About Us

The energy sector in South Africa has emulated international trends in the market with the demand for energy increasing over the past few years in line with economic growth and with pressure to move towards more sustainable energy sources. This has resulted in some key issues within the energy sector of the country. The sector is facing a tight supply-demand balance where the reserve margin for energy systems has rapidly declined. This has the potential to impact on the country’s economic growth as well as its international competitiveness. In addition, there is a direct link between the provision of energy and the reduction of poverty, making the provision of energy essential to the government’s goals of poverty reduction.

CEEP (Centre for Energy and Electric Power) takes advantage of available opportunities in the market to provide university staff with an outlet to carry out research and contract work, challenging them to develop practical solutions for the industry and the community while increasing the knowledge and expertise within the University workforce. As a result, additional income for the University can be generated while enduring partnership can be established with both the industry and the community benefiting from the centre’s research output.

The centre wishes to accelerate the research and the convergence of research skills in the focused research area of energy and power while creating a medium through which the university can take on initiatives from the external environment around its area of expertise.

The centre personnel is made up of regular university staff, as well as the University students both postgraduate and undergraduates, developing their skills via exposure to the community and the industry environment.

The changing environment and increasing climate change have also intensified over the last few years, resulting in greatly renewed interest in the provision of sustainable energy with associated interests in energy efficiency and energy policies. The Department of Energy highlights this as one of the key points around which its strategy is structured . In addition, the national energy utility, Eskom, which generates about 95% of the country’s power, is committed to developing and implementing more sustainable energy resources as well as significantly increasing energy efficiency and reducing customer demand through demand-side management (DSM).

These initiatives align with the Power Conservation Programme (PCP) of the government, which is aimed at decreasing the supply-demand gap until new base stations are in operation. Because of these trends, opportunities to pursue research and contract work in the energy field, and particularly in electrical energy, are increasing.