started working together with Indra with African utility companies 20 years ago. At that time, Indra signed its first contract in Kenya for the implementation of its home-grown solutions for the management of the country’s power grid. The number of customers Indra works with has been increasing since then. Indra currently works with 15 clients in the utility sector in Africa, distributed in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Cameroon, Malawi. Liberia has joined the select group of Indra customers with a new contract.
During these 20 years, the company has carried out multiple activities in collaboration with its clients, regarding not only the implementation of information systems, but also activities focused on facilitation of process transformation and modernization ; end-user training and consulting tasks. Indra also performs maintenance and support of the systems once they have been implemented, in order to ensure the adequate evolution and to bring the system able to respond to the new needs.
The future of our relationship with our clients in Africa, is highly influenced by the global trends in the Utility sector. These trends imply major challenges for African companies that must adapt their business to the needs of the sector.
These challenges on one hand include the need to provide access to electricity and potable water in remote and rural areas out of the reach of the power distribution grid. Furthermore, electricity and water supply must be guaranteed, whilst increasing the resilience of the systems, in order to substantially reduce the interruptions and unavailability. Also, the market liberalization and the new regulatory requirements result in further difficulties in the normal operation of these companies.
On the other hand; one of the biggest challenges for African utilities, is the need of becoming more sustainable and cutting the negative impacts of their activities and operations. In order to achieve that goal, they have to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. To this end, the utilities must take advantage of the integration of renewable technologies in the energy mix of the countries and of the energy storage solutions or backup systems. It is also necessary to develop some contingency measures against draughts, which are becoming more and more common in the continent and represent a huge threat, for both the availability of potable and irrigation water, and electricity generation through hydroelectric plants.
Thanks to the knowledge and experience in the region obtained over the last 20 years, Indra possesses the expertise, capabilities and know-how that are the essential asset to face these challenges in the utility sector. That is why, the company is leading the way for this “second wave” of modernization of information system for African utilities in order to adapt them to new circumstances.
Because of this, Indra’s participation in the 17th annual African Utility Week, which took place in Cape Town (South Africa) from the 16th to 18th of May, shows its commitment to the sector. In this event, Indra demonstrated its proprietary solutions developed for utilities, which include the latest standards of the global market, and also the services offered to companies in the sector, aimed to help them in the necessary transformations that must take place to compete in the modern market.