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Hey everyone! Welcome to GreenMonk TV, I am here at the SAP for Utilities event in Huntington
Beach, I'm with.
AnneMarie Groenewald, I'm from the city of Cape Town in South Africa, I'm the head of
the ERP Revenue team looking after the SAP implementation for that part.
Okay, so you've got a few interesting challenges in South Africa. For years, you've been having
rolling blackouts and these kinds of things, what are you doing to address such kinds of
issues?
It's because we had those rolling blackouts and we only have one utility company, providing
electricity for the whole of South Africa, there's actually now legislation in place
that we must manage the electricity consumption better and we must inform our customers of
the electricity consumption.
So now we have implemented SAP AMI solution. It's automated meter reading interface, it
gives the customers, they can login through a web portal where they can see their consumption
on a half hourly basis, and it entitles them to manage the electricity better, may be they
also decide they want to use the electricity more off peak, so that they can get a better
rate as well.
Interesting. So you were saying earlier that there is not just the ability for them to
see their own information but there is also tariff comparisons that they can do.
Yes, the tariff comparison that they can see their use, most of the electricity or they
can swift -- using most of the electricity may be at night so that they can have an off
peak tariff that is more favorable then during peak hours when everybody is using electricity.
And how is that helping with the rolling blackouts?
Well, at the moment, since 2008-2009 rolling blackouts are under control. I don't think
it's yet because of this implementation but people are just more aware because the governments
are also making us a lot of aware publicly of electricity usage.
And are there efficiency programs rolled out as well?
Yes, they constantly -- there is media releases, that's on the radio constantly telling people
replace your bulbs with bulbs that use less electricity, switch off your geyser during
peak hours and that's how there is public awareness is going out a lot. And I think
people are actually adhering into it.
Okay and how does this program that you've rolled out, how does it compare with the rest
of Africa?
At the moment, when we implemented, we are the only one in Africa that implement this
AMI solution. There are other municipalities in South Africa looking at it but they are
not live yet.
And you've just rolled out in Cape Town so far, how long before it gets rolled to the
rest of South Africa?
That depends on all the other municipalities, because they are all independently. So we've
done it, at the moment we are only at the large power uses and the big customers, we
will still get to the normal households.
AnneMarie that's been great, thanks for talking to us today.
It's a pleasure, thank you.