The IST group, appointed in mid-March as the distributor in South Africa of US-made fuel-cell-based electricity back-up systems to the telecommunications, uninterruptible power-supply and other markets, has sold the first unit to an educational institution and expects to deliver two more units to a cellular-phone operator in the next six to eight weeks.
The unit sold to the Vaal University of Technology will be used for research and teaching purposes, IST power systems GM Kennith Shuda tells Engineering News.
IST, listed on the JSE Securities Exchange, is also in the process of donating a back-up unit to a hospital in Gauteng, which should also be delivered within the next eight weeks.
"These projects are the three that we are working on at present, but we are also busy talking to other mobile-phone operators and organisations like Telkom, Eskom and the pulp-and-paper, mining and manufacturing industries," says Shuda.
IST said when it announced its appointment by Plug Power as a distributor of the systems that this could pave the way for the largest commercial deployment yet of fuel-cell technology in this country.
In terms of the agreement, IST imports, distributes and supports Plug Power`s GenCore 5-kW fuel-cell systems not only in South Africa but also in other countries in Southern Africa.
A fuel cell converts chemical energy from a fuel such as hydrogen into electricity and heat, producing water as the only by-product.
It produces direct-current electricity, just like a battery, but is able to generate electricity as long as fuel is supplied, unlike a battery.
Although hydrogen is the primary fuel source, the process of reforming allows for the extraction of hydrogen from widely available fuels such as natural gas, propane or any other hydrogen-containing materials.
The GenCore system, running on three standard hydrogen cylinders, can provide back-up power for a total of eight hours, ensuring the continued operation of telecontrol systems in telecommunications and power networks in the event of an outage.
In the US, where Shuda says Plug Power has installed dozens of units in 20 states, the GenCore systems have proved to be competitive with battery-based back-up systems from a price perspective, and IST now is investigating if they can be equally competitive in South Africa - where batteries are made in large volumes, resulting in significant economies of scale.
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