COMPANY PROFILE
2015
Revive Electrical Transformers
www.ret.co.za | +27 87 135 0149
company profile
Leading the SA transformer industry
Editorial: Ajuanne Payne
Revive Electrical Transformers (RET) is a leading South African distribution transformer manufacturer, a family business and the only company to produce certain of its products locally. In this issue we speak to founder and CEO, Dharmalingum “Paddy” Padayachee, to discover the reason for RET’s success and to learn more about what makes this highly specialised company tick…
Critical for handling AC (alternating current) for the power grid, transformers are essential for power transmission over long distances and are an integral part of any national grid network. The first company to manufacture dry–type transformers for medium voltage in Southern Africa and one of the largest Pole Mount distribution transformer manufacturers on the entire African continent, Revive Electrical Transformers (RET) is a South African success story and a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder and CEO, Paddy Padayachee. AS manufacturers of oil–filled distribution transformers 5KVA-500KVA-1.9KV-33KV, cast resin distribution transformers 100KVA-5000KVA -6.6KV-33KV, mini–substation, NEC-NER and Aux transformers, RET has customers across Botswana,
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Mozambique, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, DRC, Ghana, Malawi and Lesotho, with plans to grow its reach in the coming years. The company today has an impressive client list encompassing both the public and private sector and contracts spanning Southern Africa with an array of major players in the power production space, such as Eskom, Siemens, Voltex and ARB, to name a few. A firm dedication to tailoring its services and fulfilling the specialised nature of its customer’s requirements on time, to a high quality and at a competitive price has propelled RET to the forefront of its industry locally and cemented its position in the electrical transformer market. After beginning his career as an electrical engineer at Siemens South Africa, where he worked
Revive Electrical Transformers
for more than 18 years in different positions, and accruing a vast amount of technical knowledge along the way, Padayachee became a manager at Eskom in 1991. The stint at South Africa’s seminal power producer not only allowed him to hone his technical ability further but also gave the opportunity to gain vital managerial experience. It was six years later that Padayachee decided to branch out on his own, recognizing the need for a home-grown transformer manufacturer and service provider in South and Southern Africa. “Revive Electrical Transformers (RET) was established in 1997. It began with producing oil immersed transformers and in 2011 started manufacturing dry type transformers to match the gap in the market that it had identified,” explains Padayachee. As a well-recognized specialist in the service,
repair and manufacture of transformers, Revive has gradually evolved into one of the largest suppliers to the market in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Since its inception, the company has grown to be one of the largest manufacturers of distribution transformers in Southern Africa, with an order book of approximately US$25.85 million per annum,” explains Padayachee. “It supplies transformers ranging from 16 KVA to 5000 KVA to various customers, which include power utilities, municipalities, electrical contractors and to the industrial sector.” At 60 years old, Padayachee is still very much involved in the day-to-day running of his business and has developed RET into a family operation with wife, Priscilla, working as the Financial Director and second son, Sumeshan
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company profile
Padayachee, working as General Manager for the business.
GREEN GROWTH Recognising the rapid global transition towards renewable energy over ten years ago, and first taking steps in 2003 towards what is today a flourishing renewables sector in South Africa, the government is determined to take advantage of the high level of renewable energy potential in the country. Its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP), established in 2011, is a competitive auction for SA renewable energy projects and the vehicle which the government is using to reach its target of 3,725 MW electricity produced from renewable sources. The burgeoning industry in South Africa is bringing in increasing foreign investment and stimulating local industry sectors in the process. RET is one of the companies to benefit from the South African renewables race, with demand high and growing exponentially for its dry type transformers, specifically used in renewable energy projects. “The development of the renewable energy industry in Southern Africa presented an opportunity for the local manufacture of environmentally friendly distribution transformers,” says Padayachee. “The need for this special product in the renewable sector influenced RET to design, manufacture and supply dry type, cast resin and amorphous core transformers in 2011, making it the first and only company to locally manufacture and distribute these transformers. “When directly comparing to commonly used oil filled transformers, dry type transformers are compact and safer – free from fire hazard perspective, as they are made from a selfextinguishing material. RET was awarded almost 200MW of CRT Transformers over the past 2 years and has just received another 100MW from Santerno for its two solar projects in South Africa.” Timing is everything – Padayachee responded to the changing market and invested over R40 million into diversifying into high quality, drytype transformers with epoxy-resin insulation. Not only is RET continuing to service the
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specialized needs of its clients, but it is also pioneering in the industry in the region, as the first company to manufacture this product locally. When compared with oil type transformers, dry type transformers offer a lot of advantages, such as energy efficiency, eco-friendliness, ease of maintenance and operation and reliability. These technical benefits, coupled with RET’s local knowledge and reputation have contributed to a steadily increasing take up for the product and over 300 MW worth of orders. The other side of RET’s business, the manufacture, installation and service of oilfilled transformers, has continued to flourish over the last five years and as a result of RET’s “unmatched technical know-how, in 2012, RET was awarded a contract by Eskom to manufacture 500 50KVA amorphous core low loss transformers for its pilot project. This contract resulted in RET being the first company to fully type test the amorphous 3-phase transformer to Eskom specification.” Due to its large order book, over the past few years RET has expanded its operations in a new state of the art 17 000 m factory, south of Johannesburg. Its existing factory in Steele dale continues to produce more than 1500 transformers per month. The new facility is divided into three areas of production. The manufacture of oil filled distribution transformers from 16KVA to 5 MVA, the manufacture of Mini Sub-stations and the new product line – the cast resin dry type transformers. The factory is equipped with a state of the art automated test bay, imported from Haefely in Switzerland which ensures the most accurate load and no-load losses, as well as 3D modelling software for partial discharge and has the capacity to test from 16 KVA up to 5 MVA.
THE PAST YEAR AT RET When dealing with relatively new product there is bound to be a certain amount of trial and error – it is impossible to plan for every eventuality and making mistakes and learning from them is often how vital improvements are made. There have been a few bumps in the road for RET’s new dry type transformers that have had to be overcome along the way: “The last twelve
Revive Electrical Transformers
Green Transformers
Ester Dielectric Fluid application in Transformers
Increasing transformers capacity up to 20% • Additional overloading capability while maintaining life expectation and footprint for large population growth areas • More compact transformers • Kraft paper + Envirotemp FR3
Green Transformer more compact and more efficient • 15% lower oil volume • Up to 18% less copper • About 5% less general materials • Extended life expectancy
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company profile
months we have had a mixture of both good and bad experiences. Our locally manufactured dry type transformers were supplied to various solar project plants in South Africa. However, most of our clients were designing cubicles for the protection and cooling of our transformers which were incorrectly engineered,” says Padayachee. “This caused overheating and incorrect cooling, which caused our transformers to overheat and fail. After some deliberations we managed to assist them in redesigning their cubicles. We have now have been able to show most clients that the transformers overheated due to the incorrect design of cubicles and not our transformers design as they originally perceived.” The positive effect of these difficulties is that RET now has a standardised approach for clients which they can advise to use for the cubicles, a development that has the potential to also save on cost in the future.
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Some of the other challenges the company have faced over the past year have been ones that have not only affected RET, but whole industry sectors in South Africa. The first of these challenges “was the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) 2014 Engineering wage negotiations, as we are in the metal industry our workers did not attend work for four weeks therefore holding up production,” explains Padayachee. “The effects of the strike over spilled into the coming months for our metal fabrication suppliers who had back-log, quite frankly it not only affected us but the whole of South Africa.” The NUMSA strike “knocked back the third-quarter growth rate of the South African economy by more than half of what it could have been” according to the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) and was not the only one to affect RET’s business in 2014, the second of which was the Gauteng
Revive Electrical Transformers
Taxi strike which left the company’s employees unable to be ferried to work. Another growing concern for RET, and indeed one that is being felt across the whole of South Africa, is the constant electricity load shedding which is having a serious effect on companies’ abilities to conduct business smoothly, and in turn negatively effecting the South African economy as a whole. Even with some challenges facing the company last year, there have been more highs than lows for the South African transformer business. The company gained South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) approval, SANS 600761:2011 & SANS 60076-11:2005, for its dry type transformers. “Another high for RET would be receiving a new International client, Elettronica Santerno SpA, from Italy,” says Padayachee, who “design and market inverters for the production of electricity from
renewable sources, drives and soft starters for industrial and hybrid applications. We were awarded a contract for US$5 million for dry yype transformer production. “Lastly we recently tendered for an Eskom Tender worth around US$15 million and we are hopeful to be the recipients of that tender.”
STAYING AHEAD OF THE PACK RET’s main competition, especially in the field of dry type transformers, comes primarily from companies in the Far East, and one of the challenges for this industry in South Africa is the high cost of importing raw materials compared with its Eastern counterparts. “The dry type transformer industry is dominated by manufacturers from the Far East, distributing transformers to the local market at competitive prices. This dominance is a result of inadequate supply of raw material such as core steel, epoxy resin and transformer insulation, which deter a large number of domestic companies from manufacturing dry type transformers locally,” explains Padayachee. Aside
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company profile
© Revive Electrical Transformers from the specialised nature of the product, the potential difficulties with the supply of raw materials in SA is a contributing factor to why RET stands as the only local manufacturer of this product. However, taking all this into account, RET has a competitive edge compared to any international players offering the same service and products. “The key value proposition that gives RET a major competitive advantage over other players in the industry is our ability to offer products that are tailored for the African context, and subsequently support our customers throughout the life cycle of the product,” explains Padayachee. “Through the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), a regulator of quality of South African goods and services, RET forms a part of the committee for SABS780 distribution transformers specifications. Strategic alliance with SABS and 15 years of experience in the distribution transformer industry enable RET to design and develop dry type
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“The development of the renewable energy industry in Southern Africa presented an opportunity”
Revive Electrical Transformers transformers that are suitable for local conditions. “Accordingly, RET has built a strong reputation for manufacturing, commissioning and servicing superior quality transformers. Its dry type transformer manufacturing facility operates under stringent Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) approved processes in accordance with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 9001, ISO14000 and ISO18000 quality standards.” The company’s high level of technical expertise and local knowledge allow it to offer superior quality after sales services in comparison to a lot of its international competitors. With over 250 direct employees currently, RET rotates its staff through all departments and invests heavily in in-house training to ensure it maintains its enviable reputation and to retain skills within the business long term. “ O u r f u tu re is b r ig ht and we can only look o n ward s an d u p w ards; we aim to be a g lobal c on t en d er in the tr ansforme r industry, we hav e c ur r en tly d o ne q u otations in Chile and Dubai,” s a y s Pad ay ach ee. “We supply most of Southe rn A f r i c a in clu d ing Zambia, Botswana, Z imbabwe , a n d Namib ia an d o ur targ e t is to e xte nd our r e a c h to the d if f ere nt parts of Africa”
A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS Trust, control, solidarity, speed, authenticity, nature plus nurture; those are the six pillars that form the foundation of RET’s culture and are the reasons for its continued growth and success. The heart of RET and its operations is the fact that it is a family-run business, something that Padayachee puts great store in. “Revive Electrical Transformers is a Family based company, we strive to be the best at what we do. Sumeshan Padayachee is the General Manager, he began working in the family business as a boy and now he introduces next-generation technology with his ingenuity,” says Padayachee. “Family is the place where you can let things fly. We laugh more here and we yell more here. Sometimes family members can get to be more emotional than nonfamily, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. The ability to be fearlessly and emotionally honest can help a family business thrive. “In conclusion, family businesses have their challenges like any other non-family business, but “family values” are taking on new meaning in today’s economy. If you’re able to recognize that value and work together for the common good, family can be your biggest competitive advantage.”
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“Congratulations to Revive Transformers for favouring NFM as its preferred vendor of Aluminium Profiles plus foils” Profiles, bus bars and foil in Copper equally available on request. Trade Enquiries : eb@nfm.co.za www.nfm.co.za Durban: 0314807389 Pretoria: 01232700106 Johannesburg: 0116263390 Cape Town: 0215110286 East London: 0437221585 Port Elizabeth: 0414511354
email: TraceyR@nfm.co.za email: NateR@nfm.co.za email: AnthonyJ@nfm.co.za email: CharlK@nfm.co.za email: LauraR@nfm.co.za email: ShaakiraP@nfm.co.za
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