CONTRACTORS’ CORNER
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Intelligent energy management in action: how Rubicon’s solution at Curro Mahikeng is building a blueprint for smarter schools
Fleet platform, which provides real- time visibility into site performance via a live operational dashboard. Facilities teams can monitor solar generation, battery performance, grid imports, energy consumption and overall system status, while historical reporting helps identify trends and supports ongoing optimisation. Importantly, Fleet also provides real-time financial visibility, allowing the customer to track system performance, including return on investment (ROI). “The intelligence comes from the system’s continuous evaluation of what’s happening across the site,” explains Smith. “Rather than simply following fixed operating rules, the APEX MCS makes dynamic decisions that help reduce unnecessary grid consumption while ensuring reliable power for essential loads.” From monitoring to active optimisation Early operational data has already demonstrated the system’s ability to optimise energy use. During one operating period, the site ran throughout the night without drawing power from the grid, with grid consumption resuming only around midday the following day. Throughout this period, the APEX MCS automatically coordinated solar generation, battery storage and site demand without operator intervention.
Beyond improving day-to-day energy management, the project demonstrates how integrated control platforms can help organisations make better use of their existing energy assets and provide the operational insight needed to support future expansion. A blueprint for smarter energy infrastructure “For many organisations, the next step isn’t simply installing more generation,” says Smith. “It’s making every kilowatt work harder. Intelligent energy management provides customers with the visibility and control to optimise performance today and prepare for tomorrow’s energy demands.” The Curro Mahikeng project demonstrates how the right combination of solar PV, battery storage and intelligent control can help organisations build more efficient, resilient and future-ready energy infrastructure. By integrating WeCo battery technology with the APEX MCS and APEX Fleet platform, Rubicon has delivered a practical blueprint for smarter school energy systems, one that goes beyond generation and storage to actively manage, optimise and report on energy performance. Installation & commissioning: Sparki Solar
I nstalling a solar PV system is only part of building a more efficient and sustainable energy system. The real value lies in how intelligently that energy is generated, stored, controlled and reported on. That was the thinking behind Rubicon’s energy solution for Curro Mahikeng, where an integrated solar PV and battery energy storage system, supported by WeCo technology and the APEX Microgrid Control System (MCS), is helping the school optimise energy use, reduce reliance on the grid, and lay the groundwork for future energy initiatives. This includes Curro’s longer-term ambition to transition its school vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) and to power their charging infrastructure, as far as possible, from renewable energy generated on site. The APEX MCS will play a central role in managing these additional loads alongside the school’s existing energy requirements. Designed as a proof of concept, the installation is intended to serve as a blueprint for future deployments across other Curro campuses. “Curro’s vision extended beyond simply generating renewable energy,” says Rhydian Smith, Senior Sales Consultant at Rubicon. “They wanted a solution that could intelligently manage multiple energy sources, improve operational efficiency and support their longer-term sustainability objectives.” As part of the solution, Rubicon supplied and integrated a WeCo HYbo battery energy storage system with the APEX MCS,
creating a coordinated energy management environment in which solar generation, battery storage, grid power, and site loads can be managed as a single intelligent system. “That’s why Rubicon selected the APEX MCS and WeCo HYbo for this project,” adds Smith. “The WeCo system provides battery storage, while the APEX MCS provides the control intelligence needed to orchestrate solar generation, battery storage, grid supply and site demand in real time. Together, they enable us to deliver a more complete and future-ready energy solution for the customer.” Managing energy as one integrated system Rather than functioning as a conventional solar installation, the Curro Mahikeng system combines solar PV, WeCo battery energy storage and advanced energy management through the APEX MCS, enabling the site’s energy resources to work together as a single, optimised system. At the heart of the solution, the APEX MCS continuously monitors energy generation, battery state of charge, building loads, electricity tariffs, and grid interactions to determine the most efficient way to meet the site’s energy requirements. By intelligently prioritising available solar energy, determining when to charge and discharge batteries, and reducing grid consumption during higher-tariff periods, the system helps lower operating costs while increasing the use of renewable energy. The system is supported by the APEX
www.rubicon.tech
It’s making every kilowatt work harder. Intelligent energy management provides customers with the visibility and control to optimise performance today and prepare for tomorrow’s energy demands.
National Water Action Plan must prioritise technical skills, says CESA C onsulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s release of the National Water Action Plan (NWAP), but is cautioning works, and nobody on site understands hydraulic design or can troubleshoot a failing plant, the taps still run dry and the rivers still turn green.”
“We have seen this movie before with load shedding. Fixing the institutions bought Eskom time, but it has been engineering and operational capability that has made the real difference, keeping the lights on up to now. We cannot dismiss the realities of the unfortunate reduction in industrial demand, combined with residential, commercial, and mining houses all implementing various forms of self-help renewable energy systems for their own energy security, all of which have contributed to reduced demand on Eskom. Water needs exactly the same discipline, technically, operationally and financially, through demand and supply management, as a water-scarce country,” Campbell highlights. He notes that South Africa’s Blue Drop and Green Drop performance, the national benchmarks for drinking water and wastewater quality, has declined in direct correlation with the loss of technical skills in municipalities over the past three decades. Reversing this trend requires sustained, practical, engineering-led skills development, not short-term interventions on the eve of looming local government elections. “The warning lights had come on more than two decades ago, and just as in the case of our energy crisis, we kicked the can down the road up to now,” he adds. “Every Blue Drop and Green Drop failure I have seen has a skills shortage behind it. Engineers, technicians, technologists and process controllers who left or retired from the public sector weren’t replaced, and incumbents, if available, were never adequately trained in the first place. The NWAP gives us the institutional architecture to fix this.
that infrastructure investment and institutional reform will only deliver results if South Africa urgently closes the technical skills gap in its water and wastewater sector. CESA is calling on national and provincial governments, municipalities, water boards, and private-sector partners implementing the NWAP to incorporate structured, ongoing technical training across all phases of the Plan’s rollout, from the immediate stabilisation of failing systems to the long-term institutional reforms mandated by the National Water Crisis Committee (WATERCOM). The NWAP, released on 23 July 2026 after a WATERCOM meeting at the Union Buildings, sets out a programme of short-, medium- and long-term interventions to address the country’s escalating water crisis. It identifies an inappropriate delivery model, characterised by the absence of ring-fenced water revenues and diffuse accountability across billing, revenue collection and technical departments, as the root cause of service failures in many municipalities. “The plan has correctly diagnosed the institutional and financial failures behind the crisis, but no amount of ring- fencing or reform will hold water if there aren’t enough competent people to run the plants, maintain the assets and make sound engineering decisions on the ground,” says CESA CEO Chris Campbell. “The government has done the hard work of naming the disease. Ring-fenced revenue, clear accountability, and private-sector investment are the required prescriptions. You can reform a municipality’s books all you like; if there is no qualified process controller on shift at the treatment
Chris Campbell
Its success depends on whether we treat capacity and competency development as core, not as a nice-to-have that gets cut when budgets tighten,” Campbell adds. “This requires a pipeline of competent, professionally registered local practitioners who can take responsibility for these assets and keep them operating for the next 30 years and beyond. Skills development is therefore integral to the water response. It is one of the foundations on which the response must be built,” he notes. “The long-term success of the NWAP will ultimately be measured by whether the infrastructure and institutional improvements remain functional and effective,” concludes Campbell.
www.cesa.co.za
SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2026
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