SMME development through productive use of domestic energy resources

Productive energy services are often overlooked in domestic energy access programs; yet people cannot raise their welfare except by engaging in economic activities. Household energy demand(s) should be viewed in two components, that is, residential and productive energy services. Although the South African government prioritised electricity distribution after independence, this programme was framed in terms of domestic residential use. Thus, the supplied electrical power was limited to low amperage current, adequate only for household lighting and electronics. Intrinsically, the National Electrification Programme and the Free Basic Electricity Programme [1]) that have substantially increased electricity access in the last decade, did little to spur Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises [SMME] growth in urban penumbras and rural localities. Yet, perambulates in these areas indicate that people are engaged in enterprises that yearn for cleaner, reliable, and cost-effective energy inputs. Commercial cooking is a prevalent business in the low-income settlements, which is powered mostly by basic fuels and low efficiency combustion technologies. Although SMMEs contribute about a quarter of gross capital formation, they have a major potential in employment creation, especially within the current context of negative jobs growth in government and large enterprise sectors. This paper argues that SMME growth can be consolidated and accelerated through provision of safe, affordable and efficient energy technologies. Evidence for this claim is based on a quantitative survey that was carried out among street vendors in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Discussions were held with the business owners on alternative fuels and modalities for transitioning the informal business sector to use of clean energy resources. The entrepreneurs cite energy poverty and poor premises as the biggest constraints to their businesses

Assessment of free basic electricity and use of pre-paid meters in South Africa

In 2000, the African National Congress (ANC) through its election manifesto, made promises to provide free basic services to all poor South Africans. This was later quantified as 6 000 litres of water and 50 kWh of free basic electricity (FBE) monthly per household. Regarding the issuance of FBE, qualifying residents were registered and had to agree to a pre-paid meter being installed. It is argued that the quantity of free basic electricity provided to poor households is inadequate to meet basic needs and improvement of the quality of life. Conversely, there has been resistance to installation and use of pre-paid electricity meters, especially in townships around Johannesburg. Although prepayment systems have been proposed as innovative solutions to the problem of non-payment and affordability in utility services, the use of such mechanisms is still controversial. This paper reviews and assesses free basic electricity and the use of pre-paid electricity meters in South Africa. It also contributes to the on-going debate on FBE and prepayment systems. Recommendations are given on creating viable and stable institutions to curb uncertainties in the provision of electricity services, and methods for identifying changes in aggregate welfare resulting in the adoption of pre-paid electricity meters. Information from this article can be useful for policy-making purposes in other developing countries facing resistance in marketing, dissemination and installation of pre-paid meters

Evaluation of different cropping systems for alfisols at different fertility levels on an operational scale

A number of different cropping systems are practiced by farmers in the semi-arid tropics. Research has been carried out on individual cropping systems for some time. This present study was taken up to compare the various cropping systems possible under alfisol situation..

Optimising the imbaula stove

In South Africa, human and environmental health implications from domestic solid fuel combustion have spurred interest in cleaner alternative sources of energy and better combustion technologies. Field research among wood and coal burning informal settlements in Johannesburg has shown that the most prevalent mode of combustion is self-made imbaula (brazier) stoves, manufactured from discarded 20 L steel drums. Such stoves are made without any measure of performance optimisation, leading to fuel inefficiency and high emissions - previous field surveys have indicated that the number, size and placement of primary and secondary air inlets (taken as holes below and above the fire grate respectively) vary over a wide range, starting from an extreme with no holes below the grate [1]. Researchers at SeTAR Centre, University of Johannesburg, have set out to develop an enhanced imbaula, by investigating performance in terms of size and distribution of primary and secondary air inlets, and height of grate level. The test imbaulas are constructed out of standard 20 L drums with a height of 360 mm and diameter of 295 mm. A range of hole configurations has been designed, from which selected test configurations are fabricated for experimental evaluation of thermal and emissions properties, using the SeTAR heterogeneous testing protocol. The results indicate that higher hole densities (above and below the grate) lead to higher power outputs and lower specific CO emissions, but with lower thermal efficiency. Further, results indicate that adequate air holes below the grate (primary air) are more important for proper combustion in an imbaula; however this should be synchronised with secondary air in-lets (above the grid) in order to have congruence of all the performance criteria. This study should lead to the development of a set of criteria that can further enhance emissions reductions and fuel efficiency obtained by top-down stove ignition methods (Basa njengo Magogo) for imbaula type stoves

Cost-Effectiveness Study of Three Antimalarial Drug Combinations in Tanzania

BACKGROUND: As a result of rising levels of drug resistance to conventional monotherapy, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organisations have recommended that malaria endemic countries move to combination therapy, ideally with artemisinin-based combinations (ACTs). Cost is a major barrier to deployment. There is little evidence from field trials on the cost-effectiveness of these new combinations. METHODS AND FINDINGS: An economic evaluation of drug combinations was designed around a randomised effectiveness trial of combinations recommended by the WHO, used to treat Tanzanian children with non-severe slide-proven malaria. Drug combinations were: amodiaquine (AQ), AQ with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (AQ+SP), AQ with artesunate (AQ+AS), and artemether-lumefantrine (AL) in a six-dose regimen. Effectiveness was measured in terms of resource savings and cases of malaria averted (based on parasitological failure rates at days 14 and 28). All costs to providers and to patients and their families were estimated and uncertain variables were subjected to univariate sensitivity analysis. Incremental analysis comparing each combination to monotherapy (AQ) revealed that from a societal perspective AL was most cost-effective at day 14. At day 28 the difference between AL and AQ+AS was negligible; both resulted in a gross savings of approximately US$1.70 or a net saving of US$22.40 per case averted. Varying the accuracy of diagnosis and the subsistence wage rate used to value unpaid work had a significant effect on the number of cases averted and on programme costs, respectively, but this did not change the finding that AL and AQ+AS dominate monotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: In an area of high drug resistance, there is evidence that AL and AQ+AS are the most cost-effective drugs despite being the most expensive, because they are significantly more effective than other options and therefore reduce the need for further treatment. This is not necessarily the case in parts of Africa where recrudescence following SP and AQ treatment (and their combination) is lower so that the relative advantage of ACTs is smaller, or where diagnostic services are not accurate and as a result much of the drug goes to those who do not have malaria

Average flow constraints and stabilizability in uncertain production-distribution systems

We consider a multi-inventory system with controlled flows and uncertain demands (disturbances) bounded within assigned compact sets. The system is modelled as a first-order one integrating the discrepancy between controlled flows and demands at different sites/nodes. Thus, the buffer levels at the nodes represent the system state. Given a long-term average demand, we are interested in a control strategy that satisfies just one of two requirements: (i) meeting any possible demand at each time (worst case stability) or (ii) achieving a predefined flow in the average (average flow constraints). Necessary and sufficient conditions for the achievement of both goals have been proposed by the authors. In this paper, we face the case in which these conditions are not satisfied. We show that, if we ignore the requirement on worst case stability, we can find a control strategy driving the expected value of the state to zero. On the contrary, if we ignore the average flow constraints, we can find a control strategy that satisfies worst case stability while optimizing any linear cost on the average control. In the latter case, we provide a tight bound for the cost

Hierarchial control of production in flexible manufacturing systems

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1982.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERINGBibliography: leaves 164-168.by Joseph Githu Kimemia.Ph.D