Company Announcement - WorleyParsons has successfully closed out two key renewable energy projects, with a third still underway, and a fourth just beginning to roll out.  Two of these projects have positioned the company as the first Engineering contractor firm in sub-Saharan Africa to act as Owner’s Engineer on concentrated solar power projects in South Africa.

As owner’s engineer WorleyParsons completed the Jasper photovoltaic solar power project in Kimberley, Northern Cape, for developer Solar Reserve in December 2014. The project is now providing 80 MW of reliable, low cost PV power to the South African national grid.

After handover, Jason Gerber, Solar Reserve’s Jasper Project’s project manager, said that “WorleyParsons’ professionalism in representing the owner’s interests and managing the owner’s engineering team on site was a major factor in the project’s success.”  Philip Taylor, the project’s executive manager, added: “Please accept my sincere thanks for all the hard work your team put in. It is greatly appreciated”.

WorleyParsons provided Owner’s Engineer services on Abengoa Solar One’s state-of-the-art Kaxu 100 MW CSP plant, about 60 km outside of Pofadder in the Northern Cape, which was successfully handed over to the project’s operations and maintenance team on February 6 2015, nine days ahead of schedule.  WorleyParsons is also Owner’s Engineer on Abengoa Solar One’s Khi 50 MW CSP plant near Upington, which is still underway.

Representing the biggest renewable energy project WorleyParsons RSA has undertaken to date, the company will provide Project Management services to Lake Turkana Wind Power’s wind farm project in Kenya. The contract was awarded in Q4 2014 and WorleyParsons has begun to mobilise its project management teams on site in the Loyangalani District, Marsabit West County, in the Turkana region. The 32-month project, which will establish the biggest wind farm of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa and represents one of the biggest single private investments in Kenya’s history, aims to supply 300 MW of reliable, low cost wind turbine generator capacity to the Kenyan national grid, equivalent to about 20% of the country’s current installed electricity generating capacity. 

“WorleyParsons is proud to be part of providing solutions to bringing additional generation capacity online and creating increased power supply to a constrained regional economy in order to improve the lives of people in Africa,” says the company’s Denver Dreyer, Business Manager.  “Our robust inroads into the renewable energy sector have demonstrated that we have all the execution capabilities necessary to set up and deliver projects in remote locations, and to provide oversight and support services for all enabling infrastructure.

“Underpinning these capabilities is a strong commitment to localisation.  We draw skills wherever possible from the local communities and, through focused skills transfer programmes, we equip local community members to become a meaningful part of these projects.  At the end of the projects we’re able to leave a legacy of sustainable skills.”

African Utility Week
WorleyParsons will once again have a presence at this year’s African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition in Cape Town from 12 to 14 May. Its stand will showcase the company’s coal, natural gas, renewable energy, hydropower and asset management services and will be manned by a team of specialists across these areas.