VR Engineering

COMPANY PROFILE

2015

VR Engineering

+27 11 762 5431 | www.vrengineering.co.za

company profile

Reliable power generation Editorial: Rebecca Bingley

With load shedding an increasingly prominent issue across Southern Africa, this family-run company based in Krugersdorp is providing effective solutions to the power generation shortages – successfully installing many generating sets to South Africa and neighbouring states. First founded in 1959 by Mick van Rensburg, VR Engineering now stands as one of the biggest manufactures of Diesel generating sets in the country.

A leading provider of Diesel Generators in South Africa, VR Engineering was established in 1959, initially supplying generating sets to the agricultural market at a time when South Africa’s electricity supply was limited.

Founded by Mick van Rensburg, who still heads up the company today, he explained to IndustrySA back in 2013, the growth the company has experienced since its inception: “When I started my apprenticeship, I started in this region and I started working on generators. This was in 1955, then in 1959 I decided to start in business on my own and I formed VR Engineering, selling generating sets mainly to the farming community.

“Later, we began selling on the open market and to various different industries. This included communications, media, banks, airports, hospitals, data centres, mining, construction and more.”

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A predominately family-run business, Mick’s son, Nico, came on board and joined his father’s business in 1997 – “By then we had been in business for a long time and today we are still servicing generators that we sold in the 60s and 70s,” Mick added.

VR Engineering secured its first order from the Post and Telecommunication sector in 1972 for 35 generation sets which ranged from 5 kVA to 175 kVA for stationary and trailer mounted units.

Over the next decade, VR Engineering continued on its growth path, moving to its current office located in Krugersdorp in 1982 – with a handling capacity of 30 tons and a floor area measuring 3500m2, this expansion led the company to increase its manufacturing power range from 20 kVA to 3500 kVA. Delving into a range of other markets in 1983, VR Engineering experienced growing success whilst

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maintaining its stance in the region as a reliable and leading industry specialist with previous generating sets supplied throughout the company’s history to customers, still be maintained today due to ongoing records kept by the business.

“We are proud to say that A.M.F sets supplied since 1964 for SA Railways, P.W.D, leading hospitals and nursing homes are still in daily use with the same reliable control systems.”

POWER SHORTAGE SOLUTIONS In November 2014, country wide black outs due to power generation shortages meant that load shedding was reintroduced. The Majuba power plant – delivering an estimated 10% of the country’s entire power – lost its generation capacity following the collapse of one of its coal storage silos at the beginning of November so coal

deliveries to the plant were halted. A further crack on a second silo meant the plant had to shut down for the second time in two months.

In December last year, major stage three load shedding was launched in South Africa by Eskom, following the shutdown of two power plants as a result of diesel shortages. Eskom fell short of the 28,000MW electricity demands within the country on November 4th 2014 by 4,000MW, despite its ability to generate an estimated 45,583MW but due to “planned and unplanned” maintenance work, it produced just 24,000MW. With these rising and seemingly unmanageable demands in electricity across South Africa and the increasing occurrence of load shedding that we are now seeing on a regular basis, this is encouraging more and more businesses and homeowners to invest in emergency back-up power systems.

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company profile “Years ago, the demand for electricity was not anything close to what it is today and agriculture was our main market.

“Because of growth and development, markets and demand has changed completely. There is now a huge demand for emergency back-up power,” Nico explained to IndustrySA in 2013.

In case of these regularly occurring black outs, VR Engineering’s generator provides an excellent and efficient solution, working as either an emergency standby power supply during generation shortages or even as a prime power source for those will no permanent access to the national grid system.

“We are working with some of the biggest mining companies in South Africa and we work with all divisions, these guys are our biggest clients right now” If the slump in energy supply continues to plague South Africa, VR Engineering will be looking to invest in a larger manufacturing facility to cope with the demand for its generators. Larger industries, private firms and farmers are already starting to consider opting out of electricity supplied by Eskom, largely due to fears of continued unreliability and rising costs, so the solutions provided by VR Engineering certainly seem a viable and safer option going forward.

“A mixed energy system of multiple-suppliers is a necessity for South Africa. Relying on one supplier is proving to be too risky and we predict a marginal increase in sales of diesel generating sets,” VR Engineering explain.

Despite the economic crisis that has affected South Africa since 2008, VR Engineering has coped relatively well due to the variety of the activities it offers and the

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sectors it continues to be involved in.

“In 2008, just prior to the economic downturn, South Africa was faced with a power crisis. Eskom could not meet the demand and during this time we were successful,” explained Nico.

“When the slowdown came into full effect, we felt it.

We had projects lined up which fell through. Especially in the automotive industry, even to this day, companies have not purchased the generators that they ordered a few years ago.”

Looking forward, Nico explains to IndustrySA the importance and influence the mining industry has had in terms of business and the growing success of its machines being used across various mining divisions.

“We are working with some of the biggest mining companies in South Africa and we work with all divisions, these guys are our biggest clients right now.

“The machines we are making for the mining industry are very specialised. As far as I know, we are the only company in the world to have built these machines and we have done so with a very high success rate.

“Some of our machines have been so successful, we have refurbished them and sent them back to the mines where they are doing much more work than they were originally designed to do.”

A PRIME POSITION With over 50 years’ experience working within the energy generation space, VR Engineering has, despite the challenges it has faced operating in South Africa, established a prime position to offer its customers an alternative solution when energy supply falters.

Mick explained: “We are well placed to serve the Southern-African market but beyond that it becomes a competitive war especially with the challenges in South Africa arising from labour issues, inflation and rising manufacturing costs.”

However, with repeat and regular customers on its database, VR Engineering’s competitiveness and aim going forward is in ensuring it continues to meet the specific requirements of its customers facing reoccurring power shortages.

A manufacturer of stationary, mobile and sound attenuated sets, VR Engineering today stands as the sole manufacturer in South Africa that refrains from subcontracting, completing all steel fabrications for base plates, trailer chassis and panel chassis in-house emphasizing the company’s ethos of ‘better control means better product.’ Claiming to maintain one of the shortest delivery times within the industry has further helped in placing this family-run business firmly on the map

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VR Engineering

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