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Committed to ABB South Africa is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact.
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ABB South Africa FEATURE
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BB is a global leader in power and automation technologies. In South Africa, the group has a strong local presence, offering systems, products and services in the areas of pulp and paper, mining, metals and minerals, cement, chemicals and petrochemicals, as well as manufacturing and consumer industries. Its project capabilities include feasibility studies, project management and design, construction, installation, commissioning and customer training – all of which are supported by field maintenance and asset performance services. “ABB South Africa offers customers a wide range of solutions,” ABB South Africa and subSaharan Africa CEO Carlos Poñe, who recently spoke with South Africa Magazine, says. He added that ABB South Africa offers “complete solutions” to utilities, including electrical power infrastructure for transmission and distribution networks and associated products and systems, such as substations, reactive power compensation, utilities automation, water EPC contracts, power plant automation, power line construction, erection and commissioning. It is a comprehensive offering to say the least. “We enable utility, mine and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact,” Poñe says. ABB was established in South Africa in 1992 and employs more than 1,500 people.
ABB’S “GREEN” SHOWPIECE Of course, ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that “enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact.” ABB South Africa, naturally, has a head office that reflects this. Indeed, ABB South Africa’s headquarters, factory, state-of-the-art manufacturing and logistics centre on an 85,000m2 site at Longmeadow near Modderfontein, www.southafricamag.com
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ABB South Africa FEATURE
Sheetech SA
Sheetech SA was established in 1996 with ± 10 employees. We were ISO-SABS Accredited as of the 12 July 2001 and are currently a level 1 BBBEE contributor. Quality manufactured products in the manufacturing and engineeering sector has resulted in an increase our clientele creating with it the need for more space, this is when we secured the two new premises .
Facilities include over 20 CNC Machines for different applications from guillotine, punching, and bending as well as 20 press work and welding machines. Our clientele is currently ± 100 including nationally and internationally recognised companies. We specialise in manufacturing of light and medium precision sheet metal work, that are made to customer specification. Products include electronic components , boxes, brackets and other enclosures/components in the metal, motor and electrical sectors of manufacturing and engineering. In 1998, we established a relationship with ABB South Africa through the manufacture of brackets and then moved on to switchgear panels. In 2000 our relationship with ABB, grew stronger as we jointly ventured into the production of RMU housings that needed to be explosion tested and SABS approved. In 2003 this was succesfully accomplished.In recent years we have begun to supply various departments of ABB in SA from traded products, services, medium voltage (Doors, Gas ducts, RMU Enclosures). We aim to become the RMU Explosion Test preferred supplier to ABB for their metal work in all aspects of their electrical enclosures. On the 2 May 2007, we became a official Training Provider under the MERSETA, training SAQA aligned learnerships and Skills Programmes. We are registered to train Engineering Fabrication; Welding application and practice; Metal and Engineering Manufacturing Processes Level 2–4 and CNC Production Machining Level 2. In 2008, we ventured into a social responsibility programme for the training of the disabled, that is, learners with learnerning difficulties and the deaf/hard of hearing. We are currently doing a Project with the MERSETA for People with disabilities. Our ultimate goal is to expand into other provinces in SA and eventually move into manufacturing and supplying of components for the rest of Africa and other international companies. 6
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Johannesburg, is a shining example of a green building built with the very latest environmental concepts and technology. “The development was completed in less than two years,” says Grant Lewington, the business development manager for the Improvon Group, the firm that built and leases the facility to ABB. “ABB has its headquarters, factory and logistics centre on the site. It cost R500 million and the building incorporates the latest environmental concepts and technology - ABB specifically requested an environmentally friendly facility.” “The Longmeadow building features many green-building elements,” Poñe adds. The cost-effective, energyefficient technologies include a building automation system, power factor correction, drives and high-efficiency motors for the heating, ventilation and cooling systems. “Every workstation is fitted with a photosensitive switch that turns on low-energy lights whenever people arrive and turns them off whenever they leave their desks, for example,” Lewington says. “The insulation in the walls, roof and floor also reduces cooling costs, to give you another example of its green credentials.” Poñe says these measures have significantly reduced energy consumption. “From the outset we took decisions to implement green elements
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Radian Transformers (Pty) Ltd specialise in the design and manufacture of High Power Rectifier, Furnace and Convertor transformers. We also design and manufacture standard and special distribution transformers up to 40MVA. We are proud to be a valued supplier to ABB South Africa. Enquiries: radian@radiantrc.co.za p: +27 16 341 3377 f: +27 16 341 3375 www.radiantrc.co.za
ABB South Africa FEATURE
into the building. ABB South Africa is among the first to put this ethos into practice at significant levels.” Longmeadow reduces energy through use of solar heating, recycling heat from air conditioning motors and extensive use of “grey” water, he explains. The building’s H-shaped architectural structure also lowers energy consumption as it makes use of natural light. On top of that, ABB’s Building Management System is programmed to automate, control and manage all of the energy demands in the building and provides a wide range of control functions, including fire control, security, power monitoring and air conditioning control. “The Longmeadow green building serves as an example of our commitment to South Africa and an example of how ABB’s technologies can reduce energy consumption,” Poñe adds. ABB decided to move all its Gauteng operations to the one at Longmeadow. “It helped us to streamline, reduce costs and to operate more effectively,” Poñe says.
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NEW ORDERS STARTING TO COME IN ABB is currently performing very well and the orders are flooding in. It has recently won an order worth $23 million from Eskom to supply an electrical balance of plant solution for the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme, currently under construction on the border of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. The Ingula plant will have the capacity to generate 1,333MW of hydropower to be integrated into the South African grid, when fully operational in 2014. “ABB South Africa has also won a substation order in Botswana,” Poñe tells us. The deal, with Botswana Power Corporation, will see ABB build the new 400/220 kilovolt (kV) Isang substation, located around 40 km from Gaborone, he says. “This is another example of ABB’s continued success in the region and we are pleased to play our part in the development of Southern Africa’s power infrastructure,” explains Poñe. “This project will help Botswana meet growing power needs,” he adds.
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ABB South Africa FEATURE
In 2008, nearly 80 percent of the electricity supplied in Botswana was imported from neighbouring countries. However, as a result of energy shortages in the region, these countries are reducing electricity transfer to Botswana, leading to power cuts and load shedding. “Emerging market economies have shown stronger demand patterns for power and automation products and services in the wake of the global economic crisis than was the case in more established territories,” says Poñe. “Our order growth accelerated in the third quarter on a combination of continued growth in demand from industrial customers, the mines, and an increase in large power orders. “The situation is improving all the time.”
MINE HOIST ACQUISITION Another significant development at the behemoth that is ABB South Africa is that it recently agreed to acquire the Mine Hoist business of South African manufacturer 10
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Coilmech (Pty) Ltd. The acquisition will expand the company’s product range, its local engineering and manufacturing capabilities and also, in Poñe’s words, “demonstrates ABB’s commitment to local mining market”. Mine hoists are used to transfer materials and people up and down mine shafts. ABB South Africa will add the business to its process automation portfolio for customers in the mining sector, helping the mines to “use energy more efficiently”. “This acquisition forms part of ABB’s strategy to support the mining sector with local manufacturing and demonstrates our commitment to the local market,” Pone says. ”It is a technology the ABB Group does not have. Current and future customers will benefit greatly from ABB’s electrical and mechanical integration capabilities, as well as from ongoing improvements in quality and performance arising from ABB’s far-reaching R&D efforts.” ABB South Africa will expand distribution of these solutions through its India, Middle
East and Africa regional distribution channels and increase the product range, Poñe says. The business will also benefit from ABB South Africa’s black economic empowerment (BBBEE) credentials. ABB South Africa is 20 percent owned by women’s empowerment company WIPHOLD. “The future is bright,” concludes Poñe. “In South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa we see a bright future. Actually, globally, the picture is positive also. People will always use electricity, especially in the developing world, and people will always look at saving energy and better efficiency. The markets where we do our core business are very strong. In developing South Africa and developing sub-Saharan Africa, with developing infrastructures, with a lack of power, with a lack of transmission distribution systems, with new companies coming in, and lots of investment in the industrial and mining industries, we are extremely positive about the future.” END
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2 Lake Road Longmeadow Business Estate North Modderfontein, 2078 South Africa Tel: +27 10 202 5000 Fax: +27 86 022 2123
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