Civil Engineering August 2021 | Vol 29 No 7

Ad Civil Engineering August 2021 41 Civil Engineering August 2021 41 I n Br i ef World Bank supports SA’s energy efficiency drive Recognising the power sector as strategically vital to South Africa’s economic growth and environmental sustainability, the World Bank has partnered with the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to drive opportuni- ties in the large-scale demand-side energy efficiency market. This is being done through a request for consultants’ Expression of Interest (EoI) to provide “Energy Service Company (ESCO) Market Development in South Africa” technical assistance, which was launched by the World Bank on 30 June 2021. ESCOs are commercial companies that support the financing and imple- mentation of energy efficiency projects. A typical full-service ESCO provides a broad range of clean energy solutions, including the design and implementation of energy savings projects, retrofitting, energy conservation, energy infrastructure outsourcing, power generation and energy supply, and risk management. “The appointed consultant will build upon international best practices to identify feasible paths for transformative development of the ESCO industry in South Africa that could effectively contribute to untapping the large-scale demand-side energy efficiency market,” explains Barry Bredenkamp, General Manager: Energy Efficiency & Corporate Communications at SANEDI. Scaling-up energy efficiency interven- tions in South Africa is considered one of the most promising solutions to ensure energy security in the country and achieve rapid, ambitious and cost-effective emis- sion reductions. The appointed party will be tasked with assessing the South African ESCO market’s potential and barriers across the various energy efficiency market ecosystems, cov- ering different end-use segments (public, commercial, industry, and buildings sectors); identifying feasible solutions and tools based on global best practices and experiences with different types of ESCO solutions (public and private); and the development of building blocks like energy savings performance contracts and energy savings measurement and verification protocols that will contribute to scaling up ESCO-implemented energy efficiency investments in the country. The potential business models, feasible institutional and financing mechanisms and skills gaps as- sociated with the public and private sector ESCO-implemented delivery approaches will also be analysed and developed.  Energy efficiency interventions are a promising step towards energy security Thermal IntegrityProfiler (TIP) • Evaluates concrete quality inside and outside the reinforcing cage • Accelerates construction with tests conducted during concrete curing • Reveals necking or inclusions, bulges, variations in concrete cover, shape of shaft and cage alignment To learn more about TIP, visit www.pile.com.