“Our mission is to deliver authentic African content”

The organisers of African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa, have announced that they have entered into a media partnership with African News Agency (ANA), a continent-wide multimedia content dissemination platform in the run-up to the event that is taking place from 14-16 May in Cape Town. ANA will also have a presence on the expo floor.

The South African Minister of Energy, Honourable Jeff Radebe, is heading up a stellar line up of expert speakers and will once again deliver the opening ministerial address on 14 May. The 19th edition of this leading conference and exhibition is expected to attract more than 10 000 energy and water professionals this year.

“We’re excited to partner with African News Agency” says African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa event director Evan Schiff, “over the last couple of years ANA has been able to fill a real need in the market for the effective distribution of news, particularly across Africa.”

“For ANA, African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa is the perfect strategic forum to meet leading global and African professionals in the energy and water sectors” says ANA CEO Grant Fredericks. He adds: “our mission is to deliver authentic African content, in the form of locally produced stories, images, videos and valuable data, to the world and this event has proven to have been a consistent source of great news content and expert interviews over the years. Our strategic media partnerships across the African continent guarantee that we share and produce ground-breaking content on the hour, by the hour. We look forward to provide many of the African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa sponsors, exhibitors and speakers with our services onsite.” 

International pavilions
Apart from the official U.S. country pavilion at African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa showcasing specialised technology and services for the utility, metering, renewable and water industries, country pavilions from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India and Poland have also already confirmed their presence at the 3-day event in May.

Industry support
A multi-award-winning conference and exhibition, African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa has already secured early support from industry stalwarts including Conlog, Dromex, Landis+Gyr, Sumitomo and Utility Systems as platinum sponsors and Aberdare, ADC Energy, Sulzer and Toshiba as gold sponsors.

African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa is the flagship energy event organised by Spintelligent, a multi-award-winning Cape Town-based exhibition and conference producer across the continent in the energy, infrastructure, mining and agriculture sectors. Other well-known events by Spintelligent include Future Energy East Africa, Future Energy Nigeria, the Utility CEO Forums, Agritech Expo Zambia, Nigeria Mining Week and DRC Mining Week.

Spintelligent is part of the UK-based Clarion Events Group and African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa form part of Clarion Energy, which runs over 40 events that cover the oil, gas, power and energy sectors, making it one of Clarion Events’ largest portfolios.

Dates for African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa:
Conference and expo: 14-16 May 2019
Site visits: 17 May 2019
Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

Website: http://www.african-utility-week.com  
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfricaUtilities    #AUW2019   
Linkedin: African Utility Week

Contact:
Senior communications manager:  Annemarie Roodbol
Telephone:  +27 21 700 3558
Mobile:  +27 82 562 7844
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Mother City to welcome back 10 000+ energy and water professionals

Addressing the current landscape of water and energy projects all over the subcontinent, African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa, in collaboration with the Department of Energy, is proud to announce the confirmation of the South African Minister of Energy, Honourable Jeff Radebe, who will form part of the stellar line up at the opening Ministry address on 14 May at the CTICC in Cape Town. The minister also opened this flagship industry gathering last year.

The new co-location of POWERGEN Africa at the 19th edition of the event from 14-16 May will add an expanded focus on generation, including renewables, off grid, fossil fuels and nuclear, while still concentrating on transmission, distribution, metering, new technologies including storage, mini grids, micro grids, IOT and ICT systems, as well as water.

Along with multiple side events and numerous networking functions the event boasts a five track strategic conference with over 300 expert speakers. An extensive Knowledge Hub programme that is CPD accredited and free to attend, offers hands-on presentations taking place in defined spaces on the exhibition floor. These discuss practical, day-to-day technical topics, best practices and product solutions that businesses, large power users and utilities can implement in their daily operations.

Other keynote speakers confirmed so far are:

• Dr Mark Swilling, Programme Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Programme in the School of Public Leadership; the Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute; and the Co-Director of the Stellenbosch Centre for Complex Systems in Transition.
• Prof Anton Eberhard, who the directs Managing Infrastructure Investment Reform Regulation In Africa (MIRA) at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. He is also chairing a team appointed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to advise on turning Eskom around and restructuring the power sector.

Following the keynote session, conference delegates will break into five programme tracks. The programme for 2019 follows the industry trend of connecting the full value chain, so content is not siloed by industry and reflects the many disciplines required for a modern, smart power industry:

• The Future Cities conference will look at Africa’s current urban living challenges and ask what is needed for the cities of tomorrow and who will be leading the way?
• Learn about the finance and investment trends and forecasts for Africa’s power infrastructure in the Power Strategy Development conference, tailored to utilities and companies with an interest in finance and investment as well as generation options.
• The Smart Energy conference will combine metering-based topics with the latest smart grid solutions to equip the sectors leaders and innovators.
• Energy Revolution Africa provides a dynamic meeting place for solution providers, consultants, renewable energy producers and the African and global energy minds to develop alternative solutions towards the acceleration of Africa’s sustainable electrification.
• The Water conference will bring together experts from public and private sectors to support municipalities as they become more responsive and efficient in their practices.

International pavilions
Apart from the official U.S. country pavilion at African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa showcasing specialised technology and services for the utility, metering, renewable and water industries, country pavilions from Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India and Poland have also already confirmed their presence at the 3-day event in May.

Industry support
A multi-award-winning conference and exhibition, African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa has already secured early support from industry stalwarts including Conlog, Dromex, Landis+Gyr, Sumitomo and Utility Systems as platinum sponsors and Aberdare and Sulzer as gold sponsors. The sixth edition of the annual African Power, Energy & Water Industry Awards also returns to celebrate pioneering utilities, projects and people in the energy and water industry on the continent during 2018/2019.

CEO Forum
The Utility CEO Forum an exclusive gathering of regional utility CEOs within the power and energy sector providing a unique, safe space for discussion and debate of the modern day challenges in running African utilities in a fast developing market with high political expectations and low returns within aging or no infrastructure. Confirmed industry expert and technology partners for this strategic gathering are Conlog, Eaton, Nyamezela, Ontec, Oracle and Steinmüller.

African Utility Week and the co-located POWERGEN Africa is the flagship energy event organised by Spintelligent, a multi-award-winning Cape Town-based exhibition and conference producer across the continent in the energy, infrastructure, mining and agriculture sectors. Other well-known events by Spintelligent include Future Energy East Africa, Future Energy Nigeria, the Utility CEO Forums, Agritech Expo Zambia, Nigeria Mining Week and DRC Mining Week. Spintelligent is part of the UK-based Clarion Events Group and African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa form part of Clarion Energy, which runs over 40 events that cover the oil, gas, power and energy sectors, making it one of Clarion Events’ largest portfolios.

Dates for African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa:
Conference and expo: 14-16 May 2019 
Site visits: 17 May 2019 
Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

Website: http://www.african-utility-week.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfricaUtilities    #AUW2019
Linkedin: African Utility Week

Contact:
Senior communications manager:  Annemarie Roodbol
Telephone:  +27 21 700 3558
Mobile:  +27 82 562 7844
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

“How all these energy sources can complement each other”

“Nuclear energy is certainly not any more expensive than any other energy source” says nuclear expert Dr Anthonie Cilliers, explaining that “the large 9600MW nuclear programme has created an impression of a single expensive mega-project, when in fact the purpose of the fleet approach was to drive down costs over time and increase the learning rate. This should be broken up into smaller chunks, for example, should two nuclear reactors be added to the current plant at Koeberg, the cost would be no more than the guarantees already provided by treasury for the current IPP programme, whilst two nuclear reactors would produce more units of electricity per year (and more reliably) than the units on the IPP programme.”

He adds: “I agree that South Africa’s fiscus is constrained at the moment, I believe this will change and when it does we need to be prepared. If we cannot afford nuclear new build we cannot afford any new build. We also have to remember that the new IRP has not been gazetted and with an outdated IRP, I find the approval of any energy projects (including nuclear) irrational.”

Nuclear Power Africa
Dr. Anthonie Cilliers is the National Coordinator of SAN-NEST (South African Nuclear Education, Science and Technology) the R&D Programme Manager: Advanced High Temperature Reactor (AHTR) and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. A regular commentator and speaker at African Utility Week, he returns this year as a panellist during the Nuclear Power Africa conference at the event from 15-17 May in Cape Town.

“Nuclear is certainly part of the energy mix in Africa” says Daniel Njoroge Butti, Energy Economist at the Karatina University in Kenya, another expert who will share his views at African Utility Week and asked whether there is appetite for investors to fund nuclear energy projects, he replies: “the definitive answer is YES.”

With regards to costs he explains that “in my view, nuclear energy has significantly high initial costs but very low operating costs vis a vis other energy sources like renewable energy which has relatively low initial costs and periodical costs involved in operations which eventually become very high. On the other hand, coal energy presently is considered an outdated source of energy given that it does not meet various conditions as a clean energy. Hence the only conversation that should be sustained is a decent conversation of how all these energy sources can complement each other.”

“We need to replace coal with nuclear”
“In South Africa” says Dr Cilliers, “the common belief is that we have excess electricity that we do not need nuclear energy in the short term. This is a slight misnomer as the excess electricity stems from the recent high prices which in turn are constraining our economic growth. The reality is that South Africa needs more electricity at an affordable cost to support economic growth – for this an intervention by government is required. We also tend to forget that many of our coal stations are reaching end of life within the next 10 years, we are already seeing the operation and maintenance cost of these plants rising. We need to plan to replace these coal plants with nuclear plants, we have no other option.” 

According to Dr Cilliers: “specialists in South Africa are currently working on a project to determine the macro-economic impact of nuclear build programmes on a country in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency and 15 other countries. What we are seeing is that the contribution to the GDP from these projects (during construction and operation) is staggering as it becomes an enabler of economic growth and job creation, directly, indirectly and inducing new jobs in other sectors – far more than industries that rely heavily on import and local assembly.”

Balanced combination of energies
“The energy sector should play a more versatile role by providing safe, reliable, affordable and clean energy for the country” is the opinion of Des Muller of NuEnergy Developments and a member of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa’s Supply Chain Development Sub-Committee.

He adds: “this can only be achieved through a balanced combination of Thermal, Renewable/Hydro and Nuclear Energy. Sustainable energy systems should also be able to augment our water supplies, power an imminent electric transport sector and reduce our high transmission losses through decentralised power generation at the load-centres.”

To read the full interviews with Dr Anthonie Cilliers, Daniel Njoroge Butti and Des Muller and other event expert speakers and partners, go to: http://www.african-utility-week.com/expertinterviews

Also read: Nuclear energy fundamental to support the National Development Plan’s energy objectives here

Award-winning energy platform
The 18th annual African Utility Week will gather over 7000 decision makers from more than 80 countries to discuss the challenges, solutions and successes in the power, energy and water sectors on the continent. Along with multiple side events and numerous networking functions the event also boasts a seven track conference with over 300 expert speakers. The conference programme will address the latest challenges, developments and opportunities in the power and water sectors: ranging from generation, T&D, metering, technology and water.

The African Utility Week expo offers an extensive technical workshop programme that are CPD accredited, free to attend, hands-on presentations that take place in defined spaces on the exhibition floor. They discuss practical, day-to-day technical topics, best practices and product solutions that businesses, large power users and utilities can implement in their daily operations.

African Utility Week is the flagship energy event organised by the multi-award winning Spintelligent, leading Cape Town-based trade exhibition and conference organiser, and part of Clarion Events Ltd, based in the UK. Other well-known energy events by Spintelligent are Future Energy Nigeria and Future Energy East Africa.

More events include Agritech Expo Zambia, Property Buyer Show, DRC Mining Week, Eduweek, Farm-Tech Expo Kenya, Nigeria Mining Week and the Mining Baraza in Kenya.

Dates for African Utility Week:
Conference and expo: 15-17 May 2018
Awards gala dinner:  16 May 2018
Site visits: 18 May 2018
Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

Website: http://www.african-utility-week.com & www.african-real-estate-summit.com 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfricaUtilities     #AUW2018   
Linkedin: African Utility Week

Contact: Senior communications manager:  Annemarie Roodbol
Telephone:  +27 21 700 3558
Mobile:  +27 82 562 7844
Email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.