The Drakenstein Municipality project is an ongoing collaboration with clean tech developer Schneider Electric and system integrator partner, Altek.

Located 30 minutes outside of Cape Town, the Municipality has installed Schneider Electric’s RM AirSeT switchgear with pure air technology and digital connectivity.

Installed in February 2023 at the Dalwes substation, the new technology is free from SF₆ gas (Sulphur hexafluoride) and its associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Shifting away from SF₆

The municipality’s choice to install the switchgear, forms part of their drive for clean growth and electricity distribution.

Vladimir Milovanovic, vice president of power systems for Schneider Electric Anglophone Africa: “Drakenstein Municipality is undoubtedly leading the way in establishing a modern, digitised infrastructure that enables it to remotely monitor equipment like the RM AirSeT switchgear which in turn allows for expanded network visibility, as well as preventative and proactive maintenance and problem solving.”

Added Alderman Conrad Poole, executive mayor of Drakenstein Municipality: “This project comes at a time when South Africa faces immense energy challenges. Being an early adopter of this pioneering technology will enable us to share lessons learnt with our peers.”

Mayor Poole here is referring to rolling blackouts in the country, known as loadshedding, due to the breakdown of TSO Eskom’s generating units.

Have you read:
Why the energy transition cannot compromise on SF₆
Air – the outstanding sustainable alternative to SF₆

Identified by the Kyoto Protocol as one of six GHGs needed to be reduced, SF₆, a regulated fluorinated gas, is typically found in traditional gas-insulated switchgear and is 23,500 times more potent than CO2.

The gas currently has a special exemption for use in electrical distribution across geographies. However, as alternatives become more readily available, countries and territories are considering measures to restrict its use. For example, earlier this year in March, the European Parliament voted to accelerate the phase down of SF₆ and other fluorinated gases (F-gases) on the EU market.

Digital connectivity – SCADA update

Aside from the move to greener distribution, the switchgear is also being touted by the project partners as providing the municipality with heightened digital connectivity.

The municipality, serving a population of 305,281, will gradually replace its current 25-year-old SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) monitoring system with Schneider Electric’s ETAP system, which they describe as a model-driven electrical SCADA software solution.

Three of the municipality’s 36 substations are already online in the system. In the 2023/24 financial year, eight more substations will be brought online.

Explaining the system during the launch event was Altek managing director Alvin Naidoo, who stated the necessity of using SCADA: “We once looked at SCADA as a ‘nice to have’ but now it’s a way of life… [Through SCADA] we improve the efficiency of our network, reduce fault finding times and improve response times.”

According to Naidoo, the importance of the system comes in when looking at the use of data for consumption management:

“Based on simulation data, the system has features for load forecasting. We take simulation data, data that’s available in the repositories on the SQL (structured query language) and essentially amalgamate them and create load forecasting potential.”

Additionally, Schneider Electric states that the switchgear includes condition-based maintenance features, feeding data from its sensors to local field tools/apps and analytics tools, which can be hosted in the cloud or on premise, depending on requirements.

It also provides continuous condition monitoring and controls to check the quality of power connections, identify and isolate faults, as well as self-healing capabilities for reduced downtime.

The new company was announced at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi and is the result of a multi-year development partnership between Virunga Power (a Gridworks investee company) and the Government of Burundi.

Over a seven-year period, Weza Power will aim to connect 9 million people and will provide electricity to residential and business customers across peri-urban and rural Burundi, which has one of Africa’s lowest electrification rates.

According to Gridworks, only 12% of the country’s 12 million people currently have access to electricity, with that number falling to 2% in rural areas.

Most new household customers burn kerosene and charcoal for energy, while businesses have to rely on expensive and polluting diesel generators.

Financing

Gridworks, which is owned by British International Investment, the UK government’s development finance institution, became a controlling shareholder of Virunga Power in March 2023 following a $50 million investment.

Virunga Power is developing the Weza Power project and will provide the initial equity investment.

Have you read:
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Other financing partners providing development and construction capital include the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and the US government’s Power Africa initiative.

The project will be the first new private-sector electricity distribution company operating at a national level in sub-Saharan Africa for a decade.

Partners in the public-private partnership (PPP) for the company will embark on an interim agreement to mobilise an initial, two-year $60 million investment into the utility. This initial phase is expected to result in approximately 300,000 Burundians gaining access to grid electricity.

Infrastructure build out

The project will then aim to raise around $1.4 billion over seven years to build a distribution infrastructure network connecting two-thirds of the East African country.

It will do this without the Government of Burundi needing to raise additional loans from its own balance sheet, meaning it is able to focus on other national priorities.

The new utility company will be connected to Burundi’s existing transmission network operated by REGIDESO, the state-owned utility company that will continue to generate power from clean, run-of-river hydropower, and supply distribution-level power to the country’s main urban areas.

The financing for the grid expansion and the creation of a new utility operator in Burundi will come from a blend of private and public funding, including commercial equity and debt, climate-based and other concessional funding, multilateral donor support and private grants.

Commenting on the announcement was Virunga Power CEO Brian Kelly, who called the project “an important milestone for Burundi and a catalyst for accelerating electrification more broadly in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The expansion of power distribution networks to reach unconnected populations with affordable grid power can be achieved by blending public, multilateral, and private sources of capital when paired with efficient private-sector led operations.

“While this is a common approach in developing and developed markets globally, Africa has lacked a locally-based model to follow, and Burundi’s willingness to take leadership with this approach is impressive and commendable.”

Virunga Power is a developer, investor and operator of renewable power generation and distribution networks in East and Southern Africa with a distributed portfolio of assets spanning five countries, including hydropower plants in development, construction and operations, as well as electricity distribution networks.

In the distribution segment, other than Weza Power, the company is investing in the expansion of a licensed utility it owns and operates in the Northwestern Province of Zambia, seeking to replicate this model with its partners in Malawi.

This was the key message from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Director-General Francesco La Camera to mark an agreement signed with the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) in support of Africa’s energy goals.

The agreement was signed on Monday, 4 September on the margins of Africa Climate Week in Nairobi.

IRENA said the agreement is geared toward assisting the continent “in their efforts to achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

“Acknowledging that 80% of the global population without access to electricity resides in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is evident that the existing energy infrastructure cannot adequately meet the continent’s needs,” said La Camera.

But this would require the creation of a more equitable energy system, he said.

AUDA-NEPAD CEO Nardos Bekele-Thomas underscored the findings of the Continental Power Systems Masterplan (CMP), designed to provide a strategic roadmap for connecting Africa’s five power pools.

The CMP emphasises the critical need for immediate and proactive measures in Africa’s electricity sector.

“The current business as usual trajectory falls significantly short of achieving universal electricity access by 2040, necessitating a substantial increase in investments to elevate the continent’s installed capacity from 266GW to approximately 1,218GW,” said Bekele-Thomas.

“To realise this ambitious target, an estimated $1.29 trillion in cumulative investments will be essential, potentially culminating in the establishment of a robust continental electricity market valued at $136 billion by 2040. It is imperative to take urgent and strategic actions to accomplish these transformative goals.”

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Planning towards an integrated electricity network in Africa

IRENA said the continued investments in cross-border transmission infrastructure and a deepening of electricity trade will allow African countries to accelerate their energy expansion and transition.

This could be achieved by sourcing electricity from a wide range of competitive, clean energy resources and by anchoring on the continent’s five power pools to create Africa’s Single Electricity Market.

Since 2021, IRENA, in partnership with other organisations, has supported AUDA-NEPAD and African stakeholders in developing the CMP through modelling activities and a series of capacity-building activities related to energy planning in the region. 

The CMP aims to establish a long-term, continent-wide planning process for power generation and transmission that involves all five African power pools. It maps out how to best to utilise the vast renewable energy resources across the continent, supporting national power strategies that consider cross-border interconnections as a vital component.

The next phase of CMP will include a special focus on strengthening the planning processes and accelerating the preparation of a bankable pipeline of priority projects at both the regional and country levels. 

“This brings an opportunity for African countries to align their energy planning processes to a pan-Africa vision and accelerate the realisation of Agenda 2063,” said IRENA.

“Through this new partnership, IRENA and AUDA-NEPAD will work to enhance the capabilities of African countries and regional organisations through knowledge-based capacity building services, support implementation of the renewable energy projects in the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA PAP II) and facilitate access for project developers to IRENA’s Climate Investment Platform and Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF) platform.”

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI Africa.

Most of these households were in the outlying rural areas, which meant the usual method of revenue collection using post payment was going to be a huge challenge. It was decided to instead use the prepayment meter as the technology of choice to deliver this service.

Meters were manufactured and deployed into the field, but very soon after there were several problems discovered. None of these systems could talk to each other, and they all had varying levels of cryptographic security and functionality.

The solution was to have a system that allowed interoperability between these systems, whilst sharing the same level of state-of-the-art security. This is where the STS, or ‘Standard Transfer Specification’ was born.

It was developed based on an Eskom NRS specification, and essentially it defines the secure transfer of credit into a prepayment meter. One of the requirements for this was to encode every token created with a unique ‘Token Identifier’ or TID, which is then stored in the meter to prevent token replay – 1 Token, 1 Meter, Only once!

The STS system was so successful that it has now become the only globally accepted open standard for prepayment systems, with over 70 million STS certified meters in over 100 countries.

With the latest version of the specification, STS Edition 2, the doors are now opened to an exciting world of ‘Smart STS Systems’ with two-way communication and powerful smart meter functionality, all whilst retaining the proven STS standards.

Watch the video on STS Edition 2 here

STS, the only globally accepted open standard for prepayment systems.

Simple, Trusted & Secure.

The conventional standard ISO4064/OIML R49 mainly refers to the metering and mechanical features of the water meter, such as R100 or R160, the length of the meter is 165mm or 190mm. There is currently no unified standard for smart water meters except IEC62055-41,51 which is the standard for STS prepayment functions.

The DLMS in the AMI function is more popular in smart electricity meters, so how to select a smart prepaid water meter has become a challenge for water utilities. This article tries to propose the key aspects of the reliability of smart water meters.

Generally speaking, according to the special working environment of tropical rainforest or dry desert climate in African countries, the requirements for smart water meter will be more strict than in Asia or South America. In summary, the critical aspects of the smart water meters that need to be considered are as follows:

1. Communication Method for Remote Data Reading

In the previous article, “Why Prepaid Water Meters Must Be Smart”, we have explained why prepaid water meters must support remote reading or two-way communication. So how to choose the suitable communication method from GPRS, NBIoT, 3G, 4G, LoRa, LoRaWAN, Sigfox or Bluetooth? First, whether local telecommunication companies provide NBIoT network which specifically designed for smart meters or other IoT devices as a LPWAN network.

Compared to GPRS, NBIoT module has the characteristics of low battery consumption, and the data flow cost of NBIoT is also much lower than GPRS, 3G or 4G network, the common point is that all of these communications require a SIM card, either an e-SIM for PCBA or a physical SIM card, which means the water utility needs to pay for data flow on a monthly basis.

2. Battery Life from 6 Years to 10 Years

Battery lifespan not only depends on the battery capacity indicated by mAh, such as the ER26500 is typically 8500mAh, but also closely related to the power consumption of smart water meters in different situations, such as communication technology. And how firmware is designed to manage power consumption, like sleeping mode. And 3rd, the power consumption is also related to the working environment, IP level of the meters and the components. Sometimes manufacturers declare battery life of more than 8 years or even higher, but without any documentation from the battery provider, theoretical calculations such as Saft or Tadiran may require further evaluation.

3. IP Level for Smart Meters and Independent Components Such as PCB or Battery

The IP level of the smart water meter is preferable IP68, since the smart meter can sometimes be immersed in water. But when the service life of the meter increases to above 3 years or more, only the meter body is IP68 may still be a challenge, because the material of the meter may start to deform due to sunlight and rain, so it is better to require that the battery cabinet, valve, and PCB must IP68, and have a 3rd party certificate.

4. The material of the meter body, such as brass, or different types of plastic.

In Africa, the theft of brass material is inevitable, so a plastic body may be more suitable for water companies. Additionally, the Meter Casing material must be UV-resistant, resistant to high temperature up to 65°C and fire-resistant. Water permeability characteristics are also an optional indicator for choosing materials because of the high humidity in some areas.

5. Leakage Detection Inside or Outside the Door

The leakage detection function of the smart water meter can be realized through night flow monitoring. As the main IoT device in the water pipe network, the smart water meter is also an important part of the DMA, District Management Area, which is another major topic of water leakage management.

6. Bypass Detection and Anti-tamper Functions

Cases of bypassing smart meters usually occur because of the purpose of evading payment. Smart water meters must have the ability to close valves automatically or record events when they occur, and technical solutions may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and water companies can compare and choose an effective way. Other anti-tamper functions such as anti-magnetic and meter cover opening events etc. can be considered as optional functions.

7. Prepaid or Postpaid Working Mode

Prepaid water meters are only one working mode of smart water meters, and there is one paradox that in most cases, water utilities cannot cut off the water supply to industry users who do not pay for their bills, such as government institutes, hospitals etc.. Therefore, it is necessary to design prepaid functions in the platform, and smart meters support remote valve control.

8. Flexible Water Purchase and Payment Solutions

The concept of digitization is well known today, and it can help water companies adjust their operations processes. With the integration of smart water meters and Mobile payments, organizations no longer need meter reading workers, who can join smart water meter maintenance teams, or build telecommunications networks. Mobile payment platforms now are also popularly used in mechanical water meter billing. And for STS prepaid water meters, they have inherent advantage since they adopt digital encryption technology for 20-bit token transmission.

9. SaaS Software Based on Cloud or Web System Based on Physical Server

Many software companies now recommend cloud-based software solutions, since it is more flexible and expandable when the number of system users continues to increase. But some countries still have limitations on data security, so if leading cloud service providers such as Amazon and Google have not yet established branches in specific countries, a physical server-based web system is also a good choice for water companies. Both of them are not required to be installed on a PC, only user ID and password authorization to log in to the system, check reports or start daily operations like Registration or Vending.

10. Training and Local Maintenance Support

Training may need to take place in different stages, such as a Concept Presentation during ROI, a Request for Interest from the project team or a pilot project stage, and eventually extend to the whole operations team. Local maintenance is a very important factor in ensuring the success of a project, which relates to technical support, training and supply of CKD or components. Many water companies now prefer local assembly with local maintenance as one of the main modules in the workshop.

Read more news from LAISON

Anyhow, there are some other factors that may affect the sustainability of prepaid water meter services, but if water companies can understand the most important of these causes, it will definitely help avoid the failure of smart water meters and digital billing projects, which is a big investment and expect to bring the significant improvements in operations.

If you have any comments, please contact the author: Mr. Raymond Zheng on WhatsApp, +86 131 85002086, laisontech@gmail.com

The fund assists organisations based in emerging economies that are working to improve access to clean transport.

The LEAP Fund, backed by Drive Electric, was founded in 2022 to encourage low-carbon transitions and minimise fossil-fuel vehicle lock-in.

African recipients of the 2023 LEAP Fund grants are: Clean Air Africa, which is focused on accelerating infrastructure and ecosystem development for e-mobility in East Africa; the Electric Mission, whose aim is the creation of a central knowledge sharing hub around zero-emission vehicles, for South African industry; and the Zambian Electric Mobility Innovation Alliance, which is hoping to accelerate zero-emission public transportation in the country.

South Africa’s Electric Mission Executive Director, Hiten Parmar said: “As renowned subject matter expert in electric mobility, we are honoured to be backed by the global Drive Electric Campaign’s LEAP Fund to advance electric mobility in South Africa, and Africa.”

Drive Electric, a global philanthropic campaign driving the transition to a clean transport future, announced this week that the LEAP Fund has been expanded by $1.05m in grants to support initiatives in Africa and Latin America.

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It said: “Drive Electric has expanded the fund from an initial one-year investment of $1 million to a total of more than $3 million in commitments from 2022-2024. Seven organisations have been awarded funding as part of this second round of the LEAP Fund.”

“We see notable leadership in electric vehicle innovation, vision, and motivation in many emerging markets,” said Rebecca Fisher, director of the Drive Electric Campaign. “We believe that philanthropic investment can help build political will, drive public and private finance to the sector, and support green industrial development by shifting the market toward clean transportation on an accelerated timeline to meet global climate goals.”

In a statement, Drive Electric said electric vehicle sales are growing rapidly in China, Europe, and the US, but that projected population growth is in other markets, notably in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. 

It said: “Now is a critical moment to invest in communities who are ready to jumpstart the EV transition and experience the benefits of clean transportation.”

Originally published on ESI Africa.

The solution, designed to empower the mobile workforce and increase its operational efficiency and delivered on the Coordinator platform, is intended to serve as a deployment tool handling all stages of the meter exchange project.

The smart meter rollout is an initiative of the Israel Electric Corporation.

The first phase of 565,000 smart meters for residential customers has been awarded to Landis+Gyr, with the potential to extend the order up to 4.2 million units.

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In addition, Landis+Gyr will provide the head-end system and services for the maintenance of the existing meter data management system and related applications.

“We have been working for a long time together with Ericsson and we are thrilled to have a part in this extensive project,” comments Jonas Ljungdahl, Business Development Manager at isMobile.

The installation of the smart meters is a key component of Israel’s energy sector reform, which is underway until the end of 2024 and will see Israel Electric focus increasingly on transmission and distribution and reduce its activity in generation and supply – this latter opening to competition.

Further, its system administrator role has been taken over by the newly formed Noga company.

isMobile provides a range of solutions from smart meter rollouts to logistics equipment tracking.

Among other recent initiatives announced is a partnership with Tech Mahindra to enhance its AMI Command and Control Centre offering with smart metering operations and field service management.

This was one of the key messages from Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape province of South Africa, who hosted an Energy Digicon under the theme What role will Artificial Intelligence play in the future of energy generation?

Keynote speaker Martin Svensson, co-director of AI Sweden, said looking ahead, AI will impose greater challenges on the energy sector.

Citing the conversion of the automotive sector to a fully electric-based one, Svensson said the question is how to build the new system by harnessing AI.

Svensson said that in the future, individuals would also be able to produce their own energy, largely from solar power and AI applications would be integrated into this.

“Imagine a future where we are our own energy producers and what we produce we will be able to trade and have a system that optimises that from a financial perspective.” 

Forging a new energy system

Referencing think-tank RethinkX’s research – Rethinking Energy 2020-2030 – which says that we are on “the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century”, Svensson said the current system will be disrupted by a new one.

RethinkX says that with most disruptions, this one is being driven by the convergence of several key technologies whose costs and capabilities have been improving on consistent and predictable trajectories.

These are solar photovoltaic power, wind power and lithium-ion battery energy storage. 

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“Our analysis shows that 100% clean electricity from the combination of solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) is both physically possible and economically affordable across the entire continental United States as well as the overwhelming majority of other populated regions of the world by 2030,” said RethinkX.

“Adoption of SWB is growing exponentially worldwide and disruption is now inevitable because by 2030 they will offer the cheapest electricity option for most regions. Coal, gas, and nuclear power assets will become stranded during the 2020s, and no new investment in these technologies is rational from this point forward.”

Energy systems run completely on renewable energy sources

Svensson said the new energy system will look completely different to the current one. He said, for a province like the Western Cape, the future system could be one without loadshedding. This would be achieved through a system that would be 100% solar, wind and battery based. 

“This is not driven by the current issues you face or by climate activism, but economical forces. That’s why I’m confident this will happen. There is a lot of positive opportunities.”

Svensson said solar and wind are already the cheapest new-generation options. It also costs less than existing coal, gas and nuclear power plants. The cost of SWB systems will fall another 70% by 2030, making disruption “inevitable”.

In terms of the Western Cape, Svensson said the region could have a “future of energy abundance.”

Based on modelling from California in the US, which has a similar solar and wind profile to the Western Cape, Svensson said in the next 10 years, the province could generate 14GW of solar, 1.7GW of wind and 80GWh of energy storage.

“This ‘super power’ will be enough to electrify the entire transportation sector and more,” said Svensson. He said the province had already started on this journey.

“This is within reach… The opportunity is here to accelerate this. This will solve the current situation,” said Svensson.

In terms of scepticism around AI, Svensson said it was important to learn and understand AI to help mitigate any possible risks it may pose. 

“We need to learn how to use it, but we do need to learn how to manage risks over time.”

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AI to play a huge role in the energy space

Special Advisor to the Premier on Energy, Alwie Lester, said AI will start to play a lot more of a critical role in the energy space.

“With the advent of AI, you could have a dynamic system that is managed by information and data that’s readily available and processed quite quickly,” Lester said.

“Typically, you could have a system operator that responds to things very differently based on AI as opposed to the conventional way we are responding to the system at the moment.”

“In the general energy space, I think we will start to see AI play a lot more of a critical role because you’re sitting with millions and millions of terabytes of information, especially the energy information but also economic and consumer information,” Lester added.

“And if you have the ability to sort of link these, your decisions around what energy at what point and at what price becomes rather easier when you have a system that can do this for you. The opportunity for AI to play a bigger role, particularly in the energy space is huge.

“We need to encourage the industry to look at this more holistically and not just try and solve one problem with it.

“But also look at it as part of the industry going forward.” 

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI.

This is according to the IEA’s Facilitating Decarbonisation in Emerging Economies Through Smart Charging report, which looks at how decarbonisation can be facilitated through smart charging.

According to the report, although there are several requirements for smart charging to take place, the power sector has a unique role that can’t be overlooked, namely in establishing the foundations of how EVs can be used as a resource.

The potential of smart charging on the power system lies largely in its potency as a flexible asset, states the report, enabling widespread renewable penetration and consumption management.

EV proliferation

According to the report, while most of the uptake of EVs is found in the US, Europe and China, EVs are also starting to penetrate markets in emerging economies.

Electric two- and three-wheelers are more common in Asia, with sales of electric three-wheelers constituting 46% of total three-wheeler sales in the fiscal year of 2022. Meanwhile, electric buses are gaining ground in Latin America, where most have reached cost parity with diesel buses.

These trends are likely to continue as these economies set more adoption targets for the end of the decade.

However, to accommodate the increasing uptake, the necessary charging infrastructure will be needed to coordinate the increasing electric load coming onto the grid.

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While the energy required by EVs is low compared with typical daily electricity consumption, the IEA states how ensuring enough grid capacity will be the more important parameter given the high-power requirements that the charging process can take.

Charging of two- and three-wheelers may not lead to significant increases in peak load until a high level of penetration, whereas charging of buses will raise peak load and often require dedicated transformers.

The role of smart charging

This, states the IEA, is where smart charging needs to be more widely adopted, as it provides an avenue of integrating the EV into the power system where the charging process can be adjusted to be in line with power system objectives.

Said objectives could be voltage regulation and reduction of local peak in the distribution grid, or frequency regulation and energy arbitrage in the bulk energy system.

Smart charging of EV fleets can provide a good source of power system flexibility, increasing the uptake of renewables while maintaining power system stability.

However, for smart charging to be coordinated optimally and support the system, it needs to be able to adjust in response to system signals.

States the report: “The faster the EVs can react, the more services it can provide. Such high levels of coordination can happen only through digitalisation.

“With the help of telecommunications and connectivity, smart charging service providers can exist to help serve as intermediaries to balance the needs of the EV users, charge point operators and power systems.”

Power system measures missing

According to the report, the main signals which can serve as rewards or sources of value for EV users and smart charging service providers are:

• Differentiated tariffs: Tariffs which vary rates based on time of day to incentivise the behaviour of EV users about when to charge their cars

• Procurement of local flexibility: Distribution grid operators enter into contracts with aggregators or charging service providers to manipulate the charging process to achieve local needs.

• Wholesale energy market access: Whereby vehicles can participate in changing the supply-demand curve to lower peak generation and increase renewables consumption.

• Ancillary services market access: Allowing aggregated EVs to respond to system services such as frequency response.

In advanced economies such as California, South Korea, the Netherlands and the UK, each of these power system measures is widespread or in progress, with the exception of procurement of local flexibility in South Korea.

However, for the studied emerging economies, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Maharashtra, Morocco, South Africa, Tamil Nadu, Thailand, Tunisia, Uttar Pradesh and Vietnam, the opposite is true.

Differentiated tariffs were found to be the most common measure, although not absent in Colombia and Morocco.

The only other measure found was that of ancillary services in South Africa and in progress in Chile.

Moving forward

According to the IEA’s findings, depending on the degree of EV integration desired by the economy in question, different technological and regulatory frameworks will need to be deployed for the sector to facilitate a fair and efficient smart charging process.

Specifically, they state, the following recommendations are made to establish a smart charging ecosystem:

• Establish a framework for demand response in the power system, which could be implicit via tariff variation or explicit through direct bidding of demand in wholesale and balancing markets.
  
• Ensure standardisation and interoperability; said standards could be set by tying them to charging infrastructure incentives, as a de facto standard based on public tenders, or legislated directly as a regulation
  
• Establish minimum requirements for smart communication and control, thereby ensure future EV uptake will instill the ability to participate in smart charging
  
• Ensure matching with clean electricity, whereby signals to charge could come either from the electricity market through wholesale prices, or from end-consumer electricity prices that reflect the best time to consume clean electricity
  
• Reform the role of distribution operators from passive owners and providers of network capacity into active managers of an interconnected system that can help activate EVs’ full potential

This passage will showcase LAISON’s experience with Smart water meters and Digital Billing and response to the following major challenges in water companies’ operations:

1. How to improve the cash flow and revenue?

Smart water meters provide real-time data on water consumption, ensuring accurate billing and consistent cash flow. They can detect leaks, minimise Non-Revenue Water (NRW) and increase revenue.

Since the adoption of the Laison prepaid smart water metering solution by the Zambia National Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), both the water fee collection rate and revenue have significantly improved. Laison’s prepaid smart water metering solution enables the water utility to implement remote data collection functionality, allowing utilities to monitor consumption patterns more efficiently, identify customers with overdue bills, and take appropriate actions to recover debts.

2. How does the smart water metering and smart app help with water management?

Smart water meters provide real-time data on water consumption, leak detection, and system performance. This information is transmitted to utilities and accessible via Smart Apps, enabling continuous monitoring of water usage and distribution network status. This data is instrumental in long-term planning, infrastructure development, and policy-making for sustainable water management.

In Nigeria, some water utilities have adopted the LAISON GPRS smart water metering solution, along with the LAISON Aquacyber app. This solution facilitates online water fee payments and empowers users to access smart water meter data. Key features include prepaid billing and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) capabilities, significantly enhancing the water board’s data collection and enabling remote data reading. Consequently, these features contribute to reducing Non-Revenue Water (NRW) rates.

3. The Walk by and AMI System application experience for remote data reading

The Walk-By and AMI System for Remote Meter Data Reading offers various advantages, including improved operational efficiency, accurate billing, customer engagement, and sustainability, making it a valuable utility management tool.

LAISON has applied its Walk-By and AMI System experience in Zimbabwe. The LAISON AMI system ensures real-time data transmission, allowing utilities to access up-to-date consumption information. This capability enhances decision-making and response times.

Read more news from LAISON

During installation, innovative solutions such as DCU pole installations and solar power supply were used to address challenges. These solutions effectively resolved DCU installation and power supply issues, leading to significant cost savings for the local water utility.

4. How to meet the challenges of technical upgrades on smart metering technology?

Before upgrading smart metering technology, water utilities should evaluate the current system and define clear objectives for addressing both current and future needs. LAISON offers tailored smart metering solutions and product upgrades. In Malawi, LAISON assisted BWB Water Utility in implementing a phased meter upgrade strategy, transitioning from Volumetric to Parise Series Smart Water Meters. This approach provided cost-effective solutions and extended battery life. Additionally, LAISON offers a comprehensive system solution, including hardware, software, and training.

For more details please contact laisontech@gmail.com

The two companies, already long-term partners, plan to bring further intelligence and other innovations to Kamstrup’s Multical range of ultrasonic cooling meters for district cooling systems.

Previously a key challenge identified by Emicool’s customers was managing cooling energy in vacant spaces and buildings, leading to the introduction of a thermal disconnect function and enabling more efficient and effective cooling energy management.

“This collaboration represents a significant milestone in Emicool’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that enhance energy efficiency and sustainability in the cooling sector,” said Dr Adib Moubadder, Chief Executive Officer.

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“This partnership is set to redefine the landscape of cooling meter technology. By combining our strengths, we aim to accelerate innovation and pave the way for more intelligent, precise, and environmentally friendly cooling measurement systems.”

Emicool is a Dubai-based provider of district cooling services in the UAE with almost one-third of the market.

Its growing district cooling network currently includes 20 district cooling plants delivering a total of 355,000t of refrigeration and serving approximately 42,000 customers.

The company aims to grow its capacity to over 500,000t of refrigeration over the next five years.

Some of the high-profile development projects on which Kamstrup and Emicool have partnered have included the Dubai Investment Park, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Sports City, Dubai Motor City, Dubai Cultural Village and Dubai Mirdif Uptown.

The Middle East and North Africa with their hot climatic conditions dominate the district cooling energy market and are expected to continue to do so into the future with the growing commercial and residential sectors.

Like electricity smart meters, smart cooling meters offer remote reading of consumption data and data on the distribution network, as well as the opportunity for sub-metering.

The new partnership between Kamstrup and Emicool is to extend over five years.

The project aims to connect 620,000 people to electricity.

The project constitutes an essential link in the regional electricity distribution system known as the ‘trans-Sahel spine’, which is currently being studied. 

It will link Mauritania to Chad, passing through three other landlocked countries; Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

The 225 kV line will connect new renewable energy parks to the sub-region’s power grid.

The partners made the commitment at a roundtable in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on 17 July. The discussions explored funding options for the project, which also entails developing solar power stations.

The African Development Bank Group, which has worked closely with both countries to prepare the project, affirmed its interest in co-funding.

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The project aligns with the Bank Group’s Desert-to-Power initiative, which is set to become the world’s largest area of solar power generation. 

The initiative will increase solar production capacity by 100MW. It will also strengthen and extend distribution networks covering nearly 1,500km of high-voltage (225kV) lines.

Mauritania’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh, said: “The strategic nature of this project will have a strong transformative effect on the economy while creating a connection to the Senegal River Basin Development Organisation’s grid.”

Power transmission line to drive region’s energy transition

AfDB Group’s Deputy Director General for North Africa and Country Manager for Mauritania, Malinne Blomberg, said: “The aim of our involvement in this large-scale project is to turn our policy of supporting the development of green infrastructure in Africa into a reality.

“To promote green, inclusive, sustainable growth, which will significantly improve the living conditions of people in Africa.”

“We firmly believe that this project will have a transformative effect on promoting both the private sector and trade and, consequently, create job opportunities.”

Daniel Schroth, the Bank Group’s Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, said this regional project is a flagship for the sub-region’s energy transition.

He lauded the close cooperation between Mauritania and Mali, as well as technical and financial partners in preparing the project.

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI-Africa.

The purpose of the pilot was to evaluate the viability of the LAISON smart STS prepaid water meter solution as well as to assess the technical capability and service delivery. The result indicates that The LAPIS System is very stable as no downtime was experienced during the pilot period hence reliable. The meters are effective in the management of historical debts and Non-Revenue Water.

LAISON’S pilot meters demonstrate strengths that are listed below:

1. Debt recovery

The meters are effective in recovering historical debts as they can be configured to partly deduct a preset portion of the purchased water until the debt is fully recovered while the customer gets water on part of the payment.

2. Meter accuracy

After four months of operation and the test results at the operational flow rates are as in the table below.

From the observation above, LAISON meters’ accuracy is within the allowable error limit during the pilot period.

3. Mode of payment

Proportionate tokens are sent directly to the clients hence necessitating the smooth self-service operation. This allows the customers to manage their consumption.

Read more news from LAISON

4. Data analytics

LAISON’s LAPIS system is configured with data analysis tools making it easier to track the consumption trends and identify the possible illegal activities around the meter point. The data below are for GPRS Pilot meters. It can also be mentioned that the meter has an automatic replenishing function. When the data fails to be reported, the meter will be actively reported again after 15 minutes.

A comparison of the consumption trend was done on the same accounts on mechanical meters and the pre-paid meters within the same period. One Meter indicated a great increase in consumption after installation with the prepaid meter.

The transaction sees IPTO acquire up to 25% of the share capital of the project promoter, Cypriot-based company EuroAsia Interconnector Holdings Limited.

The EuroAsia interconnector, initially announced in 2021, is a €2 billion ($2.2 billion) major energy project to build the first transcontinental subsea electricity interconnection, linking Greece with Cyprus and Israel.

The project will lay a 1,208km high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable which, upon completion, is expected to be the longest in the world.

IPTO’s official entry into the project, through Greece, ensures the “technical and financial adequacy of the project and lays the foundations for its timely completion,” state the ministries of energy of Greece and Cyprus in a joint press release.

IPTO has been assisting the project since 2021 as a technical consultant, advising on design and providing financial support.

Their quarter stake equity participation is expected to accelerate the signing process with selected contractors for submarine cables and conversion stations in Crete and Cyprus.

Completion of the project, expected by 2027, will mark the electrical interconnection of Cyprus – the last non-interconnected EU member state – with the European transmission system, ensuring for the island an energy shield.

And Israel, which the ministries state does not have any electrical interconnection with its neighbours, will strengthen its security of supply, gaining the possibility to increase renewable penetration within its energy system.

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright advised IPTO on their participation in the project.

Ed’s note: Why the EuroAsia Interconnector is important

Commenting on the announcement was minister of energy, trade & industry of Cyprus, George Papanastasiou, who noted: “This development marks the successful completion of a milestone towards the implementation of the strategic project of the Greece-Cyprus-Israel electrical interconnection, which further strengthens the cooperation of the three countries in the field of energy and remove the ongoing energy isolation of Cyprus.

“This interconnection is a key element for the achievement of our country’s wider energy planning to reduce the cost of electricity for the benefit of the Cypriot economy and for a rapid transition to green energy. I would like to thank the Greek Government for its support and, of course, the European Commission for the funding.”

Added minister of environment & energy of Greece, Thodoros Skylakakis, who commented on how IPTO’s participation in the project “is a very positive milestone for the deepening of strategic relations cooperation of Greece-Cyprus-Israel. Greece has been a reliable and systematic supporter of the efforts of the Republic of Cyprus, in terms of strengthening the maturity of its electrical interconnection with the European energy market.

“This happened from the first inclusion of EuroAsia in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) in 2013 until the reinforcement of the project in 2021 with €657 million ($719.9 million) from the Connecting FundEurope Facility (CEF). We are, in particular, satisfied with the successful conclusion of the negotiations and remain ready to contribute, further, to the implementation process of the project.”

Greece-Cyprus-Egypt

The announcement of IPTO’s participation came three weeks after Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Israel Katz, and the Cypriot Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry, George Papanastasiou, discussed the importance of electricity interconnection.

The ministers committed to initiating technical discussion through two expert groups for electricity and gas pipeline interconnection with the aim to convene in July.

Said minister Papanastasiou: “We discussed about how the current energy crisis highlights the need for energy diversification, security of supply and increased interconnectivity, and we agreed to expedite our discussions in various levels, in a result-oriented manner in order to create a reliable energy corridor from the Eastern Mediterranean.

“In this framework, we focus on the electrical interconnection between Cyprus and Israel as well as how Cyprus can serve as a Gateway for Israeli gas to Europe.’

Added Minister Katz: “The enduring alliance and shared vision between Israel and Cyprus resonate powerfully, and in the present era, the energy sector assumes a pivotal role as a bedrock for fortifying the bonds between our nations.

“With great anticipation, I eagerly look forward to forging ahead, achieving significant milestones in our collaborative endeavours spanning the domains of natural gas and electricity.”

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Greece-Bulgaria

IPTO’s acquisition also follows the completion of a Greece-Bulgaria electrical interconnection, which IPTO announced earlier last week.

IPTO and the Operator of the Bulgarian Electricity Transmission System ESO EAD energized the 400kV electrical interconnection between Greece and Bulgaria; energy transmission through the new Line commenced on Friday, June 30.

This is the second Transmission Line connecting the two countries, which increases the margin for energy exchanges between the neighbouring systems of Greece and Bulgaria.

In the following period, a permanent working group staffed by all Operators in the region will determine the new, gradually increasing, available amounts of transmission capacity on the Greece-Bulgaria border.

The new line is expected to start contributing to cross-border trade from the end of Greece’s summer season.

The total length of the international interconnection, which starts from Nea Santa EHVC in Rodopi and ends at Maritsa East Substation in Bulgaria amounts to 151km, out of which approximately 30km extend within the Greek Territory.

The second interconnection between Greece and Bulgaria, the domestic part of which cost €11.3 million ($12.4 million), is a project of pan-European interest that was included since the beginning of its planning in the Ten-Year Development Program (TYNDP) of ENTSO-E as well as in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) of the European Union.

Commented Greek minister of environment and energy, Theodoros Skylakakis: “The second, international ultra-high voltage electrical interconnection of Greece-Bulgaria, is an important energy project of pan-European interest.

“The immediate benefits of this cooperation include: enhancing cross-border trade and strengthening energy security in Southeast Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. More international interconnections will follow, which will further upgrade our country on the European energy map”.

Added chairman and CEO of IPTO Manos Manousakis: “IPTO in cooperation with the Bulgarian Operator have completed an important energy project that greatly increases the interconnectivity of the two countries and strengthens adequacy on a regional level.

“With a strategic goal to upgrade the country’s position on the European energy map, over the coming years IPTO is launching new international interconnections with all neighbouring states while at the same time supports major intercontinental interconnection projects in the Eastern Mediterranean, with Greece being the main hub.”

The gateway, which was designed and fabricated at DEWA’s inhouse Research and Development (R&D) Centre, is designed to connect terrestrial sensors to satellites and ground networks.

As such the gateway has various physical, operational technology (OT) connectivity and IoT edge protocol libraries to support the latest communication network including LoRa, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy.

The device is aimed to suit utilities as well as a range of other industrial applications, including infrastructure, asset tracking, agriculture, smart cities and fleet management among others.

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Other features include a long battery life to support the communication requirements and compliance with international IoT device security standards, including OT security.

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, said in a statement that researchers at the Centre were working to employ advanced tools to create the best solutions and technologies to support the space sector in the UAE.

“Through DEWA’s Space-D programme, we aim for nanosatellite technology to complement terrestrial IoT communication networks and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of DEWA’s operations and support the digitisation of our electricity and water networks,” he said.

“This will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our planning, operations and preventive maintenance for our production, transmission and distribution divisions, as well as our smart grids and electric vehicle charging stations. It also reduces costs, improves asset use, enables knowledge and experience transfer, and trains Emiratis at DEWA.”

DEWA has pioneered the utility development of satellite technology with its Space-D programme, which was launched in January 2021.

Two satellites – or more correctly nanosatellites – have been launched to date, both developed in the R&D Centre, the 3U DEWA-SAT 1 in January 2022 and the larger 6U DEWA-SAT 2 in April 2023.

(The ‘U’ references the size of the satellites, which are CubeSats built with 10cm cubes, thus a 3U is 30cm and 6U 60cm. They are popular as a low cost option for space experimentation and observation with over 2,100 launched to date).

Both DEWA-SAT 1 and 2 are operational, but while DEWA-SAT 1 was intended primarily as a demonstrator, DEWA-SAT 2 has a comprehensive earth observation payload.

DEWA has not revealed the next steps for the Space-D programme but at its launch indicated potential delivery of a constellation of satellites.

The new meters come courtesy of a recently announced partnership between the energy monitoring tech developer Sense and EDMI, a smart metering solutions provider and the largest meter supplier in Australia.

The partnership sees Sense’s real time home intelligence software running on EDMI meters, which will bring intelligence to the grid edge.

According to the collaborators in a press release announcing their partnership, these will be the first smart meters in the Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions capable of sampling data at one million times a second (1MHz).

The new resolution is hoped to enable more efficient identification and localisation of grid faults, enhanced device detection and expanded margins for utilities.

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Networks, they add, will benefit from real time grid edge insight (e.g. power quality) and the ability to identify and locate problems on the grid such as vegetation brush and corrosion.

Additionally, they state, retailers will be able to offer new services and energy insights to their customers, access domestic flexibility at scale, coordinate power management across the home and improve their power purchasing with detailed forecasting.

Commenting on the announcement was Michael Jary, Sense’s APAC & EMEA managing director, who stated that the tech will be able to enable load reductions and how, in Australia, “implementing Sense on smart meters would be the equivalent of adding 2.4GW to peak capacity – that’s as much as three coal power stations.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with EDMI, one of the leading smart meter manufacturers in the world, to bring this technology to more homes.”

Microchips get ‘common interest’ status in Europe

The microelectronics and communication technologies project has been named an ‘Important project of common European interest’ (IPCEI) by the European Commission, which will mean a boosting of research and development into new efficient chips, processors and sensors for the many applications in which these are used.

The project involves 56 companies across the EU with a proposed 68 projects with an investment expected to exceed €21 billion (US$23 billion).

Specifically, there are four workstreams.

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The first, named ‘Sense’, will focus on developing novel sensors able to collect relevant analogue signals from the environment and translate them into digital data.

The second, ‘Think’, will focus on processors and memory chips for the processing and storage of data.

The third, ‘Act’, will focus on new designs and innovative materials for components.

Then the fourth, ‘Communicate’, will work to deliver novel technologies necessary for communication that has been processed under the ‘Think’ workstream.

The project expects to deliver the first products resulting to the market in 2025.

Rocks for energy storage

Investigations by Tanzanian researchers of soapstone and granite rocks from regions in the centre of their country suggest they may have potential for thermal energy storage in conjunction with concentrated solar power generation and solar drying applications.

But not all rocks, even of the same type, were found to be equal in their properties. The soapstone from the Craton group was found to have the best performance in terms of thermal capacity and conductivities of the samples investigated.

But while the soapstone from the adjacent to the south Usagaran belt was found to have the second-best thermal capacity and conductivities, also it was found to be susceptible to deterioration at elevated temperatures and with its lowest mechanical strength is the easiest to disintegrate.

Conversely, the Usagaran granite was found to have better properties than the Craton granite, but with its low thermal capacity and conductivity needing a high-temperature change to store an equal amount of energy to the soapstone rocks.

Further experimentation is needed on the thermal energy performance of these rocks, the researchers say, but their findings so far point the way to potentially lower cost solar power and solar drying options, particularly in equatorial countries such as Tanzania where energy access is limited.

How fusion research could speed up deep space travel

Field-reversed configuration, a form of fusion in which the hot plasma is confined by a magnetic field reversed to that applied externally, is one of the options under investigation for power generation.

But it is also being adapted as a potential option for rocket engines and now the UK-based Pulsar Fusion has entered into a research partnership with Princeton Satellite Systems in the US to investigate the concept further.

Specifically, the aim is to apply machine learning to study data from Princeton’s field reversed PFRC-2 reactor to improve understanding of the behaviour of super-heated plasma in a rocket engine configuration and to determine its behaviour when emitted as exhaust particles.

Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar Fusion, explains that fusion offers 1,000 times the power of the conventional ion thrusters currently used in orbit and could satisfy the need for faster propulsion in the growing space economy.

NASA is making plans already for trips to Mars and direct fusion drive would open up the possibility of speeding up the travel time and to go beyond. For example, with a single DFD drive, a trip to Jupiter would take only one year and to Saturn only two years, compared with decades with conventional engines.

“In short, if humans can achieve fusion for energy, then fusion propulsion in space is inevitable,” says Dinan – and he believes that fusion propulsion will be demonstrated in space decades before fusion can be harnessed for energy on Earth.

The projects at Debre Tabor and Bokoji forms part of EEP’s “expansion, extension, rehabilitation and transmission reinforcement projects.”

The state-owned power producer said a kilometre-long new 230kV transmission line at Debre Tabor will be constructed from the existing Bahir Dar-Alamata 230kV line project as line in and line out to the new Debre Tabor substation.

“And 230kV transmission line that has a total length of 1.135 kilometres from existing Melka Wakena to Koka 230kV line as line in and line out to the new Bokoji substation will be constructed.”

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The EEP said the Debre Tabor and Bekoji high voltage power supply transmission line project will:

• Supply electric power for Debre Tabor, Bokoji town, its surrounding and newly built industry zone, satisfying industries’ electric energy demand;
• Create direct and indirect employment to locals and others;
• Ensure a regular and sustainable supply of electricity that will contribute to an improvement of the living standard and reduce poverty; 
• Attract potential investment in industry sectors; 
• Encourage industries to use electric power that is renewable and free of carbon emissions;
• Enhance the Ethiopian economy by increasing access for locally manufactured goods; 
• Stimulate the economy, encourage new industries and reduce dependence on oil; and  
• Contribute to the economic development of Ethiopia.

Electricity exports out of Ethiopia are increasing

EEP recently told local media that Ethiopia had secured over $83 million in revenue from exporting electricity to three neighbouring countries in the past 10 months.

EEP said it had supplied a total of 12,126GW hours of electric power to Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan.

It has achieved 85% of the target set for the 10-month period, EEP’s spokesperson Moges Mekonnen said.

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI-Africa.

While the drive for smarter grids, initially led in North America and Europe, has expanded across the world, it has lagged in many emerging markets and developing economies as other challenges such as meeting growing demand with limited resources and ageing infrastructure have taken priority.

But a new report from IEA’s Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks Initiative (3DEN) suggests that digital technologies need a higher priority in these countries, with delays in their implementation having considerable costs.

According to the study, digital technologies could save $1.8 trillion of grid investment globally through 2050 by extending the lifetime of grids, while also helping to integrate renewables and minimise supply interruptions.

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However, failing to upgrade and digitalise network infrastructure properly could cut the economic output in emerging and developing countries by almost $1.3 trillion as reduced productivity, lost sales and wasteful outlays on backup generation push up costs and put net-zero targets at risk.

“Power grids are among the unsung heroes of the energy transition, but they need massive investment,” says IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

“While much attention goes to solar panels and electric vehicles, it is grids that connect everything together. By digitalising our grids, our power systems become more reliable and secure and our utilities can better manage the balance of electricity supply and demand. The longer we wait to upgrade and digitalise our grids, the more expensive it will get.”

Digitalisation of the grids

The report highlights the need for digitalisation of the grids as crucial for efficiency and decarbonisation and as one of the keys to the success of the clean energy transition.

For example, the IEA estimates that digitally enabled demand response could reduce the curtailment of variable renewable energy systems by more than 25% by 2030, thereby increasing system efficiency and reducing costs for customers.

Decarbonisation can be further supported through enhanced supply and demand forecasting, enabling integrated energy planning and providing better visibility and greater electricity demand flexibility.

Other roles for digitally enabled technologies highlighted include managing the growing penetration of distributed PV systems – countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa are seeing rapid uptake, for example – expanding clean energy access in remote communities and enabling better management of the growing demand due to end-use electrification.

The report notes that overall current global investment in grids is far short of what is required for net zero emissions by mid-century. Annual investment will need to more than double to around $750 billion by 2030, from around US$320 billion today, the IEA estimates.

Policies to support smart grid implementation

The IEA suggests five policy areas beyond targeted actions to facilitate investments to support smart grid implementation and continuous improvement in emerging markets and developing economy countries.

These are:
● Create a coherent vision of how digital grid technologies can help meet country priorities and modernise planning with updated policy and regulatory frameworks.
● Co-ordinate implementation across government departments, regulators and the digital and electricity industries.
● Facilitate rules and regulations that adequately value digital solutions and incentivise and de-risk digitalisation investments.
● Integrate resiliency and security across all electricity policy domains, including through long-term planning and for example climate strategies.
● Track, evaluate and disseminate digitalisation progress to ensure policy implementation and knowledge sharing.

This week, the North African country’s government and Chinese-European electric mobility company Gotion High-Tech signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the factory.

They said it would be a first of its kind for Africa. 

The project, estimated to cost $6.4 billion, aims to strengthen Morocco’s position as a leader in the automotive industry in Africa. 

It is poised to generate an estimated 25,000 job opportunities over 10 years, according to a press release.

Local media said the agreement was signed on the sidelines of the first edition of GITEX Africa by Morocco’s Minister Delegate in charge of investment, convergence, and evaluation of public policies, Mohcine Jazouli, and the President of GOTION High-Tech Li Zhen.

Jazouli said the factory will contribute to Morocco’s renewable energy and electric transport sector and solidify its reputation as an automotive industry powerhouse.

Have you read?

The partnership aims to accelerate Morocco’s transition from fossil fuels to clean and decarbonised energy sources.

It is to focus on the use of solar and wind energy while exploring effective means of energy storage.

According to the US’ International Trade Administration, Morocco has high renewable energy potential, in both solar and wind.

“Due to Its geographical location between Europe and the rest of Africa, Morocco plans to be a leader in the production of green fuels for domestic use and export… particularly through the production of green hydrogen.  

“The Ministry of Energy estimates that Morocco will be able to achieve a valuable share of the green hydrogen market, between 2% and 4% of global production by 2030.”

Li said Morocco has significant resources in the renewable energy field that should be properly developed.

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI-Africa.

Agora Policy said that the “centrality of adequate and reliable electricity supply to individual welfare, economic growth and overall national development cannot be over-emphasised.” 

“This message is not lost on Nigeria. However, various initiatives and reforms aimed at creating an optimal power sector for the country have fallen short.” 

The organisation said there is a need for the government to stop thinking of installed generation capacity and start to think in terms of the amount of electricity delivered. 

It should also consider an increase in megawatt-hours delivered to electricity customers. This could be achieved “if there is a seamless conversion and flow of energy from the natural gas fields to the generation stations…”

“This is an important paradigm shift with positive impact for government, as having such policy mindset changes the prioritisation and allocation of public and private resources to projects, interventions and initiatives across the electricity value chain that will increase the energy output, availability, reliability and quality of electricity delivered to end-users.” 

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Citing data from the World Bank, the think-tank said Nigeria has the largest energy access deficit in the world – 85 million Nigerians, representing 43% of the country’s population, don’t have access to grid electricity. 

“In comparison, 85% of Ghana’s population have access to electricity, while 70% of Senegal’s population have electricity access.” 

The World Bank estimates that the lack of reliable power costs the Nigerian economy over $26.2 billion which is equivalent to about 2% of Nigeria’s GDP.

“This is not to say that Nigeria has not made some progress in the power sector since 1999. For instance, in 1999, Nigeria had nine power generating stations – three hydro and six thermal stations – with a total installed on-grid generation capacity of 5,906MW, but with available generation below 1,500MW.

Nigeria’s energy mix still dominated by fossil fuels 

“Today, Nigeria has up to 26 on-grid generation stations with a total installed capacity above 13,000MW. However, available generation capacity hovers around 4,000MW, with average daily energy output of about 100,000MWh.” 

Agora Policy said the little progress that has been made in the power sector since 1999 is “neither at par with our population growth nor adequate for the energy needs necessary to achieve our economic potential.”

“For reference purposes, Nigeria’s energy consumption per capita at 140kWh is relatively low and is three times lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa.”

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In terms of Nigeria’s energy mix, the report said it consists of fossil fuel and renewable energy sources, mainly hydropower generation and increasingly generation from solar energy. 

“However, our energy mix is still dominated by fossil fuel – natural gas and diesel/petrol (largely for self-generation). This is understandable as Nigeria has Africa’s largest crude oil and natural gas resources. 

“However, this presents a problem for Nigeria as the world moves to cut fossil fuel consumption in order to achieve carbon neutrality (net-zero CO2 emission).”

Renewable energy sector needs to be harnessed and fed into the national grid

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference event in Glasgow (COP 26), Nigeria committed to carbon neutrality by 2060, and to this effect has unveiled its Energy Transition Plan (ETP). 

“It is reassuring that the World Bank in a recent publication recognises that natural gas can be a transition clean fuel for developing countries like Nigeria with vast natural gas resources and existing natural gas generation plants.

“Consequently, the in-coming administration must continue the implementation of the ETP to achieve a faster transition to carbon neutrality by 2060.” 

Agora Policy said there needs to be targeted new investments in additional power generation.

“At the moment, there is no solar energy generation into the national grid – and for obvious reasons ranging from grid connection, grid instability, existing stranded generation and payment assurances for the power to be produced.”

See the full policy memo here

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI-Africa.

The three High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) links from Hitachi Energy will provide the new Saudi smart city NEOM, with a total power capacity of up to 9GW.

9GW in HVDC for the smart Saudi city

“We are delighted to strengthen our collaboration with ENOWA and Saudi Electricity Company in order to power one of the most visionary development projects of all time,” said Niklas Persson, managing director of Hitachi Energy’s Grid Integration business.

“As the world progresses towards a more sustainable future, our expertise and HVDC technologies are true enablers of the electrification of the global energy system and the transition to renewables.”

The agreements include the order of one of the world’s first 3GW, 525kV HVDC Light transmission system, which will connect Oxagon, NEOM’s regional development, with the larger Yanbu area more than 650km away in Western Saudi Arabia.

Hitachi Energy’s scope of supply includes design, engineering, procurement of HVDC technology and commissioning of the HVDC Light converter stations.

Saudi Services for Electro Mechanical Work (SSEM), a Saudi EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) specialised in power, water and industrial projects, will design and supply the Alternating Current (AC) equipment and perform construction and installation.

The converter stations convert the power from AC to DC, then back to AC for integration into the receiving grid.

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The converters will be sourced by and supplied to SEC, who were contracted in 2022 by ENOWA to act as their EPCM to build this first HVDC system for NEOM.

Further to this, Hitachi Energy and ENOWA have signed an early works and capacity reservation agreement for two additional HVDC projects, each rated up to 3GW, aiming to develop a new scalable and modular regional network design.

The cooperation will also explore opportunities to develop local competencies in the Kingdom, including ways to sustainably assemble the necessary HVDC Light components locally.

“By securing the first capacities for such an important part of our future grid in only one year since the decision to use this technology, we show ENOWA’s commitment to supporting Saudi Vision 2030 in collaboration with Saudi Electricity Company and Hitachi Energy,” said Thorsten Schwarz, Executive Director of Grid Technology & Projects, Energy of ENOWA. 

Smart city NEOM aims to be powered by 100% clean energy through renewable solar, wind and green hydrogen-based energy. The region is designed to be a blueprint for sustainable urban living with minimal impact on the environment and enhanced liveability.

Indeed, over the past few years most water meter manufacturers have started to move away from smart card technology and adopt the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) technology, which supports mobile payment platforms like M-Pesa, MTN, or Airtel and may be more easily recharged with a 20 digit token.

Moreover, without a physical card to transfer the data, STS prepaid water meters may more easily integrate remote communication technologies such as LoRa/LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, GPRS or Bluetooth, etc., collectively named Internet of Things (IoT) communication, which enables bi-communication capability.

There is no standard definition of the difference between smart prepaid water meters and regular prepaid water meters. The consensus of the industry can be summarised as follows.

First, the digital metering technology, which is based on sensing, will be more accurate compared to the conventional metering.

Second, the smart water meters must have the function of bi-communication enabling uploading of billing data and alarm events, etc. through either a walk-by system or fixed network.

Third, the smart water meters must have leakage and by-pass detection features, etc., which are not necessary functions for normal STS prepaid water meters. Other functions like stepped tariffs, anti-tamper, pressure and temperature measurement are also frequently mentioned as features of smart water meters, but none are as important as IoT communication for two-way data transmission.

So why must smart water meters must have bi-communication as the most important feature? As is well known, the biggest challenges for African water utilities are the high non-revenue water (NRW) and the delay on bill payments. The STS prepaid water meter effectively improves the efficiency of bill collection, as without the IoT remote communication, the idea of decreasing the NRW through data management and analysis is not feasible.

There is a misunderstanding that remote data collection is only for replacing the meter reader, but this is not necessary in Africa as labour costs are very low and people need more job opportunities. On the contrary, data collection is the basis for improving management and creates more valuable jobs. It is only through the MDMS (Meter Data Management System) and IoT communication that water companies can collect the hourly or daily consumption data, which can be used to analyse abnormal events and detect leakage points quickly to which skilled workers can then go to fix the problems.

The IoT remote communication also provides the possibility for online monitoring of pipe network pressure, abnormal users with non consumption and huge night flow, etc.

After the installation of the prepaid water meters, the financial department will encounter challenges with the revenue and the consumption having a time difference as the prepaid water meter has a balance, which is effectively a stock of water. Thus, the financial department is the one that most quickly requests the billing data readings for analysis of financial indices such as gross profit, etc.

Water companies are very concerned about the cost difference between regular prepaid water meters and smart water meters, but this depends on the strategy of the manufacturers. For example, Tesla vehicles are fitted with all features, which can be activated through the configuration. Similarly LAISON Parise series prepaid water meters have all smart features by default.

Depending on the different IoT technologies, the smart metering system requires some additional devices to enable remote data transmission, such as LoRa Data Concentrator Unit, LoRaWAN gateway or NBIoT/GPRS SIM card, etc. This communication equipment is used to collect data from multiple meters, with typically 200 to 300 smart meters sharing one DCU within a range of radius above 0.5km, so the cost is favourable compared to the benefits.

Upgrading prepaid water meter solutions to smart metering systems with a DCU/gateway and MDMS is a smart choice for water companies and a trend of the times.

Author: Mr. Raymond Zheng, managing director of LAISON, email: laisontech@gmail.com

CEO Logan Moodley revealed their latest innovation in prepaid and smart meters, noting they relied on “solutions that have been tried and testedon the African continent” as he launched their single phase smart meter, iDM APEX 1 and a three phase variant, the iDM APEX 3.

He also introduced another first for the company – a digital assistant aimed directly at customers. Looking to the future, Conlog asked what happens next when the traditional customer user interface becomes a thing of the past. CoDi, a digital platform for customers to buy prepaid tokens for water, electricity and gas and interact with the company’s experts for support via WhatsApp, is a downloadable app.

“We have to consider the future and the future speaks to how do we create exceptional convenience for our customers,” said Moodley.

The smart meter company started working on the new smart meter product four years ago, drawing on African specifications through a collaboration with partners such as the Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA) and the African Electrotechnical Standardisation Commission (AFSEC) “that supported design and specification challenges and meeting requirements.”

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Smart meter features range of forward looking functions

The new meters offer the next level in interoperability, are highly scalable and come with integrated cellular WAN connectivity to NB-IoT/5G/4G/3G/2G which make them adaptable to a range of countries with varying technical specifications on the grids.

Smart functionality include both prepaid and post paid modes, with meters able to be currency or unit based.  Since the meters are able to handle time of use or step tariffs, they would be useful in wheeling situations.

The ability to handle demand management principles such as intelligent load limiting, intelligent loadshedding and emergency or scheduled demand response open up a range of options.

The meters also provide next level revenue protection measures with advanced tamper detection capabilities.

Speaking at the launch Abel Tella, APUA secretary general said the association was pleased by the launch of this particular meter “because of APUA’s support of local production in Africa.”

“We are very proud of your achievement,” he told Moodley as he presented the company with a plaque commemorating their accomplishments.

Originally published on ESI-Africa.

Referencing the Rubik’s cube, Edwin Diender, Chief Innovation Officer: Global Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit, Huawei Technologies, Thailand, said each cube represents something or someone.

He was speaking on the second day of Enlit Africa 2023, focusing on the theme, Find the Right Technologies to Power the Global Energy Transition.

A cube that contains all the requisite components has the potential to link up the worldwide web of energy, he said. 

“It is energy powering the construction of intelligent cities.

“The digital journey is passing phases. It’s a journey that follows programmes and initiatives and brought together as pieces through universal infrastructure.”

Diender said the conversion of analogue to digital is the first step to digitisation. In the energy sector, for example, analogue meters are replaced by smart meters, an item that is digitised and may be “the first step on this journey.”

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The next step involves different building blocks that are brought together in a smart system that’s intelligent. This cube connects to many other cubes by a digital framework.

Diender said Huawei is looking at other forms of infrastructure, including electric power digitisation.

This would encompass finding the right technologies to help drive the digital journey for the energy industry.

Harnessing electricity transmission through digitisation

The company wants to “grab opportunities” like a software defined grid, intelligent power plant and green intelligent energy solutions. It wants to bridge industry requirements with digital technologies and finding the right technologies for industrial scenarios.

“The digital journey is a collaborative journey. We are working closely with customers worldwide in the electric power industry.”

He also cited technology solutions that can be used to protect power infrastructure – like an intelligent substation inspection system. Diender said the award-winning Yancheng Industrial Park was an example of Huawei looking at digital energy solutions.

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The Yancheng Park project was jointly developed by the company and the Yancheng Power Supply Company, a subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation of China. 

“The project uses the triple-dimensional model for energy transformation, decarbonisation, and digital transformation.

“By focusing on the three scenarios of smart energy management, carbon management, and campus management, this project delivers real-time monitoring of energy equipment, strong carbon emission management, intelligent and convenient access control management, and intelligent and coordinated micro-grid control. 

“The campus is powered by complementary energy sources and integrates its energy consumption system with on-campus terminals. 

“The project is a showcase of an intelligent and low-carbon campus that contributes to a green, low-carbon, safe, and efficient modern energy system.”

Published by Yunus Kemp on ESI Africa.

PyPSA-Earth, an extension of the PyPSA-Eur model for Europe, is aimed to enable large-scale collaboration by providing a tool that can model with data in high spatial and temporal resolution the world energy system or any subset of it.

The model is stated suitable for operational as well as combined generation, storage and transmission expansion studies.

The data includes electricity demand, generation and medium to high voltage networks from open sources, although additional data can be further integrated, while a range of clustering and grid meshing strategies help adapt the model to computational and practical needs.

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PyPSA (Python for Power Systems Analysis) is an open source toolbox for simulating and optimising modern power systems with features such as conventional generators, links with variable wind and solar generation, storage units, coupling to other energy sectors and mixed alternating and direct current networks.

The application, which emerged out of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) funded CoNDyNet project to model networks for the transition to 100% renewable supply and is maintained by the Department of Digital Transformation in Energy Systems at the Technical University of Berlin, is designed to scale well with large networks and long time series.

PyPSA-Eur is an open model dataset of the European energy system at the transmission network level that covers demand and supply for all energy sectors across the full ENTSO-E area.

The PyPSA-Earth model adds new data and features, with the main features customisable data extraction and preparation scripts with global coverage and PyPSA energy modelling framework integration.

Model validation

As a demonstration of the model data validation has been performed for the entire African continent with the optimisation features tested with a 2060 net zero planning study for Nigeria.

For Africa transparent and open data sources are limited but for example the demand prediction from the PyPSA-Earth model was found to be within the range of others such as those from ‘Our World in Data’ and IRENA.

The Nigeria 2060 study is based on a brownfield capacity expansion optimisation, i.e. building new renewable and transmission capacity on top of existing infrastructure, and a dispatch optimisation, which finds that an optimised renewable electricity future could be cheaper than today.

While the reliance on open source data may be a limiting factor, there are image recognition procedures to improve the data situation, the developers comment, saying that demonstration shows that the presented developments can build a highly detailed power system model for energy planning studies to support policy and technical decision-making.

In particular it makes high resolution modelling accessible to countries which so far have not had detailed energy planning scenarios developed.

“We anticipate that PyPSA-Earth can represent an open reference model for system planning, and we welcome joining forces to address the challenges of the energy transition together.”

Africa’s just energy transition ambitions are being tested in the face of a global recession, rising poverty, unemployment and falling revenue. In addition to the staggering sums of investment that have been identified for the technology and headline achievements of the energy transition, Africa is facing the reality that it will likely not meet the seven sustainable development goals by 2030.

No more complaining about the lack of energy access

Africans need to do the energy transition for themselves, says Alex Wachira, Principal Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Energy & Petroleum. “One of our main challenges is attracting investments, but we cannot keep complaining. It’s about time that as Africa, we get our hands dirty and walk towards the transition from fossil fuels to green energy.”

He said that Kenya was currently generating about 92% of its energy through renewable energy from  hydropower, geothermal, wind and solar energy. He pointed out that as a continent, Africa had the potential to generate up to 350GW from hydropower, 10TW of solar and 150GW of wind power. “If Africa can work together and ensure that we develop [ ] and we actionalise what we call the African market through modernisation and the African power pools, [ ] then we should be able to capitalise on each other’s potential.”

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The Principal Secretary used Morocco as an example, saying it was developing about 10,000MW of solar plants and about 3,800kms of LVDC power. Wachira stated: “The mission of Morocco is to sell that power to Europe, to Spain and all the way to the UK. There is no reason why Africa should not be able to do the same, to put up such infrastructure and sell power to each and everyone.”

He continued: “Kenya is consuming about 200MW from hydropower from the Great Renaissance Dam in the middle of Ethiopia. We have built a regional connector to Ethiopia. Therefore, Africa needs to embrace technology and attract investment, no more complaining.”

The role of power pools in just transition

Abel Tella, secretary general of the Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA) based in Cote d’Ivoîre said the current five power pools on the continent were helping to integrate renewables into the regional grids more quickly and assist in meeting the net-zero targets of 2030. “Leapfrogging is happening in energy too,” he stated.

The continent’s five power pools are the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), Central African Power Pool (CAPP), West African Power Pool (WAPP) and North African Power Pool (NAPP).

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Access first point of just transition

“Technology will be fundamental for the just energy transition,” Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens South Africa agreed, adding that “many solutions have already been developed on the continent.”

However, she emphasised that “providing access to electricity to everybody, to the 600-million on the continent who don’t have access, to the women who can’t cook with clean sources, [ ] is the first point of making the transition just.”

Dall’Omo added: “Looking at the just transition in general, there are a lot of discussions around hydrogen, but it is not a cheap solution and only for very dedicated industries. It is not a fit for all. When I look at ‘just,’ it is how we can industrialise the continent through the green transition.”

Originally published on ESI Africa.

In partnership with Microsoft, DEWA is implementing the Mesh 3D avatar facility to facilitate and enhance ‘flexible communication’ between employees.

The 3D Mesh Avatar option, which was formally launched on Teams in March, enables users to create a 3D avatar to use in meetings instead of being on camera or being without a webcam.

DEWA employees can then choose the avatars, which also animate to the Teams emojis, to represent them in virtual meetings.

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HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, says the continuous cooperation between DEWA and Microsoft contributes to expanding the horizons of innovation and leadership, and supports relentless efforts aimed at harnessing the latest technologies to achieve sustainable development and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

“We spare no effort to consolidate our global competitiveness to develop future business models that enhance the digital economy and provide sustainable solutions to current and future challenges, and ensure extraordinary, seamless and flexible experiences for employees, customers and all stakeholders.”

Tareq Hijazi, Public Sector Director at Microsoft UAE, comments that the company’s research has found that video usage is highly correlated to meeting participation, inclusiveness and effectiveness. However, only about one-third of participants meet with their video on.

“Avatars for Microsoft Teams offer an alternative to the current binary option of video/no video, enabling meeting participants to be more present and engaged in meetings.”

Meanwhile in a utility first, DEWA has been piloting ChatGPT on its website to enhance the capabilities of its chatbot ‘virtual employee’ Rammas since April.

Its introduction forms part of DEWA’s strategy to employ artificial intelligence across all its operations and services

ChatGPT is expected to contribute to enhancing Rammas’s capabilities and to improve its ability to learn, understand, and analyse customer enquiries based on available data and information in order to respond promptly and accurately.

DEWA is now working to enrich other services with ChatGPT.

Since its launch in Q1 of 2017, Rammas is reported to have answered more than seven million enquiries.

By Theresa Smit

David Ashdown, CEO of Enlit Africa organisers VUKA Group, started by acknowledging the many difficult topics the power and energy sector could talk about such as loadshedding and lack of grid access: “They are real and affect every single one of us.

“However, I also recognise the solar projects at both utility and domestic scale, battery energy storage, off-grid power, microgrids – Eskom has brought a mini-grid to power the delegate lunch – digital solutions, innovative start-ups changing the way we generate and commercial power; alternative power solutions; EVs; energy resilience and sustainability; capacity building; funding and investment; and the undeniable will to do good from the energy industry that we speak to every day,” said Ashdown.

LIVE: Watch Enlit Africa’s keynote sessions

“I recognise that the current scenario we are living in is the disruptor. We can take a decision to embrace change or reject it. It’s not going away. One choice leads to our future, the other to our failure. This is our Kodak moment, the Uber experience. The exponential adoption of technology is happening, and the cost of electricity is coming down.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to be at the heart of it all in Africa,” said Ashdown.

Africa cannot afford to be left behind in the energy transition race

James Mackay, CEO of the Energy Council of SA, emphasised that South Africa cannot afford to be left behind as the race to corner the global energy market accelerates.

He pointed out that global clean technology investment overtook financing of fossil fuel projects for the first time in 2022.

“We have to ask, who will provide the investment for a just energy transition [in Africa] and how do we address the triple challenge [of energy security, affordability and sustainability]? When doing that, addressing socio-economic challenge must be front and centre.

“South Africa will decarbonise and we will transition,” Mackay pointed out. But, the risk of being a late adopter [of clean technology] will further entrench problems, he reminded.

“If we can’t be agile enough to recognise the economic opportunities in clean technology, we will be excluded from global markets,” said Mackay.

Vuyelwa Mahanyele, regional sales director: gas Southern Africa for GE Vernova reiterated the message that decarbonisation of the energy sector is already underway. “We gather to reflect on the efforts to transform our sector. We do this so our countries can compete on the global stage,” she said in her keynote address.

“Energy access in our region remains the lowest across the world. Access to energy is not just about the quality of life, it’s essential for health, social welfare and economic growth, but it continues to be the daily struggle facing the African citizen.”

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She sees a fourth dimension to the energy trilemma for Sub-Saharan Africa – the need to develop large infrastructure projects and the need for the jobs and skills to create the energy required to lead the continent’s economic development.

“Decarbonisation is not as straightforward as we want it to be. Its not just renewable energy and batteries, which are critical,” said Mahanyele. She thinks that considering the global disruption the energy sector is undergoing, when confronted with the choice of industry shutdowns, blackouts and the effect on people, the continent has to consider both renewable energy sources and carbon emitting sources have a role to play. “Without planning to incorporate both of these into our system, we won’t achieve energy security.”

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Some of the themes GE Vernova are seeing coming up in the power and energy sector globally is the need to invest in smarter grids; the importance of digitalisation and AI; hydrogen, carbon capture and battery energy storage systems increasingly being rolled into auxiliary services for the grid; a move from larger scale nuclear power plants to smaller modular reactors for future baseline power; and the importance of gas-to-power for transition towards cleaner energy.

“The role of gas has been subject to some debate, but natural gas is playing a critical role around the world and for us, the future of gas is looking positive.”

While she notes the important role of technology in the sector, Mahanyele said enabling policies do make a world of difference, but it must be remembered that the entire energy market ecosystem also encompasses physical, financial and social infrastructure.

This article was originally published on ESI Africa.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA’s) alert service, which aims to detect and mitigate water leakages, defects and increased loads, was initially launched three years ago, its results collated from up until the end of December 2022.

The smart meter service sends, states DEWA, ‘instant’ notifications to customers if its smart meter system detects an unusual increase in consumption.

This is hoped to enable quick repairs on internal connections, or any leaks in the water connections with the help of a specialised technician, and perform the necessary maintenance work to reduce waste.

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To date, through the service, DEWA has detected 1,327,583 leakages in water connections after the meter, 26,657 defects and 13,172 cases of increased load.

In announcing the detections through a government-issued press release, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the utility’s CEO and managing director, highlighted that DEWA encourages customers to enhance the efficiency of electricity and water through the smart grid and smart meters, which use the latest disruptive technologies.

This helps customers, added Al Tayer, to monitor, manage and control consumption in a proactive and digital manner anytime and anywhere without contacting their utility.

The alert service was launched three years ago as an innovation under Green Dubai.

DEWA provides the service as part of the Smart Response initiative to enable customers to detect leakages through their bills or smart water meters.

Through the utility, 2.1 million smart electricity and water meters have been installed in Dubai.