14th annual event takes place in Cape Town in May
“Accenture is very excited with the momentum that is beginning to take shape in the industry. Utilities are transitioning from pilots to full implementation,” says Lungile Mginqi, Managing Director, Utilities Practice at Accenture. The company is a global leader in smart grids and a platinum sponsor at the upcoming African Utility Week & Clean Power Africa.

According to Mr Mginqi, Accenture has put significant investments into smart grid assets at a global scale and “what makes Accenture competitive is the availability of relevant local skills to contextualise the global experience”. 

He continues:  “the utilities’ challenges will remain their ability to convert good strategy or strategic intents to real tangible outcomes. Lack of excellent execution is going to cause major project delays. The industry needs to narrow down focus areas to a few strategic areas, namely generation capacity backlog; distribution maintenance backlog and debt collection backlog.” 

The premium utility event
The Accenture Utilities Practice MD sees as the key opportunities in South Africa to put into context “the smart grid agenda and making it relevant to realizing South Africa specific business benefits.”  

Why did Accenture decide to partner with African Utility Week? “African Utility Week is the premium utility event in South Africa, Accenture is the market leader in smart grid implementation - African Utility Week presents an opportunity to showcase this capability that has made Accenture the market leader. We are looking forward to the interaction with industry players at the event.”

By and for the industry
The award winning 14th African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and expo is taking place at the CTICC in Cape Town from 13-14 May 2014.  It is attended by more than 5000 power and water professionals from more than 30 African countries and 70 worldwide, at what is the largest utility gathering of its kind on the continent. Discussions, workshops, exhibits and site visits will focus on the industry disciplines of metering, clean power, water, large power users, investment and finance, transmission & distribution, smart grids and generation.

“We pride ourselves in hosting a utility event by and for the industry”, says Russell Hughes, event director of African Utility Week, “and having a global giant such as Accenture on board, along with our long-standing partners Eskom and the City of Cape Town, proves it. We look forward to Accenture sharing its smart grids expertise and experience. “

Confirmed attendance from a variety of utility CEOs will add to the discussions at African Utility Week as the annual CEO Forum brings together top representatives from Eskom, the Ugandan Electricity Generation Company, Eko Distribution Company, Senelec and Nampower.  This forum, which brings together utility CEOs to collaborate on the development of the sector, starts with a dinner on Monday 12th May and discussion sessions include insights into the Power Africa Initiative and the role of ‘smart’ in utilities.