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.

By Ian Armitage

ABB 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 sub-Saharan 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, 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, energy-efficient 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 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.

New orders coming 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.

In 2008, nearly 80 percent of the electricity supplied in Botswana was imported from neighbouring countries. However, as a result 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, 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.”

South Africa Magazine, Issue 8