M.A. (Social Work) / This development research aims to develop a prototype mediation model for leaders to enable them to solve conflict effectively on the shop floor. The primary motivation for the study is an attempt to find a workable solution for day to day conflict. Such a solution has to be practical, easy to implement and coincide with current processes within the Generation Group ...

The current social, economic and technological climate requires the management of change, which is sustainable. One sustainable corporate quality will be the ability to learn as an organisation. Individuals have traditionally equated learning with the acquisition of knowledge, during early age. The understanding of learning changes as individuals learn as a group within an organisation. Often organisations fail to make the connection between learning and training. To become learning environment there should be an existence of three critical issues, namely, individual, team and organisational learning. The five requirements of learning organisation, namely, systems thinking, personal mastery shared vision, team learning and mental models should be mastered to build a learning environment. A learning environment seeks to create its own future, which assumes that learning is an ongoing and creative process for its members. The concept believes that organisations, which learn develops, adapts and transform itself in response to the needs and aspirations of the people. One of the reasons to fail this connection would be the absence of immediate tangible benefits that organisational learning can provide. The other difficulty could be in translating the theory into practice in the absence of explaining the process sequentially. Organisations are experiencing the need to develop capabilities to handle challenges irrespective of the barriers. The learning organisation constitutes a new perspective on learning which emphasise a shift in organisational management with respect to education, training and development. One way of adopting such capabilities is through adopting the precepts of the learning organisation. The academics, management and practitioners have joined hands in unravelling the concepts and processes of the learning organisation and change management. The study attempts to examine and explain the thinking and synergise various approaches to provide the relationship between the organisation change in Eskom by creating a learning environment. This is not a prescriptive document or critique on the current philosophy, but to create a learning environment model for Eskom within which change will be effected. The information will assist Eskom to accelerate its learning rate to sustain competitive advantage. The organisation needs to embrace change rather than to react to solutions. / Thesis (D Admin (Public Administration))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

A stable and reliable electrical power supply system is an inevitable pre-requisite for the technological and economic growth of any nation. Due to this, utilities must strive and ensure that the customer’s reliability requirements are met and that the regulators requirements are satisfied at the lowest possible cost. It is known fact around the world that 90% of the customer service interruptions are caused due to failure in distribution system. Therefore, it is worth considering reliability assessments as it provides an opportunity to incorporate the cost or losses incurred by the utilities customer as a result of power failure. This must be considered in the planning and operating practices. The system modelling and simulation study is carried out on one of the district’s distribution system which consists of 132 kV, 66 kV and 22 kV network in Aliwal North Sector ECOU. The reliability assessment is done on the 22, 66 and 132 kV system to assess the performance of the present system and also predictive reliability analysis for the future system considering load growth and system expansion. The alternative which gives low SAIDI, SAIFI and minimum breakeven costs is being assessed and considered. The reliability of 132 kV system could be further improved by constructing a new 132 kV line from a different source of supply and connecting with line coming from another district (reserve) at reasonable break even cost. The decision base could be further improved by having Aliwal North Sector context interruption cost. However, the historical data which may be used in Aliwal North Sector to acquire interruption costs from the customers are being proposed. The focus should be on improving the power quality on constrained networks first, then the reliability. Therefore for the Aliwal North power system network it is imperative that Eskom invest on the reliability of this network. This dissertation also analysed load reflected economic benefit versus performance expectations that should be optimized through achieving a balance between network performance (SAIDI) improvement, and total life cycle cost (to Eskom as well as the economy). Reliability analysis conducted in this dissertation used Aliwal North power system network as a case study; the results proved that the system is vulnerable to faults, planned and unplanned outages. Reliability evaluation studies were conducted on the system using DigSilent software in conjunction with FME. These two models gave accurate results with acceptable variance in most indices except for the ENS where the variance was quite significant. It can be concluded that DigSilent results are the most accurate results in all three reliability evaluation scenarios for the Aliwal North Power System, best interpretation being that of DigSilent.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.

M.Com. (Business Management) / The residential demand profile for electricity shows that this segment of the market has. a great demand in the morning and early evening. Due to a shortage of generation capacity during these peak consumption periods, different strategies are now needed to persuade customers to use their electricity in the periods when there is not a great demand. One way in which this can be achieved is to give the customers a time differentiated tariff i.e. a time-of-use (TOU) tariff, whereby the customer will pay a high energy rate in the peak periods, and lower energy rates in the off-peak and standard periods. The overall goal of this study was to determine to what extent residential customers would respond to such a tariff The study covered three consumption groups i.e. customers using more than 1500 kWh per month, between 600 and 1000 kWh per month, and between 300 and 600 kWh per month. All the customers taking part in the study were direct Eskom customers. Once the customers had agreed to participate in the study, they had TOU measuring equipment installed in their homes, which measured their consumption according to the time of day it was consumed.

M. Tech. Business Information Studies / Organizations, at all levels of operations, need to establish systems to manage the creation, capture, flow, and delivery of knowledge and information. Furthermore, systems are being designed by many organizations to facilitate Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Systems are being implemented in an attempt to increase the quality and speed of knowledge creation and distribution in organizations. The problem is, such systems are often seen to clash with corporate culture and as a result have limited impact. This research/study aimed at determining factors likely to influence the implementation of knowledge management in an organization where knowledge transfer/sharing is critical to its operational efficiency. The study will also investigative the challenges of implementing knowledge management in an organization using Eskom as Case study.

Demand side management (DSM) interventions aim to influence the way electricity is used by customers through specific actions and programmes. A desired load shape is achieved by encouraging electricity users to consume more electricity at times when excess capacity is available and less during times of constraints. In South Africa, load management is a fixed response between 18:00 and 20:00 and includes load shifting and load curtailment out of the Time of Use (TOU) tariff peak period. Demand Market Participation (DMP), on the other hand, is a more flexible curtailment initiative and is scheduled day ahead only if constraints are expected. This study evaluates the effectiveness of load management and DMP initiatives and proposes an optimised approach. Customer responses to the TOU tariff and the alignment of system and tariff peaks were investigated by making use of TOU metering and system sent out data. The research shows that not all customers respond to the TOU tariff signal. System peaks and TOU tariff peaks are aligned however a number of system peaks occur out of the tariff peak periods. The research further shows that load management and DMP initiatives shift and curtail load effectively. Load management initiatives with an energy efficient component are very effective and highlight the importance of energy efficiency as a whole. Historical system sent out data was analysed and the results show that a significant number of load management initiatives can become more dynamic. It was further evident that curtailment initiatives contribute more to the system than load shifting initiatives. Load management initiatives are initiated by TOU tariff peaks and not system peaks. Load management initiatives could therefore be optimised if system constraints are used as a reference and not TOU periods. It was also evident that load shifting initiatives do not add much value during the low-demand seasons. The results of this study could be utilised to improve DSM initiatives. This study also serves to influence future DSM strategies which will embrace a sustainable DSM programme. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The country is currently experiencing a tight electricity schedule. The demand for greater capacity than the country can supply is a reality. Raising unemployment and poverty levels are a situation we contend with daily. The aim of the study is to create a generic framework for right–sourcing in the electricity supply industry. The various phases of strategy creation were analysed to achieve this target. The process of identifying core business processes was discussed. Strategic alignment is important for the success of the Information Technology strategy; this study discussed how this could be accomplished. The various Information Technology sourcing strategies were examined. The probability of a process being outsourced, stemmed from the simplicity and repetitiveness of a transaction or process, and costs involved. An empirical study was done with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study looked at Contract Management, Information Technology Strategy and Benchmarking. A comprehensive right–sourcing framework was developed to assist in making the correct decisions. This framework could guide new entrants to the ESI in helping them shape their strategy and formulate a distinct competitive advantage. It could assist them in meeting the growing capacity demands faster and making a significant positive contribution to the economy. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The country is currently experiencing a tight electricity schedule. The demand for greater capacity than the country can supply is a reality. Raising unemployment and poverty levels are a situation we contend with daily. The aim of the study is to create a generic framework for right–sourcing in the electricity supply industry. The various phases of strategy creation were analysed to achieve this target. The process of identifying core business processes was discussed. Strategic alignment is important for the success of the Information Technology strategy; this study discussed how this could be accomplished. The various Information Technology sourcing strategies were examined. The probability of a process being outsourced, stemmed from the simplicity and repetitiveness of a transaction or process, and costs involved. An empirical study was done with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study looked at Contract Management, Information Technology Strategy and Benchmarking. A comprehensive right–sourcing framework was developed to assist in making the correct decisions. This framework could guide new entrants to the ESI in helping them shape their strategy and formulate a distinct competitive advantage. It could assist them in meeting the growing capacity demands faster and making a significant positive contribution to the economy. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The deregulation of the electricity supply industry in New Zealand has led to an increased level of interest in the security of electricity supply to rural communities. This in turn has led to questions about sustainable alternatives to conventional methods of electricity supply. A solution may be the adoption of sustainable community sized renewable energy (RE) based distributed generation systems. However, choosing between the myriad of possibilities requires much data and analysis. An accurate analysis of electricity load and RE resource matching is normally required. In most cases, this is an expensive and time-consuming assessment. In order to minimise these costs, and yet give due consideration to stakeholder preferences and technical uncertainty, a process incorporating the economic, social, environmental, and technical aspects of sustainable design in a relatively short timeframe will be required. This study developed such a method through the integrated use of the wind atlas assessment and analysis program (WAsP), the micropower optimisation model (HOMER), and three methods of decision analysis using Logical Decisions for Windows (LDW) software, which formed the decision analysis framework, SPiRAL (Sustainable Power in Rural Areas and Locations). The efficacy of the integrated use of the software in the SPiRAL framework was tested through two analyses using electricity load and RE resource data from a case study site. The first was an analysis using a full-year of data in a multi-method decision analysis process thus setting the framework in place. A further analysis then tested the minimum monitoring time required to obtain and analyse the data for modelling meaningful results. In both analyses, the results were ranked based on stakeholder preferences between the economic, social, environmental, and technical aspects of sustainable energy systems. The clear representation of the uncertainty of the electricity loads and the RE resources was paramount in the results. The short-term analysis results differed in small ways from the full-term, but were essentially similar. This study developed a decision analysis framework that delivered transparent results in a manner likely to instil insight and confidence in them, and this would provide the decision-maker with much valuable information on which to base their decision.