Mother City to welcome back 10 000+ energy and water professionals Photo: Spintelligent and U.S. Department of Commerce The 19th edition of the multi-award-winning African Utility Week conference and exhibition in Cape Town has obtained official U.S. Trade Fair Certification from the U.S. Department of Commerce, paving the way for a greater American participation at the event in Cape Town from 14-16 May next year. Along with the recently acquired, co-located event POWERGEN Africa, the event gathers the largest group of power, energy and water professionals in the African market. “We are delighted to announce that U.S. Trade Certification has been granted, with the United States officially endorsing the event. We are looking forward to working with the U.S. Commercial Service over the next few months to facilitate U.S. participation at the event” says Edgar Baron, International Sales and Business Development Manager for Spintelligent, the organisers of African Utility Week. He adds: “U.S. exhibitors will be able to connect with 10 000+ attendees from over 80 countries over the 3-day exhibition and conference and generate leads and qualified business enquiries showcasing their innovative solutions and build partnerships at the leading power, energy and water expo in Africa.” The U.S. Commercial Service/ITA team will be providing export assistance to U.S. exhibitors. B2B matchmaking meetings with utilities, energy providers and Government officials will be available to U.S. exhibitors. 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 Germany, India, Denmark, France and Canada have already confirmed their presence at the 3-day event in May 2019 at the CTICC in Cape Town. At least four more country pavilions are expected on the exhibition floor. Industry support A multi-award-winning . . .

A brand new study into the future of African power utilities and the challenges they face has highlighted four possible scenarios of what the continent’s energy sector will look like by the year 2030. In the whitepaper, titled: “The Future of Energy and Power Utilities in Africa”, utilities are envisioned to either become “The Lions of Africa”, “Hungry Hyenas”, “An Elephant Herd” or “White Elephants”, with each scenario having different consequences for both the African energy industry at large as well as the consumer. The research project was conducted by the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) at the University of Pretoria, in collaboration with Clarion Energy, organisers of flagship energy events such as African Utility Week, Future Energy East Africa, Future Energy Nigeria and the Utility CEO Forum series - meetings and events that share ideas, encourage networking and facilitate business partnerships across the continent. Can utilities remain relevant? “The future of power and energy in Africa is at a significant junction” says Natalie Bacon, programme director at African Utility Week, “and African states and the power stakeholders operating within this sector realise that the impact of providing universal access to affordable energy will not only lead to accelerated economic development but significant social improvements. Yet, to achieve universal access executives have many strategic decisions ahead of them.” She explains: “hitherto business as usual for utilities has meant bulk energy production and distribution through coal-fired power plans, centralised grids and public sector monopolies. However, this is quickly coming under threat from new models of energy production and distribution. The four scenarios outlined by the study will help utilities and the wider industry visualise what African utilities could look like in 2030 and try to answer the important question of how utilities can remain relevant, effective and lead the African . . .

Harvesting icebergs and learning from forests on how to run a city were offered as solutions to Cape Town’s water woes on Wednesday at a power and water utility conference underway in Cape Town. Salvage expert Nick Sloane addressed delegates at the African Utility Week conference during a keynote session on Wednesday where solutions from nature were explored to address increasing energy and water constraints. “It sounds like a crazy idea but if we break it down, it is not so crazy after all,” Sloane started his address. His address followed director of water and sanitation in the City of Cape Town Peter Flower’s presentation on Tuesday on the water crisis in the city. Flower told delegates the city still needs to reduce consumption to 450 million litres of water per day to keep Day Zero at bay. With the current usage at 500 million litres per day, the situation remains dire despite measures employed by the city to reduce consumption. According to Captain Sloane the answer may just be in “mother nature’s icebergs” – a total of 140 000 icebergs to be specific - drifting in the southern oceans and melting. Harvesting icebergs, he said, can help provide at least 20% of Cape Town’s water needs. He told delegates icebergs break off in Antarctica and hold some of the purest quality water that is between 15 000 and 20 000 years old. “About 2000 million tons of ice are breaking off every year,” he said. The idea is to use the current system to guide these icebergs towards the Cape. “So, they are coming our way, we just need to know how to deal with it.” Sloane said the iceberg can be captured in the area round Gough island and will ultimately have to be guided and moored about 40 km offshore from St Helena island to be harvested. He said they will then have to “create a saucer to capture the melting water that can deliver up to 60 million litres per day”. With milling this volume can increase to 150 million litres a day that is then pumped into tankers and . . .