Eskom CEO Brian Dames will welcome more than 5000 power and utility professionals from more than 60 countries to the annual African Utility Week conference and exhibition at Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday 22 May.

The event director Claire Volkwyn says Eskom have been a key partner for many years. "We're very proud of the longstanding relationship we have built up with our national utility over the course of the twelve years that African Utility Week has grown into THE industry event."

Utility challengesShe continues: "in addition to Mr Dames, we have a fantastic line up of speakers for our opening session – Mr Ger Bergkamp from the International Water Association, who will share with us their vision of the African City of the Future and how we will incorporate water, power and other utilities into these cities and what needs to be done now to manage towards that future. Mr Kevin Jacobson, the General Manager for Indirect Business Sales from MTN will also be speaking on the future of machine to machine communications – as the industry moves closer to a smart grid, communication technology between the various components of this grid will be vital."

Says Claire Volkwyn: "From widespread power shortages, to contaminated water sources and lack of skills to address renewable energy demands, the African continent is faced with a number of utility challenges. And this is where African Utility Week steps in. We bring together international and national industry experts which cover the entire spectrum of power and water - from metering, renewables, large industry, investment, waste management, power generation, smart grid and water to discuss, debate and collaborate around these challenges. This year, in order to make that collaboration even more interactive and that 'take homes' even more valuable, we have partnered with Deloitte to facilitate some of the conference sessions and to use their Think Tank technology. We are excited about the possibilities of the analysis and reporting we will be able to share after the event.'

More than 200 technology innovators and service providers will display their utility solutions at the exhibition: from local entrepreneurs such as Util Labs, who monitored the energy consumption at COP17 in Durban with their unique LVSS applications, to global giants such as Powertech; ABB, Actom/Alstom, GE, MTN, Deloitte, Vodacom, Phillips, Schneider Electric and Eaton Corporation to name but a few.

African Utility week exhibition highlights and must attends:•  Opening session with Eskom CEO Brian Dames – Tuesday, 22 May 09h30•  10 000 m2 of indoor and outdoor exhibition space.•  Dozens of FREE workshops and live demonstrations on the expo floor.•  Water Hackathon to solve water utility problems.

Event dates:Conference: 22-23 May 2012 – opening session: 22 May 09h30-12h00Exhibition: 21-23 May 2012Pre-conference workshops: 21 May 2012Site visits: 24 May 2012Event location: Nasrec Expo Centre, Johannesburg

Website: www.african-utility-week.com