ENERGY MANAGEMENT + THE INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT
Enabling the energy transition in Africa
There are a number of factors that will play a role in enabling a successful energy transition in Africa: policies, technologies, people, skills, infrastructure and finance are among them. Just ahead of Enlit 2024, Leigh Darroll, Editor of Electricity + Control , spoke to Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens for Sub-Saharan Africa, about the elements that Siemens sees as essential primary steps to support the success of the transition.
Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa.
L ooking first at the energy transition in South Africa, Dall’Omo says Siemens’ focus is aligned with the priorities set out in the Just Energy Transition Imple- mentation Plan 2023-2027, as published by the Presidency in November 2023 [1] . This encompasses six defined port- folios: Electricity Generation, Transmission & Distribution; Mpumalanga in the Just Transition [2] ; New energy vehicles (NEVs); Green hydrogen (GH 2 ); Skills; Municipalities. A practical perspective Addressing the practicalities of implementation in this con- text, Dall’Omo says key focus areas for Siemens are in grid enablement and municipalities where new digital technol- ogies and new skills to implement, use and manage them can make a significant difference and – most importantly – support effective revenue collection. This, she emphasis- es, reduces the burden on the fiscus and is fundamental to enabling investment into infrastructure development and, equally, infrastructure maintenance. “Municipalities man- age the ‘last mile’ of the distribution network connecting to businesses, industry, households. Here, digital technolo- gies like meter data management (MDM) can help munici-
palities to limit non-technical losses – or illegal connections – to ensure accurate meter readings and accurate billing, and this in turn builds trust between the utility and the con- sumer,” Dall’Omo says. Digital technologies can also make a difference in en- abling centralised and real-time monitoring and control of assets. From a central control centre, municipal utilities can keep track of assets, identify and locate problems online, without having to wait for the customer to alert them to an is- sue, and dispatch maintenance and repair teams efficient- ly. Thus, digital technologies provide for more efficient use of resources and a better service to customers. “If we look at Africa more widely,” Dall’Omo says, “al- though the challenges are unique in each country and for each utility, the problems of illegal connections, inaccurate billing systems, poor revenue collection and a lack of trust between users and the utility supplier are widespread. When electricity networks are managed non-digitally using paper-based manual systems, illegal connections – tap- ping into the grid without paying – are quite easy. So there is significant scope for Siemens to make a difference, to support more efficient management of electricity distribu-
With the microgrid installed, Upper Blinkwater in the Eastern Cape, a small remote village never previously served by the national electricity supply grid, now has access to electricity.
10 Electricity + Control JUNE 2024
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