With rising power costs and frequent power outages, more and more South African companies are looking to General Electric to supply them with alternative energy solutions. MTN Group is using GE's Jenbacher gas engine technology in its power plant, which is the first of its kind in South Africa. Similarly, ABSA Bank's tower west complex has installed GE's natural gas powered technology, representing the first project of its kind in the financial sector of South Africa. GE's Jenbacher gas engines for the MTN and ABSA Bank projects were sold to Diesel Electric Services that, in turn, sold and installed the gas engines for the two South African projects. MTN's natural gas-driven, trigeneration plant features two of GE's Jenbacher J320 gas-powered generating sets, with an electrical output of 1063 kW and a thermal output of about 1,2 MW each. Trigeneration refers to the burning of a fuel for electricity, heating and cooling. Like the MTN project, ABSA Bank's towers west project also is a first of its kind. ABSA's cogeneration plant is powered by four of GE's Jenbacher J620 natural gas powered generating sets, with an overall electrical output of about 12 MW and thermal output of about 5,5 MW. Waste heat, recovered from the gas generators, is used for heating and cooling through specialized conversion processes, which further reduces the carbon dioxide emissions. The gas power generation and heat recovery station is designed to operate in parallel with the city power grid to reduce the demand of the ABSA towers complex during peak periods, as well as to provide standby power during power outages.
MAY 2012
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