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Jack Rowan wears two Alstom hats. Besides being MD of Alstom South Africa's Transmission and Distribution division, he is also vice-president of Alstom's International Sales and Country Organisation (Isco) for Southern and Eastern Africa, one of 15 Alstom regions. The Transmission and Distribution division, South Africa's leading local manufacturer, has six manufacturing and trading business units, four on the Knights site and two in Wadeville. It also has two project companies, one building transmission lines and the other substations. The largest, the medium-voltage switchgear unit, manufactures locally-developed product from 3,3 kV to 33 kV and employs 450 people. This business unit is the Southern Hemisphere's sole manufacturer of vacuum interrupters, key components in the switching and fault interruption of electric current in switchgear. The business unit exports 25% of output, its largest export destination being Malaysia, where it won yet another large contract earlier this year, this time for R11-million. The unit supplied all the medium-voltage switchgear for the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique and has an ongoing contract to replace old switchgear in Soweto. There are 12 manufacturers of medium-voltage switchgear within the global Alstom group and, as Isco vice-president, Rowan has to promote the interests of Alstom group objectively and, by and large, the South African-manufactured products are found to be globally competitive. The second business unit at Knights manufactures high-voltage circuit-breakers, isolators and instrument transformers up to 132 kV. Above 132 kV, high-voltage equipment is imported from Alstom, Europe. Some 15% of the output of this unit is exported, with growing demand for instrument transformers in Australia and New Zealand as well as Africa. South Africa's State-owned power company Eskom has awarded the unit long-term national contracts for all three of its offerings. Knight's third business unit, which exports a fifth of its output, manufactures distribution transformers in the 33 kV and lower ranges. This unit has a national contract to supply a third of Eskom's requirements and, on the export front, has just won a R15-million contract to supply the State-owned Nigerian power agency Nepa. These transformers are generally pole-mounted and used to reticulate residential areas. The South African transformer business is regarded as the most competitive within the global Alstom group and has, as a result, been allowed by the Alstom group to bid into, among other territories, the UK, where it is giving European competitors a run for their money. The fourth Knights unit is involved in the sale of electronic relays imported from Europe as well as a range of standard and electronic meters, also imported. The relays protect and control the networks against damage in general and lightning in particular. Failure to trip out faulty transmission line networks in milliseconds can result in widespread damage as well as the loss of healthy networks. The organisation is also involved in the production of protection and control systems. Sales of these are generally to contractors involved in turnkey African projects and it is currently supplying a South African contractor working in Sudan. The Alstom division's own projects company, Power Systems, which is building substations in Tanzania and Malawi, is one of its customers. The tempo of business for this and other units is expected to quicken once the regional electricity distribution system is put in place. The sixth business at Knights is a project company that builds transmission lines. This unit this month completed a 250 km 400 kV transmission line to Anglo American's Skorpion Zinc project in Namibia from Keetmanshoop and is now beginning to build a 132 kV line in Zimbabwe to transmit power to the Mimosa platinum mine in the Great Dyke area. The project unit is building several 33 kV lines for South Africa's platinum industry. Last year it completed a 265 km line for the Botswana Power Corporation for the Seventy Villages Project and is currently bidding on three contracts in Mozambique. The two remaining business units, CHI and Power Transformers, both of Wadeville, Germiston, were bought from NEI. CHI manufactures 1 000 V-and-below low-voltage motor-control centres, distribution boards and un-interruptible power supplies (UPSs) and sells imported low-voltage components. It is the second-largest business unit, employing 300 and turning over more than R150-million. CHI derives considerable benefit from being the country's sole local manufacturer of UPSs. Power Transformers manufactures large power transformers up to 132 kV and 45 MVA for the transmission industry. When Rowan joined in 1993, lstom transmission and distribution had two business units. Today its eight businesses employ 1 600 people " and are still in hot pursuit of growth. More from EngineeringNews.co.za |
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