Melusi Maposa, Accenture’s Managing Director: Resources says he would like to see an increased uptake of As-A-Service models, as this allows utilities to leverage private capital to achieve service delivery outcomes by allowing private players to share in the risk and reward related to projects.

Accenture is a returning platinum sponsor at the upcoming African Utility Week, taking place from 17-19 May at the CTICC in Cape Town, gathering more than 6000 power and water professionals.

“Projects such as metering for water and electricity, water network operations including infrastructure refurbishment (reservoirs, treatment works) all lend themselves to Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) contracting models. Although complex to execute, PPP engagements offer an incredible opportunity for utilities to jumpstart service delivery,” says Maposa.

Lack of capacity remains a challenge

Maposa says the company is very excited about the work it is doing with municipal utilities to drive better insight and efficiencies around capital project executions. We have helped drive increased expenditure, with very clear correlation to service delivery outcomes.
“The lack of capacity, both financial and human, remains a challenge for most of our clients. However, better leveraging of analytics and As-A-Service delivery models – where service providers execute processes on behalf of customer – offer opportunities to plug skills and funding gaps whilst aligning with the objectives of utilities and their partners.” he explains.

Increased level of participation

According to Mr Maposa, Accenture’s feedback from their participation at last year’s African Utility Week (AUW) has been “extremely positive.

The company has increased its level of participation and involvement with AUW and target audiences have picked up on this.

In addition to being a platinum sponsor, provide speaking and conference moderators, the company facilitated a very successful CEO Forum where it shared insights from its annual Digitally Enabled Grid survey.

The insights gleaned from this global survey, which also included respondents from South Africa, was thought provoking and well received by the attendees.