City Power’s MD Sicelo Xulu has been named Top Utility Executive of the Year at the annual African Utility Week Industry Awards in Cape Town.

This prestigious award, celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of a CEO from an African water or power utility in the past year.

Under Xulu’s leadership City Power has become the first utility in South Africa capable of mitigating the effects of load shedding for its customers through intelligent systems capable of taking high-energy use appliances, such as geysers and stoves, off the grid rather than entire neighbourhoods.

Some of the utility’s interventions include the rollout of smart meters and solar geysers across Johannesburg and the introduction of smart technologies such as ripple control, load limiting and time of use.

Last week, City Power announced that it had implemented a long-term, mitigating strategy to keep the lights on when Eskom implements load shedding.

With technical roll out and implementation done by Edison Power Group, Xulu chose a smart partner, led by the highly respected Vivian Reddy, who’s pedigree as an electrical engineer is second to none, and who’s commitment to social investment is profound.

Xulu was recently awarded his MPhil in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, with distinction, from the University of Johannesburg.  His dissertation was titled Modelling renewable sources for South Africa.

Xulu was up against the most seasoned and accomplished executives from across the continent, including Bassey Nkamado, President and CEO of N Squared Integrated Electric Company in Nigeria; Ben Chumo, CEO of Kenya Power and Lighting Company; Charles Chapman, former Managing Director, Umeme, Uganda; William Amuna, Chief Executive, Ghana Grid Company and William Hutton-Mensah, former Managing Director, Electricity Company of Ghana and Director of Distribution, Ministry of Power.