SA must embrace energy management as a strategic imperative

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That's the word from Jason Huang, director of Outreach Engineering, a youth-led, non-profit organisation that aims to bring engineering solutions to South Africa's socio-economic challenges. He says that companies can make a big difference as well as save money by implementing energy conservation and energy efficiency measures.

"Addressing the shortfall in power generation capacity will take many years, which means that mandatory load shedding will be part of our lives for a while. That means we, as a nation, need to try and make as efficient use of the available power as we can, with the business sector having an especially important role to play," says Huang.

Reduce consumption

Huang says that stage one load shedding sheds 1,000 megawatts. That means load shedding could be averted if one million households/businesses each reduce their consumption by 1,000W. A substantial portion of this reduction in energy consumption can be achieved by switching to energy efficient light bulbs and switching off geysers.

Companies should be looking at reducing energy consumption, not only to help lessen the blow of load shedding, but also because energy prices are climbing with Eskom seeking high tariff increases from the regulator.

Businesses can begin to engage in meaningful and quantifiable energy management initiatives by implementing the following:

• Business decision-makers must make energy management an operational priority and seek expertise to drive and implement better energy management policies.
  
• They must measure and verify energy management initiatives to ensure these are quantifiable. This may also allow the business to tap into tax incentives.
  
• Companies must transition into green procurement practices to sustain their energy management policies.
  
• Businesses should help drive awareness programmes for employees, customers and other stakeholders.

"If enough businesses take these actions, we'll see a domino effect that helps reduce pressure on the grid and make for a greener South Africa at the same time," Huang says. "This could also create new jobs by creating demand for skills to drive energy management initiatives."

Current project

Outreach Engineering's current project is the Heal Baragwanath project, a project designed to improve the reliability and efficiency of the main operating theatre complex of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

It is working closely with management at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to revamp the hospital's backup power system and improve energy efficiency across its infrastructure. The work will help the hospital to keep operating throughout power outages as well as improve the quality of care it offers its many poor and needy patients.