The IOT Industry Council of South Africa has proposed a master plan to government to leverage Industry 4.0 internet of things (IOT) technologies to help resolve SA’s power crisis.
The council, which brings together South African and global technology integrators, innovators and thinkers leading the evolution of IOT in SA, believes it can help resolve the country’s power crisis though innovative use of emerging technologies.
The country’s energy crisis, which predominantly stems from the poor maintenance of electricity infrastructure, has been ongoing for the past decade.
Over the past few years, the degrading Eskom power plants saw the power utility significantly increasing scheduled and unscheduled power outages, as electricity supply falls behind demand.
Data compiled by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research shows SA experienced 1 130 hours of load-shedding in 2021 – the highest level yet.
During an interview with ITWeb, Sphamandla Dlamini, chairperson of the IOT Industry Council and executive at Kaizen IOT, explained smart energy management solutions are the answer to the ongoing power crisis.
They play a crucial enabling role to manage and reduce energy consumption in commercial, industrial sectors and homes, through real-time monitoring of power usage, noted Dlamini.
The council, a non-profit organisation representing the interests of the technology industry in SA, acts as a collective voice for the IOT industry, representing companies that provide devices, network connectivity, application software and systems integration services in this new technology space.
“South Africa is facing a crisis and a risk of intermittent energy supply,” noted Dlamini. “We have approached government with a master plan and we are at matured levels of discussion on how managing energy availability and consumption through IOT technologies would lessen the strain on the grid.
“If we are able to stabilise consumption on the grid, we are able to better plan for the transition towards cleaner sources of energy. Key to that is SA would have fewer blackouts and less intermittent supply of energy.”
The council’s value proposition to combat SA’s power crisis includes deploying smart technologies in commercial buildings as a way of measuring heating and cooling systems, traffic lights that switch on and off based on the traffic levels, and installing connected devices in homes and industrial buildings to assist with the overall demand and distribution of electricity. This all forms part of a nationwide smart city vision, according to Dlamini.
Introduced in 2019, the IOT Industry Council says IOT is a transformational technology that can ensure South African businesses, manufacturers and agriculture producers and the public sector can be globally and regionally competitive.
The body is made up of over 50 members who are dedicated to helping business and public sector organisations gain insight into the capabilities that IOT technology brings by helping to realise the vision of the fourth industrial revolution in SA, to grow the economy, create new jobs and compete with global peers.
The council’s members form part of the Presidential Commission on Fourth Industrial Revolution, which seeks to identify relevant policies, strategies and plans that will position the country as a competitive global player in the digital economy, said Dlamini.
Through the commission, the council has been instrumental in its overarching objective to propose the use of smart technologies to improve service delivery across SA, alleviate the strain in the power grid and use IOT to help in disaster management by creating efficient smart cities across the country.
“Our master plan includes an IOT framework for service delivery. This takes into consideration smart buildings, the use of energy switches and sensors; it considers environmental, social and governance priorities to create efficient smart cities to advance sustainable service delivery and improve efficiency for residents and businesses.
“Our members are in the forefront of developing these technologies and they are testing them and deploying them in the private sector, which has almost immediately felt the benefits of energy savings and cost saving.”
SA has embarked on major plans to build three smart cities: Nkosi City in Mpumalanga, the African Coastal Smart City in the Eastern Cape and the Lanseria smart city based in Gauteng.
However, the council is of the view that smart cities can only be efficient in their mission when an ecosystem of industry players come together to improve social and economic quality for citizens, improve policy efficiency and social inclusion.
In terms of managing national disasters, Dlamini pointed out smart technologies can play a crucial role in disaster prediction, response and recovery.
This is achieved by providing early detection signals of floods and wildfires, and drawing real-time data and barometric readings on things like water levels, earthquakes and other types of natural disasters.
“A fully-connected environment would be able to assist with warning signals and early detection of disasters and then circumvent with the ripple effects of combating that fire or flood, for instance. We have active members who are assisting the Western Cape government with early detection response systems for fires.
“The key thing these technologies are able to do is identify the spread of the fire, as well as how it was originally initiated. So, remote sensors, geographical Information systems, global positioning systems and such, can assist in disaster management and mitigation in public spaces to control the consequences of such events,” he concluded.
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