MTN unveils two Megawatt Tri-generator power plant

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

Full Profile

E-mail

Speaking at the unveiling of the plant at MTN’s 14th Avenue, Fairlands, campus today Karel Pienaar, managing director of MTN SA, stated that, in the current climate, there is greater pressure on companies to do more with less in a responsible and sustainable way.

“With our ‘Greening 14th Avenue’ project, we are making a concerted effort to ensure that all our business practices are aligned to a sustainable, cost-cutting model that will reduce our carbon footprint. We needed to ensure that the company’s expansion and growth plans were not hampered by energy shortages or a lack of the power supply we require at the MTN campus to drive the business forward. Our challenge was to look at what was available versus what we needed, and come up with a plan to connect the two.

“The tri-generation plant is the result of a unique solution to meet our strategic objectives. It will generate electricity and, through a second re-absorption chiller cycle using the waste heat, will generate water for the air-conditioning systems in our buildings,” explains Pienaar. “The idea of using methane gas to generate energy got us all thinking and the tri-generation power plant is the end result.”

Methane gas is a clean-burning, sustainable gas that is reliable and offers a consistent supply. Its journey to the MTN Campus at 14th Avenue in Fairlands, Johannesburg, covers a distance of 874kms, from the Mozambique coast via Secunda and Sasol to Egoli Gas.

A grid at the MTN Campus is connected to Egoli Gas to transport the gas down a pipeline to the tri-generation plant that is currently under construction below the Phase II building.

When the plant is fully operational and producing 2 MW of power, MTN expects a return on its investment of R22 million within a five-year period.

By generating its own power, MTN is now in a position to plan its own grid to roll-out its services to areas where they are needed. As a spin-off, the plant will produce an estimated 800kW of cooling for free, resulting in further savings in the building’s air conditioning processes.

Using the tri-generation plant, methane gas is burned in the machines and the energy created by the gas-fired engines generates heat and electricity. The waste heat from the engines will be used in the absorption chiller to cool the water.

This chilled water is then supplied to the air-handling units that supply the cooled air for the electronic equipment housed in the new building – the Test Switch centre on the ground floor and the Data Centre on the first floor.

The water from the six huge cooling towers is used to cool down the heat from the engines. As it is not used in the absorption cycle, this ‘grey water’ is then recycled through the Phase 1 and Phase 2 buildings on the MTN campus to flush the toilets.

All the plant’s processes have been designed to result in savings in the water and electricity costs. And, once it is running at 100% capacity, the plant’s load excess will power and cool the campus.

In a speech at the unveiling of MTN’s 2 Megawatt Tri-generator power plant at their headquarters in Roodepoort Deputy Communications Minister Dina Pule said that the decision taken by MTN to diversify its energy supply source will further assure business sustainability and movement away from the use of fossil fuels.

“There will be thus less dependency on the already overstretched ESKOM power grid. I am mindful of the fact that our electricity infrastructure requires upgrades in some parts of our country, to an extent that reliability on current outmoded forms of energy is no longer an option,” said Pule.

MTN Tri-generator power plant image 1  ||  MTN two Megawatt Tri-generator power plant image 2