South Africa’s electricity supply is under pressure. Mining is one of South Africa’s
largest electricity consumers with electricity-intensive services such as compressed
air, cooling, ventilation, etc. More than 40% of mine electricity consumption is used
for cooling and ventilation. There is a need to reduce the operational cost on a mine as
electricity prices are set to increase at least 2% above South Africa’s inflation target.
The mine-cooling and ventilation system was investigated for energy cost-saving. No
clear energy and cost-saving strategy for the entire mine-cooling and ventilation
system was found. Projects are implemented ad hoc and scattered throughout the
system. A strategy is needed to help realise the total saving available on the entire
mine-cooling and ventilation system.
An implementation strategy for load-management and energy-saving projects on a
mine-cooling and ventilation system was developed. A peak clip project on the
surface BAC was developed and added to the strategy. The resultant strategy attains
all savings throughout the entire mine-cooling and ventilation system.
A peak clip project on the surface BAC of a typical mine results in an annual saving
of R1.4 million. Implementing this new project on other mines could save
R11 million annually. Implementing the sequenced combination of cooperative
projects on a typical mine results in a saving of R30 million. That is a saving of 38%
on the ventilation and cooling cost and 16% on the total mine electricity bill. / PhD (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/12198 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Schutte, Abraham Jacobus |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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