Protea Versoolwerke – Solar Powered
As a tyre retreading factory situated in Ermelo our company, like many in South Africa has been continually faced with escalating electricity bills. Our decision was to find a long-term solution which would greatly reduce our expense on electricity.
We utilised the specialised services of SolarXgen , a Johannesburg based company which gave a complete solution to our electrical spend.
“The project took careful consideration of the billing protocol by the municipality. We could not rely purely on a Solar power system for the client and had to provide an integrated solution which would also reduce the factories maximum demand”- says Wayne de Jager ( Corporate Director SolarXgen ).
A final solution as engineered by SolarXgen included:-
- a 185kWp Solar power system ( including 50kWp supplied via a newly erected Solar powered car-port )
- A 225 kVAR automatic reactive power controller
- Integration of a 400kVA diesel generator paralleled to mains and Solar to aid in “peak -lopping” in that it would automatically run at times when Solar power alone was not sufficient to reduce Apparent power demand.
“The integration of the 3 differing technologies formed the greater part of our solution. The intricacy in them all communicating synchronously together was finalised through our proprietary PLC and SCADA device” – says Brian Fox (Technical Director SolarXgen).
The combined solution aims to reduce Apparent demand from over 360kVA in some months down to under 200kVA and will further reduce energy used at the factory by just under 300 000 kWh per annum a combined saving of over R600k.
“We are proud to be reducing our carbon footprint by over 300 tonnes of CO² per annum whilst greatly reducing our expenditure on electricity.” says Willie Van Rensburg (CEO Protea Versoolwerke). “We choose SolarXgen because of their overall experience in the industry and are very pleased with the overall solution. It was a big project and one we hope to pay-off in about 4 years and will continue enjoying our own generated electricity for another 20+ years thereafter.”
About Protea Versoolwerke
Protea Versoolwerke is leading tyre retreading company with a plant in Ermelo and Kimberley as well as five retail branches in Piet Retief, Ermelo, Vryheid, Kimberley and Gauteng. Protea Veroolwerke is one of Bandags largest distributors in South Africa.
More info on Protea Website
About SolarXgen
SolarXgen is an EPCM (Engineer, Procure Construct & Maintain) company specialising in commercial on- grid and off-grid Solar PV (photovoltaic) power solutions. With over 181 Project designs totalling over 63 MegaWatts of DC Power in South Africa the team of professionals are dedicated to deliver bespoke solutions More info at www.solarxgen.co.za Call Centre 086 999 0399
