Black & Veatch win S. African energy contract

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Black & Veatch win S. African energy contract

Black & Veatch was selected by MBHE African Power (PTY) Ltd, a local renewable energy developer, to provide technical assistance for the country’s first waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. The energy plant will be located in the Drakenstein Municipality, near Wellington in the Western Cape.

The energy plant will contribute 10 megawatts to the nation’s power grid – enough to power more than 10,000 South African homes.

“This landmark project will play a critical role in boosting power supply and available electricity to households,” says Webb Meko, Managing Director at Black & Veatch sub-Saharan Africa.

Black & Veatch will serve as owner’s engineers to provide fuel characterisation, front-end engineering and design (FEED), and tender support for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), operations and maintenance contracts.

The facility will use both wet organic fraction to produce biogas and the dry fraction of locally available municipal waste (MSW) in an effort to provide clean burning natural gas energy to the Drakenstein Municipality region.

In addition to providing a renewable energy resource, the waste management project will help address limited landfill availability by diverting up to 500 tons of MSW per day from the landfill to the WTE plant, reducing the waste volume by 90 percent.

“Partnering with MBHE on this project will help address an increasingly critical waste management challenge facing the community,” says Karen Daniel, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Leader of Black & Veatch’s Sub-Saharan Africa growth initiative.

“The completed project will address this issue while also providing a sustainable energy solution to meet growing electricity demand.”

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded MBHE a grant as joint developer in the public-private partnership that includes the Drakenstein Municipality and Interwaste (Pty) Ltd, a local South African waste management company.

The project supports Power Africa, a U.S. Government-led initiative to increase access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by adding more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections.

About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2015 were US$3 billion.

Source: www.bv.com

Moving Abroad Checklist

Initial Considerations

Will your partner be travelling with you?

If so, what will they be giving up in your present home and will they be able to continue with their career in your new home? You will need to check whether a separate visa is required for your partner to work or if your visa gives that right. If they are unable to work you will need to decide on the effect on your finances and what alternatives are available to give a fulfilling life (home business, training, voluntary work).

Are you taking family with you?

Moving with family raises many exciting opportunities, but also can create challenges. The HSBC Expat Explorer survey indicates that expat kids can take six months to settle in to their new country (see article). Getting young or even older children to prepare to move and leave their friends and family behind can be a challenge and should be thought through.

The options for education is another area that needs to be thought through.

Moving your child to a new country with a different education system can be a great opportunity to broaden their experience, but if they are close to key exams the timing can make this inadvisable. If you do take your family with you, it is important to decide between joining the local school system or choosing an international school.

Where will you be living?

Whether you will be living in a house or apartment, furnished or unfurnished, these decisions will affect what you need to take with you. The time you are planning to live overseas will also affect whether you should leave your property at home empty, rent it out or sell it. See the article Sell, Store or Ship.