Black & Veatch Takes on Innovative South African Waste-to-Energy Project

Johannesburg, South Africa and Overland Park, Kansas, August 3, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Black & Veatch was selected by MBHE African Power (PTY) Ltd, a local renewable energy developer, to provide technical assistance for the country’s first waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. The energy plant will be located in the Drakenstein Municipality, near Wellington in the Western Cape. 

The energy plant will contribute 10 megawatts to the nation's power grid – enough to power more than 10,000 South African homes. 

“This landmark project will play a critical role in boosting power supply and available electricity to households,” says Webb Meko, Managing Director at Black & Veatch sub-Saharan Africa. 

Black & Veatch will serve as owner’s engineers to provide fuel characterisation, front-end engineering and design (FEED), and tender support for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), operations and maintenance contracts. 

The facility will use both wet organic fraction to produce biogas and the dry fraction of locally available municipal waste (MSW) in an effort to provide clean burning natural gas energy to the Drakenstein Municipality region.  

In addition to providing a renewable energy resource, the waste management project will help address limited landfill availability by diverting up to 500 tons of MSW per day from the landfill to the WTE plant, reducing the waste volume by 90 percent. 

“Partnering with MBHE on this project will help address an increasingly critical waste management challenge facing the community,” says Karen Daniel, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Leader of Black & Veatch’s Sub-Saharan Africa growth initiative. 

“The completed project will address this issue while also providing a sustainable energy solution to meet growing electricity demand.” 

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded MBHE a grant as joint developer in the public-private partnership that includes the Drakenstein Municipality and Interwaste (Pty) Ltd, a local South African waste management company.

The project supports Power Africa, a U.S. Government-led initiative to increase access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by adding more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections.

Editor's Note

• Black & Veatch has been planning and implementing world-class infrastructure projects in Africa for more than 50 years.
• Black & Veatch recently announced the creation of a new South African entity, Black & Veatch South Africa. Headquartered in Johannesburg, the new local subsidiary reflects Black & Veatch’s commitment to providing reliable infrastructure solutions to improve lives in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Black & Veatch completed Ghana’s first IPP simple cycle EPC project supported by U.S. investment. The Takoradi Power Facility provides electricity to address the country’s residential and industrial power needs, offsetting electricity shortages due to periodic drought conditions.  
• Black & Veatch is currently supporting a 4,800 MW supercritical coal-fired power mega project in South Africa. It is one of the largest energy infrastructure projects under construction in the world, supported by a comprehensive skills and knowledge transfer program. Once completed, the project will provide reliable electricity for South Africa well into the future. 
• Black & Veatch supported the development and design of the Sere Wind Energy Project in Western Cape South Africa.

About Black & Veatch 
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2015 were US$3 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and in social media.