2023 AWEaP Webinar Series -4- Report

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) is the most advanced power pool on the continent.

Power pool members continue to lead the curve in electricity trading and wheeling, enabling SADC countries to build strong collaborative relationships that contribute towards regional energy security.

AWEaP’s webinar in April had the endorsement and support of the Southern African Power Pool and its member utilities. Our mission was to create a platform to showcase progress by various utilities and expose existing and emerging entrepreneurial opportunities.

Our platinum sponsor Rockwell Automation gave a detailed presentation on the Southern African region’s innovative technology and how utilities must invest in digital transformation. The presentation also focused on how utilities can use its raw data, analyse and interpret it to find innovative ways to improve its systems.

We were also delighted to host Siemens, which elaborated on the need for digital tools in African utilities. As technology development is accelerating, utilities are urged to take the digitalisation transformation to help with more transparency to the utility, providing a better service to the end-user, and it would assist with the maintenance of the ageing infrastructure.

The Southern African Power Pool from Zimbabwe showcased the progress projects within the pool and its projects throughout the region and beyond. It also highlighted how advanced the power pool is compared to others on the continent.

The webinar also featured the utilities: ZESCO in Zambia, Eswatini Electricity Company, Rede Nacional de Transporte de Electricidade (RNT) in Angola, Tanesco, Tanzania and the Lesotho Electricity Company. Each utility highlighted the infrastructure projects it works on and the progress made in each respective country. The webinar aimed to highlight developments in electricity infrastructure in the region and entrepreneurial opportunities presented by such developments.

At AWEaP, we collaborate with multiple stakeholders in the energy ecosystem to secure support for women-owned and women-led companies.

Our theme for 2023 is: Together, we can make inclusion in Africa’s energy and power sector a competitive edge.

The following stakeholders were invited to share insights on the construct of energy value chains and opportunities emerging as countries endeavour to achieve security of energy supply:

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs):

Our monthly webinars include OEMs like Rockwell Automation and Siemens for the following reasons: OEMs design and manufacture products, services, solutions and systems sought after by utilities and different large power users in the energy and power sector. We invite them to share trends in electricity system digitisation, decarbonisation and decentralisation. We ask them to showcase how they enable access to technology for SMMEs, especially women-owned companies.

Electricity Utilities: 

The webinar included electricity utilities in the South African Power Pool.

It’s vital in the direction and realisation of electricity infrastructure and regulatory reform. Utilities profoundly contribute to creating a market for products, services, solutions and systems for the electricity value chain. We invite representatives of electricity utilities to share their strategic focus, project pipelines, integration of renewable energy, gender mainstreaming policies and procurement processes.

Power Pools:

Power pools are regional networks of electric power transmission systems that are interconnected and operate in coordination to ensure the reliable and efficient supply of electricity to customers. In a power pool, multiple electric utilities come together to pool their generation resources and coordinate the dispatch of electricity across the network, which allows them to balance supply and demand across a wider area.

The purpose of a power pool is to provide greater efficiency, reliability, and cost savings to the utilities and customers served by the network. By sharing resources and coordinating operations, the power pool can reduce the need for individual utilities to build excess generation capacity to meet peak demand, saving money for everyone involved.

Additionally, by coordinating the dispatch of generation resources across a wider area, the power pool can ensure that the electricity supply is more reliable and less prone to outages.