrical equipment supplier Zest WEG Group, a subsidiary of Brazilian motor and controls manufacturer WEG, has been in a “very fortunate position” from a manufacturer perspective.

“WEG manufactures predominantly in Brazil, with sales offices in the US, Australia and Europe. With that in mind, energy efficiency has been on its agenda for much longer than it has been on Africa’s,” notes Zest WEG Group executive David Claassen.

However, Zest WEG Group CEO Louis Meiring enthused at the biannual Electra Mining Africa 2016 Expo in September that, over the past few years, Zest has invested R150-million in its South African manufacturing operations. The investment in best practice production control programmes will allow for its manufacturing operations to improve processes, thereby accelerating production to meet shortened lead times, which have become the norm in the market.

The decision to incorporate WEG’s manufacturing planning and execution system into the South African operations forms part of a global sustainability strategy.

In November 2015, a team of practitioners from WEG Brazil visited the South African facilities to compare their status with those of WEG global best practices in manufacturing. This took place over a three-week period to ensure an in-depth assessment of all four of the company’s facilities.

Zest operates four separate manufacturing facilities – Shaw Controls, WEG Transformers Africa Wadeville, WEG Transformers Africa Heidelberg and Zest WEG Group Generator Sets Division.

Zest, Claassen says, now not only produces products in Africa, which it has been servicing for more than 35 years, but also aims to supply countries on other continents.

Between 45% and 50% of the revenue Zest generates originates from products that are being manufactured in South Africa. “From being a traditional import organisation to where we are today as a solutions provider is a massive achievement.

“This speaks directly to our localisation strategy, which we have realised needs to be addressed,” Meiring says, highlighting that the company aims for its factories to be used as a manufacturing source when supplying products by operations within the WEG group worldwide.

Speaking to Mining Weekly in August, Meiring confirmed that being responsive to the market had always been the cornerstone of Zest’s success on the African continent: “It is this ability to adapt our business that we believe will enable us to become the supplier of choice to the market.”

When the energy crisis started in South Africa in 2008, Zest had access to already engineered, energy efficient solutions, Claassen says.

Today, many mines in South Africa have generators, should there be power outages implemented by State-owned power utility Eskom. However, the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and the cost of diesel associated with generators are high, he notes.

Claassen, therefore, highlights that a cheaper and more environment-friendly alternative to standby power is the incorporation of solar power technology with existing diesel generation and power generation systems. “Solar power is a renewable source of energy and, combined with a diesel generator, there are savings to be had in terms of GHG emissions and fuel costs.”

Zest can install a solar power generation solution which includes photovoltaic (PV) and inverter technology to complement diesel generators, offsetting diesel costs and utility downtime.

Historically, Claassen notes, electricity supply was not an issue in South Africa, as Eskom had been able to exceed demand, and, therefore, the country had one of the most cost-effective energy supplies in the world. “Therefore, there was a culture in the mining industry of overdesigning equipment, without taking energy efficiency into consideration too much.”

However, since 2008, this trend has ceased, with energy and power supply challenges in South Africa becoming evident, owing to Eskom’s aged power station fleet and delayed new-build programme with the attendant tariff-rate hikes.

“We have been at the forefront of introducing the most highly efficient motors in the business, and introduced electric motors that comply with the International Electrotechnical Commission’s premium-efficiency standard, or IE3, as a standard offering across our entire product range in January 2015,” explains Claassen.

He adds that, with Zest making IE3-rated motors a standard product, the company has assisted the mining industry by offering a premium product at an affordable price while ensuring that clients have access to the most energy efficient solutions.

WEG has developed an electric motor that is certified up to IE5, which is not yet a requirement by the mining industry globally. Although this product is readily available, it is only supplied on request.

The company has also developed various in-house software tools, such as harmonic calculations, run-up time calculations and thermal curves of electric motors throughout a predefined speed range, and is, therefore, able to offer its mining clients application-engineered solutions and energy savings.

“There are savings to be had with pumping and ventilation applications, just by ‘tweaking’ the process. This tweaking may be as simple as a small speed adjustment that could result in an optimal process point with energy savings. We can offer an electric motor and variable-speed drive (VSD) package that can realise significant savings in terms of energy use,” notes Claassen.

Zest offers clients various options in terms of the application from a process perspective and can present accurate figures on the energy savings achieved, translating this into rands a year. “Through the combination of electric motors and VSDs, we have moved away from providing a model based on a capital purchase outlook to one based on an operational purchase outlook,” Claassen explains.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of the package is based on the capital cost, running cost and cost of maintaining the electric motor and the VSD. “With the TCO model, we are able to show clients that they are able to achieve a payback period of less than one year.

“We also offer existing mining operations an energy efficiency analysis service, whereby our teams visit mines, assess their operations and propose more energy efficient solutions, providing accurate savings information,” Claassen adds.

He notes that this value-added service is offered to Zest clients free of charge.

Another offering that the company is considering is a free of charge evaluation of mining clients’ existing standby power installations. Zest aims to offer the service to a few platinum mines in South Africa, and is undertaking studies for various mining companies in Africa.

“We understand and are acutely aware of the pressures – such as commodity prices being down and operational and capital expenditure being cut – the mining industry is currently under. We are constantly looking at ways to add more value for our mining clients through innovation, the introduction of new product designs and new solutions.

“We believe that we are one of the more dynamic companies to work for, as we employ a certain amount of flexibility in our organisation when attempting to meet our customers’ demands,” concludes Claassen.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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