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Logistics group DP World has partnered with food and clothing retailer Woolworths to roll out a refrigeration trailer featuring AxlePower technology.

AxlePower "transforms ordinary road transport trailers into a source of clean and efficient electricity", says DP World.

Through a specially adapted axle, kinetic energy is converted into electricity, powering the refrigeration unit.

The refrigeration unit receives constant current from a battery energy holding pack, whether the trailer is in motion or stationery.

The battery energy is continuously replenished by the Axlepower technology when the trailer is in motion, with the refrigeration unit's energy battery pack storing the charge generated by the system.

Axlepower technology is engine-free, removing refrigeration noise from the transport equation.

"This innovative technology offers tractor-independent, 100% electric cooling for trailers, using free and sustainable power that results in zero trailer carbon emissions," explains DP World.

The system was developed in collaboration with Thermo King and BPW, and tested in Europe.

"As part of our commitment to sustainability, we are excited to introduce AxlePower technology to our fleet," notes Woolworths sustainability head Feroz Koor.

"Following the rollout of our electric online delivery vehicles last year, this initiative aligns with our Vision2025+ goal to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, and our ambition to create a more sustainable and efficient supply-chain while reducing our carbon footprint."

The AxlePower trailer will operate on Woolworths' long-haul N1 route, operated by DP World, between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Over the course of the year, a saving 27 t of carbon emissions is anticipated on this route.

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Eskom Distribution MD Monde Bala has signalled the utility's willingness to consider the integration of an Electricity Credit Token (ECT) financial instrument to accelerate the implementation of a virtual wheeling model that allows multiple generators to transact with multiple customers in multiple locations.

Eskom and Vodacom have, over the past year, developed and piloted a virtual wheeling platform that Eskom is currently aiming to launch before the end of 2024.

However, Meridian Economics has subsequently made a proposal to modify the implementation of the scheme using 'token wheeling', whereby a liquid secondary market is created for ECTs generated when independent power producers (IPPs) inject electricity into the grid for sale to customers that have signed up to buy renewable electricity through a virtual wheeling platform.

The ECT, Meridian says, will be a "tradeable, standardised, contractually recognised claim to a credit on an electricity account".

Speaking during a webinar hosted by EE Business Intelligence, Meridian Economics MD Dr Grové Steyn argued that the introduction of ECTs could enhance IPP project viability by removing the credit risks associated with the current virtual wheeling platform approach, which is premised on the securing of an Eskom refund after payment of the account.

Instead of paying their full distributor or municipal bill in cash in the expectation of a later refund, customers would obtain a credit on their municipal accounts on presentation of ECTs and municipalities will do so in turn with the aggregated ECTs, on their Eskom bulk accounts.

Bala described the ECT proposal, which could be implemented using a distributed ledger or blockchain system, as an innovative concept that could help unlock much-needed private investment into electricity generation by potentially de-risking the virtual wheeling.

However, he also noted the complexity associated with the introduction of such a financial instrument and said further work and consultation was, thus, required to make it implementable.

He proposed that the token wheeling proposal be canvassed further with stakeholders participating in workstream nine of the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom), which he chairs. The workstream is focusing specifically on market and wheeling interventions to assist in overcoming South Africa's long-standing loadshedding crisis.

Bala also highlighted that it had taken more than two years, from concept to proposed implementation, to develop the virtual wheeling platform with Vodacom and indicated that a similar timeframe should be anticipated for securing all the necessary governance approval for ECTs.

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Construction work on Stellantis' assembly plant in the Coega Special Economic Zone, in the Eastern Cape, should kick off in May, says the vehicle manufacturer's new CEO Mike Whitfield.

The start of assembly - "in a very ambitious plan" - is scheduled for the beginning of 2026.

The greenfield facility is being developed in partnership with government's Industrial Development Corporation and the Coega Development Corporation, with the precise contributions of these institutions still a work in progress.

However, Stellantis South Africa (SA) will operate and manage the plant, emphasises Whitfield.

The R3-billion facility will build "a one-ton bakkie, as a start".

As it stands, the Fiat Titano or Peugeot Landtrek are available as possible options within the Stellantis stable, unless a new model is unveiled.

The first phase of production will reach volumes of 50 000 units year, but with the ability to scale up this number.

Whitfield says 40% of production will be sold in South Africa and 60% exported, mainly to the rest of Africa.

Employment at the plant will reach more than a 1 000 people.

Local content on the one-ton bakkie will start at 30%-plus, "progressing over time", notes Whitifield.

The Eastern Cape facility will include a bodyshop and paintshop, and, if the price tag seems a tad low compared with other automotive plant developments in South Africa, Whitfield says it is because the bodyshop will not be fully automated.

Whitfield brings to Stellantis the experience of someone who has spent significant time in the auto assembly arena.

He was the long-standing MD of Nissan SA, before moving over last year to head up Stellantis SA as he approached retirement age - 65 - at the local arm of the Japanese car maker.

Whitfield spent 42 years at various levels within the Nissan group.

Nissan SA has a long history of assembling bakkies at its Rosslyn plant, in Tshwane, while the Coega plant will be Stellantis' first foray into manufacturing in South Africa.

"This is something I can focus on, to try and build; to be part of the building process. If you look at it, Stellantis is very successful globally and we also need South Africa to play a significant role here. That is what attracted me to the group," says Whitfield.

He adds that he remains positive about South Africa as an assembly destination, especially as government's well entrenched automotive policy provides the certainty required for international vehicle manufacturers to set up shop in the country.

Dealership Restructuring

It doesn't take a maths wizard to know that Stellantis has a bit of mountain to climb in South Africa.

Forty per cent of 50 000 locally produced bakkies is 20 000 units. That is quite a steep target for domestic sales of one-ton pickups a month - 1 666 to be precise.

This is far more than Stellantis is currently selling in the market between the Citroën, Opel, Fiat, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Jeep brands combined, at between 400 and 500 units a month.

Whitfield is aware that Stellantis must build its presence in South Africa.

"We must create awareness of the brands and the products, as there is not a high level of awareness in the country.

"Stellantis is the only brand that offers access to six brands.

"It is also very important to build customer trust," he adds. "This is the foundation of any brand in this country."

With 'customer trust', Whitfield says he is referring to the total cost of ownership.

"Are we controlling parts pricing? Are all the parts available so customers do not experience downtime? Do we have good residual values?

"It is really important that we supply parts at the right price and at the right time, so customers may have peace of mind."

Part of the process to build the Stellantis brand in South Africa is to rationalise the current 50 outlets to around 37 or 38 dealerships, says ...

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The Independent Power Producer Office (IPPO) reports that it is engaging with Eskom on its newly released curtailment addendum to the latest Generation Connection Capacity Assessment (GCCA 2025) - through the addendum 3 470 MW of additional connection capacity for wind generators has been unlocked in two grid-constrained provinces.

Prior to the publication of the addendum, the GCCA 2025 indicated there to be no remaining grid capacity available in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces. But the addendum indicates that, by accepting a "reasonable share of no more than 10% of curtailment", 2 680 MW of capacity is available in the Western Cape and 790 MW in the Eastern Cape.

The changes have potential implications for those wind IPPs preparing to bid for a 3 200 MW allocation included as part of Bid Window Seven (BW7) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which was launched on December 14.

However, in response to an enquiry, the IPPO told Engineering News that it was "unable to comment at this stage other than the fact that this capacity will be considered for incorporation as part of BW7".

"We are currently engaging with Eskom on this issue and will communicate further with potential bidders.

"All potential bidders on the programme are also reminded to approach Eskom for cost estimate letters by the cut-off date of 31 January 2024 and such applications could cover the Western and Eastern Cape where capacity has been unlocked through curtailment," the IPPO said.

The closing date for bid submissions under BW7, through which government is also seeking to procure 1 800 MW of solar photovoltaic, is April 30.

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South African developers of mature green hydrogen or derivatives projects are potentially eligible for non-refundable grant funding being extended under Germany's €270-million Power-to-X (PtX) Development Fund, set up to close "bankability gaps" standing in the way of implementing industrial-scale projects in seven eligible developing countries.

Funding for the platform, which was established in 2023, is being made available from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the fund's first call for expressions of interest (EoI) is open for projects in Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa.

German development bank KfW has appointed KGAL Investment Management to manage the fund and the EoI has a project-submission deadline of 12:00 on March 1.

KfW's Stefan Hediger tells Engineering News that the PtX Development Fund is part of a portfolio of instruments available for projects in developing countries and beneficiaries are not precluded from accessing other concessional and grant funding schemes being made available by Germany, including those funding commitments made in support of South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan (JET-IP).

KfW has already concluded a €23-million grant funding agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation to support early-stage "catalytic" green hydrogen projects, and some South African project developers are also aiming to access concessional loans under the JET-IP, as well as the subsidised long-term purchase agreements being extended under the H2Global framework.

The PtX Development Fund's niche, however, is to support advanced projects that require grant funding to close any residual gaps preventing the project from advancing to financial close.

PtX Development Fund head Thomas Engelmann, who is also head of energy transition at KGAL, tells Engineering News that up to €30-million could be dispersed to individual projects should these meet the scheme's technical, environmental and social eligibility criteria.

The fund is particularly keen to support industrial-scale projects with a total investment cost of over €100-million, and which are geared towards supplying sectors where the usage of hydrogen is hard to avoid.

These could include products developed to use green hydrogen - produced using renewable electricity in an electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen - as a feedstock in the manufacture of green ammonia, green methanol, green synthetic fuels, and green hydrogen-based chemicals.

The platform, Engelmann says, can be used to finance any part of the project's PtX value chain, from renewable energy generation and electrolysis, through to hydrogen compression, storage and transportation, as well as the distribution infrastructure.

He expects the full €270-million to be dispersed over two to three bidding rounds to between eight and ten projects and reports that significant interest has already been shown by project developers in the various eligible countries since the launch of the EoI in December.

Once a project is submitted, the PtX Development Fund will evaluate the project against the scheme's eligibility and exclusion criteria before selecting preferred projects to support.

The planned investment horizon for the PtX Development Fund is between 2024 and 2027.

Hediger is confident that there are projects in South Africa at a suitable level of maturity to qualify for the grant and reports that every effort is being made to market the opportunity to potential participants, with a webinar scheduled for February 13.

KfW's Kelly Slaffa highlights that Germany's promotion of Green Hydrogen not only focusses on the development of the nascent industry in South Africa but importantly the promotion of skills transfer, development and job creation.

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State-owned rail and port operator Transnet could, potentially, show significant improvement this year compared with last year's dismal performance, says transport economist and macrologistics researcher at Stellenbosch University Dr Jan Havenga.

However, it is imperative that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan appoints new leadership at Transnet as soon as possible, he adds.

Havenga has been part of the team of four in Operation Vulindlela that led the development of the Freight Logistics Roadmap approved by Cabinet in December. He has also been providing technical input for the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) since its inception last year. He also spent some 20 years at Transnet.

"We cannot afford a protracted process such as the one we saw at Eskom," he notes.

This said, Havenga is highly positive about the efforts by interim Transnet Group CEO Michelle Phillips and Transnet Freight Rail acting CEO Russell Baatjies to stem some of the bleeding since their appointment at the start of November.

"Given the depth of the problems at Transnet they have performed miracles, and I would suggest that we afford them the time and space to address the challenges at the parastatal. They have, for example, managed to halve the delays at the Durban port, in my estimate."

In December, 52 vessels were anchored outside the port in what was defined as a three-month backlog.

Another positive at Transnet has been the return of some experienced faces, and the appointment of some new faces in the last "two, three weeks", all working to reverse the fortunes of the group, which has seen a dramatic decline in rail and port volumes and efficiencies over the last two to three years.

Many of these newcomers have been seconded from the private sector, which is now also footing the bill for their salaries, says Havenga.

"Some solid skills remained in Transnet, but their contribution dwindled because of a toxic culture created by the previous management. Michelle and her team are turning this around."

Transnet's decline has frustrated SA Inc to no end, as it has stymied mine development, mineral exports, fruit exports, as well as the retail and manufacturing sectors, to name but a few segments of the economy heavily dependent on the country's import and export corridors.

"People are angry, and rightfully so," says Havenga.

He attributes the decline at Transnet to poor leadership under former Transnet group CEO Portia Derby and her team, who he believes lacked the knowledge and experience to lead the group.

The team also seemed unwilling participants in the NLCC.

The decline seen under this management team - which departed last year - was worse than that seen during the State capture years, says Havenga.

"They hid the poor performance behind the notion of the poor availability of locomotives, while issues such as infrastructure, operating systems and skilled staff were all eroding."

The reversal of Transnet will require a turnaround on all levels, says Havenga.

"Transnet is broken on all four levels - rolling stock, infrastructure, skilled staff and operating systems.

"Given the scope of damage, it will take time. Last year was the worst year in Transnet's history, but I believe the foundations are being put in place to fix the problem.

"But, as I noted, we have interim leaders. We need permanent appointments. Interim management does not have the legal scope to do everything that is required in the case of Transnet. If these permanent appointments do not happen soon, it could jeopardise the progress we have seen to date.

"Two mistakes can be made here," says Havenga. "The wrong people can be appointed, or it takes too long to make the appointments.

"If this happens, we are in serious, serious trouble as a country.

"The scope of job losses would multiply, leaving South Africa vulne...

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Eskom has taken a major step in unlocking much-needed grid capacity for wind projects in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces by publishing the highly-anticipated curtailment addendum to its latest Generation Connection Capacity Assessment, or GCCA 2025.

The addendum, which has been published on Eskom's website and has been approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), states that, by accepting a "reasonable share of no more than 10% of curtailment", 3 470 MW of additional grid capacity to connect wind generation will be made available, including 2 680 MW in the Western Cape and 790 MW in the Eastern Cape.

Curtailment is defined in the document as the controlled reduction of the output of renewable energy plants as a system operator response to transmission capacity constraints.

"When the grid limit is reached, any further increase of generation in the supply area leads to grid congestion. In such cases, and in order to remove the congestion, generation has to be reduced."

However, it argues that the generation connection capacity for constrained areas can be safely increased by accepting a reasonable share of curtailment, adding, too, that curtailment will maximise the use of the existing grid.

Prior to the addendum, the GCCA 2025 had stated that there was no remaining grid capacity in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape provinces, while indicating there to be some 19 900 MW of capacity in the rest of the country.

The publication of the addendum could have major implications for the renewables bid window currently under way for the procurement of 5 000 MW, divided between 3 200 MW of wind and 1 800 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV). Although it has not yet been confirmed whether the new curtailment framework will now be applied during the round, with another bidding round due for release by the end of March.

Bid Window Seven is the first bidding round to be hosted following the partial failure of Bid Window Six, when only solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 1 000 MW advanced to a preferred-bidder stage after Eskom indicated there to be no remaining grid-connection capacity for those wind projects that had been vying for a 3 200 MW allocation.

This failure led to significant debate about why a mechanisms such as curtailment, which is used by system operators globally to maximise the use of the grid, was not being employed given the urgency to close what is considered to be a supply shortfall of at least 6 000 MW and in light of intensifying loadshedding.

An assessment by Eskom and two leading European transmission system operators - 50Hertz of Germany and Elia of Belgium - was then undertaken last year. It showed that the capacity of the existing Western Cape grid to host variable renewable generators could be doubled under a scenario where no more than 10% curtailment was implemented.

Nevertheless, no such curtailment framework was included in the GCCA 2025, which was published in October. However, Eskom promised that an addendum would be published once it had received the necessary internal governance authorisations, as well as Nersa's approval.

Ahead of the publication of the GCCA 2025 addendum, it was assumed that wind projects in particular would have to be bid in lower-yielding regions, unless they had existing grid connection budget quotes or could secure capacity that had expired in relation to projects that failed to reach financial close under the risk mitigation round and the fifth renewables bid window.

Independent Power Producer Office head Bernard Magoro indicated ahead of the addendum's release that this was likely to result in a price premium, noting that in previous rounds, wind projects bid in Mpumalanga had carried tariffs that were 30% higher than those in the Cape provinces.

The GCCA addendum itself highlights ongoin...

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Over a five-year period, the average 1.3% a year decline in the metals and engineering sector will lead to an average 2.9% decline in employment, or 293 754 direct and indirect job losses, industry organisation Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) COO Tafadzwa Chibanguza warns.

This is based on the statistics that, between 2008 and 2023, production contracted at a rate of 1.3% a year, while employment decreased by 2.9% a year, which led the sector to lose 214 636 jobs, or 37.2%, since then. There are 362 871 people currently employed in the sector, down from the 577 507 people employed in 2008.

"Employment in the sector has decreased at double the rate by which production has decreased over the same period. Given that the steel sector has an induced economic multiplier of 2.7 times, an employment multiplier of six times and a dependency ratio of between seven and ten people relying on each formal job, the sector's employment trend spells wide-scale social and economic disaster," he says.

The sector is a crucial supplier of inputs into other sectors, such as agriculture, mining, the automotive sector, construction, the electricity supply industry across all its facets, logistics and water sectors. Further, the sector is export intensive, with 40% of total production being exported, raising the country's foreign exchange receipts by $20-billion a year.

With the recent announcement by ArcelorMittal South Africa of the closure of its operations in Newcastle and Vereeniging, as well as ArcelorMittal Rail and Structural, the prospect of such developments materialising is a major cause of concern that will only exacerbate the downward spiral of employment in the sector, he adds.

"The long products operations under consideration for closure include the country's only local mill capable of producing long steel from iron-ore, which are critical in industries such as construction, automotive, mining, electro-technical, electricity transmission, rail, wire and fasteners industry.

"The reliance of these downstream industries is not a preference question but rather higher quality and safety specifications. Faced with the prospect of a lack of domestic supply, these downstream industries will have no alternative but to look to import their feedstock, which translates to the loss of much needed domestic jobs, further deepening the unemployment crisis," says Chibanguza.

Of the 362 871 people employed in the sector, the downstream industries account for 90% of the employment with the balance being employed in the upstream. This number has evolved from 80% downstream and 20% upstream over the past 15 years.

Additionally, although the job losses have been felt across the entire value chain, they have mostly been concentrated in the downstream industries, which have accounted for 60.2% of the losses recorded over this period.

"The impact of the plant closures will mostly be felt in the downstream where the bulk of employment resides."

A greater concern is that several downstream companies have started estimating the business cases of importing their final product, as opposed to semi-finished products such as billets, blooms, among others, for further processing locally. This will have even wider employment ramifications by eliminating other intermediate processes like forging, galvanising and packaging, thereby converting many existing factories into distribution warehouses, he adds.

"The reasons for the AMSA plant closure are structural, namely low economic growth, anaemic gross fixed capital formation, and electricity and logistics challenges. These are factors faced by companies in the entire value chain and without urgent intervention and reform are unlikely to be resolved in the medium term.

"It is conceivable, therefore, that in the absence of refor...

Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses government's proposal to set up a dedicated entity to procure new electricity transmission infrastructure from the private sector and the role government expects the private sector to play in the area of the grid.

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The Department of Transport (DoT) is canvasing a series of interventions aimed at attracting freight back to South Africa's struggling rail system from road, which has emerged as the country's freight backbone following Transnet Freight Rail's (TFR's) precipitous decline in recent years.

Notwithstanding a long-standing road-to-rail policy, the DoT reports that 87% of freight is currently being moved by truck, with volumes moved by TFR having declined sharply from 226-million tons in 2017/18 to only 149.5-million tons in 2022/23.

This calamitous collapse led President Cyril Ramaphosa to form the National Logistics Crisis Committee in 2023, as well as to the development of a new Freight Logistics Roadmap, which was approved by Cabinet late last year.

The roadmap places emphasis on the introduction of private sector participation in both the port container terminals and the freight rail network; moves that would be facilitated by a vertical separation of port and rail infrastructure management of terminal and rail operations respectively.

A subcomponent of the roadmap is the Freight Road to Rail Migration Plan, the draft contents of which were shared by acting chief director Mihlali Gqada during a colloquium, hosted ahead of the February 2 deadline for public comments.

The plan describes the country's current freight logistics trajectory as "unsustainable" and notes that South Africa's high logistics costs are placing importers and exporters at a competitive disadvantage.

With logistics costs estimated at 11.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), South African logistics costs are materially higher than the global average of 7% of GDP, while the transport component of these costs is also high at about 55%.

The collapse of rail volumes, Gqada added, was also resulting in road congestion and degradation, along with increased air and noise pollution, as well as higher greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft plan outlines several interventions aimed at clawing back some of the rail-friendly freight that has been lost to road in recent years, while still underlining the importance of continued and expended investment in road, which has become the dominant mode by which trade was currently being facilitated.

Besides greater private sector participation and the vertical separation of rail infrastructure and operations, some of the other actions proposed in the plan for introduction over the coming three to five years, include:

The establishment of dedicated road freight lanes on all major corridors for certain times of the day, possibly between 18:00 and 06:00;

The appointment of dedicated freight traffic enforcement officers;

24-hour weighbridges along major corridors; and

Restricted operating hours for freight-truck movement inside cities.

The draft plan also calls for Transnet to begin reporting to the DoT rather than the Department of Public Enterprises, while underlining the importance of the establishment of an independent transport economic regulator, particularly as the rail sector is opened for third-party access.

Despite the current challenges and the loss of market share to other countries, Gqada argued that there was still potential to position South Africa as a gateway to the African market.

Doing so, however, required the emergence of a more sustainable freight transport system, where there was better coordination and interconnectedness between road, rail, air and sea.