Juwi Renewable Energies BFM 78

JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE

A SUNNY OUTLOOK

JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

EVEN IN THE FACE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES’ OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BUSINESS IS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THEIR PROSPECTS.

A SUNNY OUTLOOK PROJECT MANAGED BY: ANDREW BOURKE

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juwi Renewable Energies is a German-owned company which entered the South African market in 2010, and one of its core business models is the operation and maintenance of solar PV facilities. From those early days, that side of the business has grown until today it operates 20% of the built solar farms in South Africa, delivered via its subsidiary company juwi Solar ZA O&M. Greg Austin, Managing Director juwi Renewable Energies & juwi Solar ZA O&M

n many ways, the story of this company’s growth goes parallel to the growth of the solar industry in South Africa.

“Ten years is long enough for a market to mature quite substantially. What we’ve seen in the local market is a whole lot of new competitors, but what they don’t have is our track record,” says Greg Austin, Managing Director of juwi Renewable Energies and juwi Solar ZA O&M. “That track record is built on very competent and capable site management teams as well as our so-called back office team.

The management team, the technical team, that support of all the ongoing site operations is absolutely tier-one. And able to rely on the juwi Group’s technical competence distributed across its global operations.”

LEADING BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

As well as having an impressive track record & team behind them, juwi is also in a leading position concerning the South African Government’s policies supporting transformation objectives relating to Black Economic Empowerment.

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Suntech Solar Power South Africa (Pty) Ltd (Suntech South Africa) is an incorporated joint venture between Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd (Wuxi Suntech) and Subrosolve (Pty) Ltd, a South African investment holding company.

Founded in 2001, Wuxi Suntech has supplied photovoltaic panels to more than a thousand customers in more than 80 countries.

As a leading photovoltaic manufacturing company, Wuxi Suntech specializes in the research, development and production of crystalline silicon solar cells and modules. The company is a Bloomberg’s rated Tier 1 major global player and leader in the solar industry and has always dedicated itself to the improvement of its technologies to ensure the most reliable and highest quality products for its customers.

Suntech South Africa was formed in 2014 with a view to supply high quality, solar panels to both the Utility scale and C&I solar markets in Southern Africa.

To date, Suntech South Africa has supplied approximately 350MW utility scale capacity in South Africa with 50 MW still to be installed. The most recent projects supplied are Droogfontein 2 (86.5MW situated in Kimberley), Bokamoso (78.5MW situated in North West Province) and Waterloo (86.5MW situated in North West Province) which have all been constructed over the last 12 months.

Suntech South Africa is committed to a customer centric business model which combines cutting edge technology with excellent customer service to achieve an outstanding offering to the market.

Suntech Solar Power South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2nd Floor Noland House, River Park River Lane, Mowbray, 7700 Tel: +27 21 685 1870 Email: muneeb@suntechsa.com

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www.suntech-power.com BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

Integrated Facilities Solutions?

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Servest’s Security division, founded 22 years ago, is one of the major private security companies in South Africa. Our 7,000 highly experienced, highly trained security officers are backed by regional and national command centres and serve our clients nationally.

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“juwi Solar ZA O&M undertook a strategic change in ownership during the course of last year leading to a major acquisition in the company by the Reatile Group, a fully black-owned company active in the energy and chemicals space in South Africa,” Austin says. “They have made strategic investments this year into building and operating renewable energy assets, as well as into some of juwi’s construction project companies. For juwi Solar ZA O&M this transaction brings about a 51% black ownership which is a major differentiator for a solar O&M operator in the country at this point in time.”

Austin believes this is important not only in the context of South Africa’s history but also to accelerate the transformation of its economy.

“We’re fully supportive of the country’s transformation agenda, and by entering into this strategic relationship with Reatile we are able to achieve these multiple objectives simultaneously,” Austin points out.

“WE’RE FULLY SUPPORTIVE OF THE COUNTRY’S TRANSFORMATION AGENDA, AND

BY ENTERING INTO THIS STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH REATILE WE ARE ABLE TO ACHIEVE THESE MULTIPLE OBJECTIVES SIMULTANEOUSLY.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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PLANNING AHEAD

While it’s clear the benefits for project owners that come with contracting with juwi as an Operations and Maintenance service provider, the renewable energy sector that is juwi’s core business is one that is typically based on long procurement cycles that can make it difficult for businesses to plan ahead.

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“I would say that the bulk of the contracts that we have are in the public procurement programme of government, the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer procurement programme, or REIPP,” Austin says. “The first procurement round was in 2011; over the years we’ve only had four REIPP procurement rounds and that

talks to the substantial delays the renewables market has faced. It’s difficult to build a business in the context of an uncertain market direction.”

But these challenges exist for everyone in the South Africa renewables market, and Austin reflects on the fact that juwi has continued to navigate these obstacles, with backing from

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“WE HAVE A DEPTH AND BREADTH OF TECHNICAL EXPERTISE SECOND-TO-NONE IN THE WORLD RELATING TO SOLAR PV.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

its parent company. And at the same time, the development of renewables as a primary provider of reliable, clean and costeffective energy is on the march, with the global uptake and longterm outlook beyond doubt.

“We are supported not only by juwi as a group headquartered in Germany but also via ten international

subsidiaries of which we are one. We have a depth and breadth of technical expertise second-to-none in the world relating to solar photovoltaics (PV),” Austin says. “We have this deep global expertise, reflected in the over 400 MW of solar PV we will be operating by year end in South Africa alone, while globally we’re operating and

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Energy Procurement Services (EPS) Would like to be your company of choice, for Renewable Energy business in South Africa, we have a team of people who are passionate about their work and want to provide a unique personal service. to all our partners. We have five years’ experience, working with companies like juwi Renewable Energies who are one of the major companies in the renewable energy industry in South Africa. EPS are running the Operations and Maintenance on site for the day to day operations, as well as the procurement and servicing of both equipment and labour from the local communities.

Please contact us at any time day or night for any work which you would like our company to quote on. We can and will make a difference.

Energy Procurement Services is proud to have an allwoman shareholding with 75% of the Shareholders being black.

Energy Procurement Services 36 Mountain View Drive Durbanville 7530, South Africa

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Tel: +27 63 689 2587 / +27 82 550 7510 Email: info@epsza.com / raymond.murray@epsza.com

We are B-BBEE 2

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ENERGY PROCUREMENT SERVICES Energy Procurement Services (EPS) was established in South Africa in August 2015, when a group of far thinking woman from all race groups came together to form a company in the renewable energy field. We are a proud level 2 contributor in terms of the DTi Codes of good practice on broad based black empowerment practices.

All of our shareholders are woman with a 75% black shareholding, and are well positioned in the market place with 5 years of experience, and expertise, as well as working with major companies like juwi Renewable Energies who are one of the major players in the renewable energy market in South Africa and the World.

EPS realised there was a need to source and procure products and services, as well as partnering with other companies on the Operations and Maintenance, side of the business. Our priority is to get involved with the local community in the rural areas where these sites are being built, so everyone can benefit from the huge growth in this exciting industry.

We are offering a full Turnkey operation with training, waste management services, security services, labour, electrical installations, health and safety, building and construction, container hire, solar panel cleaning, and ongoing professional services. EPS are already working on a number Solar sites, in the Northern cape at Prieska, Konkoonsies, and Aries as well as number of new sites in the Northwest, Bokamoso, and Waterloo. With future projects on the horizon we are looking to expand through-out South Africa

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MATTLA Engineering Solutions Pty (Ltd) was established with the sole purpose of providing engineering solutions on renewable integration to the grids in South Africa energy industry and beyond the borders.

MATTLA comprises of a highly qualified team of Registered Professional Engineers, with vast experience in the development of the South African Grid Codes, and their governance processes, Compliance environment, and commissioning.

Our solutions on renewable energy integration: • Plant Model Development and studies • Protection Settings Calculations • Commissioning Test Results Analysis • Development of RETEC Test Procedure • RETEC site testing (data analysis and reporting) • Model Aggregation and Validations (RMS and EMT) • Power Quality Measurements Analysis and reporting • Co-ordination of Governance with Grid code Advisory Committee (GCAC) for any exemptions needed • Project Management P.O Box 1134, O.R Tambo Airport www.mattlaengineering.co.za 1627 Johannesburg Gauteng SA nhlanhlenil.ngidi@mattlaengineering.co.za Tel: +27 83 499 1999 info@mattlaengineering.co.za

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES

maintaining over 2500 MW of solar PV farms.”

ADJUSTING TO NEW CIRCUMSTANCES

Of course, another industrywide issue has been the encroachment of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even during a pandemic people and the country’s economy require reliable power supplies.

“As a result we’ve been fortunate that in South Africa, when we went into lockdown on the 27th of March this year, there were already a few ringfenced activities that were deemed critical for our economy that had to continue,” Austin says. “One of those was Operations and Maintenance of energy generating facilities of which obviously our solar PV farms form a part. So those contracts had to be serviced.”

Of course, while the contracts still needed to be serviced, they would have to be serviced under an entirely new set of circumstances.

“There was an adjustment period when we needed to install new site health and safety procedures for ourselves and our suppliers and service providers,” recalls Austin. “I’d say that outside of that the major impact we’ve experienced is that we’ve had to restrict the movement of people between sites, and head office in Cape Town and the sites, to cars only. Being a company with widespread projects across the country we were adding time in travelling between project sites. Where we might fly for two hours we now drive for ten.”

Looking beyond COVID, juwi has big plans for the future, including a shift in strategy when it comes to tenders.

“We’ve recently built up a business development team as of last year to target and really

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

articulate to the market our strategic response to delays in procurement rounds,” Austin says. “Their goal is to target the first rounds of tenders for solar farms procured between 2011 and 2013, that are coming up for Operations and Maintenance service contract renewal. Thus we’ve gone after third-party Operations and Maintenance contracts, which is a different strategy from our normal business model. Where typically we provide O&M services for at least the first five years on the back of being awarded solar EPC (design and build) contracts, we’re now actively engaging with project owners looking to secure our expert O&M services into projects in which we were not involved during the construction phase.”

It’s a strategy that is already paying off.

“We’ve had our first successes in this area. We entered our first contract of this kind in April this year, and we’ve built a substantial pathway to targeting hundreds of additional megawatts with very good prospects,” Austin tells us. “What the immediate future holds is developing that part of our business. The second and related aspect of our strategy is to add value to our business development activities focussed on hybrid power projects, where we develop, engineer, construct and operate power projects focusing on the mining sector; these hybrid power projects integrate renewables (solar and wind) with thermal power plants and battery energy storage systems across sub-Saharan Africa. We follow that business model with the Operations and Maintenance service operating for solar, wind and battery systems onto mines and we’re seeing positive uptake in this area of our business.”

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“WHERE TYPICALLY WE PROVIDE O&M SERVICES FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST FIVE YEARS ON THE BACK OF BEING AWARDED SOLAR EPC (DESIGN AND BUILD) CONTRACTS, WE’RE NOW ACTIVELY ENGAGING WITH PROJECT OWNERS LOOKING TO SECURE OUR EXPERT O&M SERVICES INTO PROJECTS IN WHICH WE WERE NOT INVOLVED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION PHASE.”

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: O&M

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