I live in Pinelands, Cape Town. Somebody has to. Pinelands is dull. It is one of two suburbs in Cape Town that do not permit the sale of alcohol or the licensing of bars. If you want a good night’s... 

These days, tanning a hide is an automatic process that generally involves chromium sulphate, a kind of salt, as the tanning agent. However, back in the days when there was no chromium sulphate,... 

About five years ago, I made a policy decision that I would never go into an 1 000 V substation again unless it was maintained by a reputable authority. Most 11 000 V substations are worse than 400... 

One thing feared by all production businesses is a sudden change in profit. ‘Production businesses’ are businesses which take a lot of materials and convert these into something else  – for... 

In 2019, commercial aviation used 90-billion US gallons of jet fuel, which is basically paraffin. This is 374 755 766 616 ℓ which, in Africa, is impela enkulu.   In November 2012, I wrote the... 

Now it happens that, 40 years ago, I had just finished my university degree and was on my way to the South African Navy to spend two years as a guest of government. At that time, the state of the... 

I regularly communicate with a group of engineering types who are all power-[Unknown A1]  generation minded and we regularly write about how misguided the green movement is regarding power... 

On February 7, 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his State of the Nation Address that State-owned power utility Eskom would be remodelled and split into three State-owned entities... 

There is nobody who will say that the new CEO of State-owned electricity utility Eskom, André de Ruyter, is doing a bad job. When he took over, Eskom was in a bad way. It was rife with corruption... 

The following is from an article from the Seven Pillars Institute: “Some of the company’s personnel pocketed a brokerage percentage from suppliers, overloaded ships with personal cargoes for... 

I own a small consulting engineering practice with a staff of five. Our work is consulting in acoustics and noise control. We are not considered essential to any project (as, for example, the... 

In mythology, Icarus was the son of Daedalus. The latter wanted to escape from the island of Crete and so used wax and feathers to build some wings for himself and his son Icarus. Daedalus warned... 

Michael Moore is a famous film director, and one of the films he directed is Bowling for Columbine. The title refers to the true story that two students in their late teens – Eric Harris and Dylan... 

I have before me an article from a newspaper published in Cape Town. The headline is ‘Worst fire season feared’. It goes on to quote whoever who as saying we should be very concerned and uses words... 

Sometime back, in 1994, when the new government had taken over, there was a great deal of backslapping and self-congratulation by new Parliamentarians and officials and settling in and stuff.... 

I did promise not to write about Eskom and the virus. I can leave Eskom alone but, as to the virus, it is a bit like saying to Samuel Pepys, who kept a diary in 1665, at the time of the great... 

To write about State-owned electricity utility Eskom, the virus and government is boring. So, I am going to use this time to get our Engineering News & Mining Weekly readers to solve a few... 

Some time back – more than ten years – the economy was swimming along. I had five staff and one of them stopped me in the office and asked if she could have a word with me. No problem. She said... 

A very good aspect about the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, is that I need not go to those very tedious meetings, which last three hours, during which I will be asked to advise on the project... 

Ah, yes, at last! When Martin Creamer agreed to publish this column, he requested that I avoid politics. And so I shall. This letter is addressed to all of you politicians, far left to far right.... 

The butterfly effect is a terribly sweet observation that the fluttering of the wings of a butterfly can be the trigger for a massive destructive storm. Taking the power generated by the wings of a... 

With regard to power from independents power producers (IPPs), Cape Town's acting mayor, Ian Neilson, is quoted in The Citizen newspaper as saying “The City is fighting for the right to buy cleaner... 

Summary of previous columns: climate change is real, if only because, in Norway, large patches of ice have melted and given up artefacts. This shows that Norway has become warm enough to melt ice,... 

Summary of previous columns: firstly, climate change is real, if only because, in Norway, large patches of ice have melted and given up artefacts. This shows that Norway has become warm enough to... 

In last week's instalment of this column, I wrote that climate change is real, if only because, in Norway, large patches of ice have melted and given up artefacts such as iron arrowheads and tunics... 

I have decided to write about climate change. I know that, even with that simple sentence, the knives come out, the pistols cock and an army marches against me. But do not fret, my merensky... 

A whole new culture of reporting on State-owned electricity utility Eskom, climate and energy has arisen. This country has a number of good-quality, intelligent energy experts but, deeply... 

Every day, I read all the suggested stories from Google. I know that some story lines repeat day after day. There is always a story about climate change, Jacob Zuma, a bread recipe, living off the... 

Last week, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that select schools would be piloting subjects such as robotics this year and, if successful, the subjects could be rolled out to public... 

I am a qualified electrical engineer. There were 105 students in first year engineering when I enrolled at university (if you ask my staff, they will tell you this was shortly after the Manumission... 

There is a lot of gloom and doom about in this country. In the professional community of which I am a part (that is, architects, builders, engineers, developers, and so on) I ask: "How's business?"... 

In the film A River Runs Through It, we see a young Brad Pitt, acting as Paul Maclean, being home-schooled by his father, Reverend Maclean. Brad is told to write an essay. He does and brings it... 

Wind power and solar power are not available all the time. Many assume that the interconnected power system it is some sort of system which has a huge storage dam full of electricity that is tapped... 

Years ago, Engineering News publishing editor Martin Creamer told me I could write about anything in this column, as long as it was not offensive. So, the World Cup rugby. Not the recent event, the... 

"Come on Terence," said Harry, "don't you know about the Hannover Fair ?" "In Hannover, Germany?" I asked. 

I was going to write about the latest offering from national government, the Integrated Resources Plan (IRP). This is the document that sets the way forward for the energy generation policy for... 

In my last column, I wrote that State-owned electricity utility Eskom has been most comprehensively messed up. A combination of black economic empowerment, government incompetence, employee... 

State-owned electricity utility Eskom has been most comprehensively messed up. Stronger words apply . . . but anyway. Black economic empowerment (BEE), government incompetence, employee... 

I am not sure how much we are owed in total. This is 'we' as in my consulting practice. A figure of R1 030 000 springs to mind. Certain debtors do stand out. There is the dear old North West... 

Before cellphones, the only rechargeable batteries were NiCad batteries, and they were not terribly good. There was a drive to come up with something better, and so the lithium-ion battery was... 

The wonder of politicians is their extreme stupidity. Somebody once explained to me that rocket scientists know lots about rockets but not much about anything else. Knowing lots about one thing.... 

Power system stability is the degree to which a power grid continues to supply power after an unexpected event. An example: he Zambia power system has a demand of about 1 900 MW. Thus, at any one...