Electricity and Control June 2024

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