Housing in Southern Africa March 2015

March 2015

Bathrooms, Kitchens & Plumbing,

Bricks & Paving, Energy Efficiency,

Green Building & IBTs

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Grossmann on 011 622 4770 or email

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in Southern Africa

Industry Buzz, Events & Products

he integration of renewable en-

ergy into the traditional power

ecosystem, universal access to

power and funding and sustainability

issues are among the top challenges

facing sub-Saharan Africa’s power

generation sector in the short term.

This emerged during a meeting of

an expert Advisory Board to assess

themost crucial issues facing the sec-

tor at POWER-GEN Africa 2015 to be

held in Cape Town during July 2015.

The Advisory Board includes aca-

demics, industry body representa-

tives and experts from a number of

African countries, with organisations

such as theNational Energy Regulator

of South Africa (NERSA), the Southern

African Alternative Energy Asso-

ciation (SAAEA), Eskom, Renewable

Energy and Energy Efficiency Partner-

ship (REEEP), the Lesotho Highlands

Water Commission and CEFA Tanza-

nia among its members.

Nigel Blackaby, POWER-GEN Africa

Event Director & Conference Director

for PennWell’s International Power

Group, said that across Africa, regula-

tors and utilities were facing similar

Sustainability – Africa’s

top power agenda

he SA Paint Manufacturing As-

sociation’s training institute

(SAPITI) has appointed Pogiso

Matlala as Training and Development

Manager. His duties will include plan-

ning, developing, promotion and co-

ordination of the insitute’s accredited

training programmes for the coatings

industry.

Deryck Spence, Executive Director

of SAPMA says, “Matlala has been en-

gaged topromote a culture of training

and upliftment within the South Afri-

can coatings sector.” Spence added,

“Pogisowill head SAPMA and SAPITI’s

interaction with government organ-

isations such as the Chemical Indus-

try Education and Training Authority

(CHIETA); assist SAPMA members in

developing Work Skills Development

POWER-GEN 2015’s advisory board has identified integration of

renewable energy into the traditional power ecosystem, universal

access to power and funding and sustainability, as key issues to

address at Africa’s premier power sector event.

challenges in terms of sustainability

and service delivery.

The Advisory Board has assessed

abstracts submitted and noted that a

number of key themes were coming

to the fore. One such themewas fund-

ing and investment, they said. With

Africa seen as potentially the next big

market for independent power pro-

ducers, questions are arising around

regulation, best practice and funding

models. They noted that in some re-

gions, a cost versus standards debate

was emerging as foreign developers

entered the African market.

Renewable energy is also emerg-

ing as a top strategic issue as ques-

tions arise around the regulatory

environment, integration models

and pricing structures. Investors are

increasingly looking to projects in

Africa, such as the recently-opened

96 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV)

Jasper Solar Plant near Kimberley,

developed by a consortium includ-

ing Google, and the 160 MW Nour 1

thermo-solar plant set to go live in

Morocco next year.

Meeting growing power demand

SAPITI’s new manager

Pogiso Matlala

Plans to qualify for training grants;

represent SAPMA on training and

development committees and forums

as well as employer associations; and

develop and maintain a computer-

ised student registration process.

This will be an extremely important

year for SAPITI and Pogiso will play

a key role in the growth planned for

our training institute.”

Prior to his appointment, Matlala

was responsible for Human Resourc-

es at StonCor Africa. He holds various

tertiary education diplomas includ-

ing Business Information Technology,

Business Management, Finance for

Non-Financial Managers, Managing

for Results, and Introduction to Psy-

chometric Assessments. He is also a

registered assessor andmoderator.

■

through strategies such as the lib-

eralisation of markets, government

grants and international develop-

ment initiatives; as well as newmod-

els for controlling the cost of power

generation, are also important issues

the sector is facing.

The event will take place on July

15-17 at the Cape Town International

Convention Centre, Cape Town. The

theme ‘Emerging Opportunities in

the World’s Fastest Growing Conti-

nent’ will be hosted by the PennWell

Corporation.

■

in Southern Africa