African Utility Week Returns to Cape Town in May and Showcases How Community Scale Projects Are the Continent’s Energy Future

The 17th annual African Utility Week is the leading conference and trade exhibition for African power, energy and water professionals and takes place from 16-18 May 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town.

Cape Town, South Africa, December 10, 2016 --(PR.com)-- “The power and energy landscape in Africa is undergoing significant change,” says Evan Schiff, African Utility Week event director, adding that current trends include “the availability of private investment for power and energy projects, the fast development of energy storage, renewable energy is becoming cheaper, gas that is an increasingly attractive mode of power generation in Africa, and that in the next 10 years, nuclear will become an increasingly important mode of base-load power generation.”

The investment, trade and development opportunities in the sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity sector are estimated at $835 billion of capital investment, $490 billion for generation capacity and $345 billion for infrastructure.

Real world doers share their expertise
The 17th annual African Utility Week is the leading conference and trade exhibition for African power, energy and water professionals and takes place from 16-18 May 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town. The event will gather over 7000 decision makers from more than 40 countries to source the latest solutions and meet over 300 suppliers. Along with multiple side events and numerous networking functions the event also boasts a seven track conference with over 300 expert speakers.

The conference programme will once again address the latest challenges, developments and opportunities in the power and water sectors: ranging from generation, T&D, metering, technology and water. These include two exclusive plenary keynote sessions featuring the most sought-after international speakers. Says Evan: “We are known for consistently gathering a group of industry elite real world doers who share their expertise from grid to socket, best practices for effective power and water supply. Once again, we will not disappoint.”

KPMG is diamond sponsor
Already leading global advisory firm KPMG has confirmed that it is returning to African Utility Week, this time as its exclusive diamond sponsorship. “KPMG’s commitment to create agile utilities in the energy sector across Sub-Saharan Africa, has motivated the firm to take up a diamond sponsorship opportunity at the 2017 African Utility Week” says Ahmed Jaffer, Chairman of KPMG in South Africa and the Head of Power and Utilities.

The African Utility Week expo offers an extensive technical programme sessions that are CPD accredited, free to attend, hands-on presentations that take place in defined spaces on the exhibition floor. They discuss practical, day-to-day technical topics, best practices and product solutions that businesses, large power users and utilities can implement in their daily operations.

New platform: Energy Revolution Africa
“Another strong trend in the sector,” says Evan Schiff, “is that the energy consumer is becoming more aware of their environment and how their power is generated and distributed, whether they are a residential home, a mine, a village, a shopping centre or manufacturing plant. Cleaner, more affordable energy generating options will increasingly become the norm rather than the exception. All these factors will mean that the utility as we know it will not look the same within 10 years… change will happen. We are therefore launching Energy Revolution Africa, a new platform for community scale projects.”

Energy Revolution Africa will provide a unique forum for solution providers to meet with the new energy purchasers such as metros and municipalities, IPPs, rural electrification project developers and large power users, including mines, commercial property developers and industrial manufacturers.

More side events as part of the African Utility Week platform include:

- African Power Finance & Investment Forum: Financiers and project owners will hear from expert speakers who will identify the key trends impacting project finance in regional energy markets with updates on and insights into market opportunities, sources of capital, financing instruments and access to project finance.

- The Gas-to-Power World Congress reflects the continuing transformation of the energy ecosystem in Africa and beyond. Gas and renewables are perfect partners to help address an array of future energy challenges.

- The Utility CEO Forum is held as a 3-day by invitation only board meeting alongside African Utility Week, where the men and women who lead and guide Africa’s power and water sectors discuss the path of transformation.

- The Nuclear Power Africa Conference features expert speakers who will address the myths and realities, latest technologies, regulatory and financing challenges and the economic spin offs created by a nuclear new build programme.

- The fourth edition of the African Utility Week Power Industry Awards brings together 800 of Africa’s most renowned power and water industry professionals.

- Africa Utilities Technology Council: Telecommunications/ICT conference track programme to be presented that will cover topics such as: IT/OT convergence, IP networks and utility telecoms network performance measures.

- Power Africa - Women in Power Lunch
- West African Investment Breakfast Briefing
- East African Investment Breakfast Briefing

Industry support
Apart from KPMG’s diamond sponsorship, long-running supporters and industry stalwarts EPG and Landis+Gyr are also back as platinum sponsors while Conlog, Poweroad, Vodacom and Sensus are gold sponsors again.
Contact
African Utility Week
Annemarie Roodbol
+27 21 700 3558
http://www.african-utility-week.com
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