Indra shows its most innovative solutions for comprehensive management of the energy business at WAPIC (Nigeria)

During the 11th West African Power Industry Convention (WAPIC), one of the most important events in the African continent, Indra will display its most innovative solutions for comprehensive and intelligent management of the energy sector. The convention will take place on November 18 and 19 in Lagos, Nigeria, the African country with the highest GDP, and the leading African oil producer.

The consulting and technology multinational will display the latest versions of its most important solutions (already implemented in power companies across the world), such as InCMS (commercial management system), InGRID (distribution network management system) and InGEN (comprehensive solution for energy management). These systems lead to reduced corporate technical, commercial and operational expenses.

InCMS enables automation and optimization of the whole business commercial cycle, from reading, billing and collection to customer service. Likewise it supports procedures such as adding, removing and editing contracts or requests for information via virtual channels, and speeds up decision-making by providing simple access to top quality information. It also provides major improvements to customer service quality through the use of new interaction channels as well as shorter response times. This system contributes to an increase in corporate income by strict control of the commercial cycle and early fraud detection.

The InGRID suite offers a modern model for controlling and using energy distribution networks: it integrates Smart Grids into network operation processes (incident detection, maneuver management and event scheduling), customer notification management, and mobility for work performed in the field. Additionally, it supports energy management processes, from obtaining and handling metrics to calculating electric system energy balances. Therefore, it enables consumption control of distributed power and makes it possible to locate and reduce technical and commercial losses. It also contributes to an increase in energy efficiency by providing analysis tools to achieve optimal planning of electric network extensions.

Lastly, InGEN (solutions for energy generation and energy markets) provides a common and integrated perspective of the whole energy management business, from plant operation to management of the energy generation and trading portfolio.

Intelligent Asset Management

Indra will also show its integrated product and service range aimed at helping customers to define, implement and perform intelligent asset management along the entire value chain of the energy business. This will include, among others, services for optimizing operational and maintenance processes, yield monitoring systems, predictive and prognostic monitoring systems, mobility solutions, geographic information systems and data update initiatives.

These services and systems are particularly pertinent to the most common needs of African countries, such as systemization, management and update of technical information about company assets. Indra is highly experienced in this type of projects, which result in improved data reliability and quality, and increased production or facilities use, while reducing maintenance and operational expenses.

A recent example in this area is the contract with KPLC (Kenya Power&Lighting Company) to monitor and control the quality of the data gathering campaigns intended to retrieve data about its customers and network distribution assets, and to upload these data to the company's commercial management and geographic information systems (previously implemented by Indra). This is crucial to ensure access to basic information that will enable optimal development of business processes related to commercial cycle management as well as distribution network management; and this will lead to business ratio improvement. KPLC owns and is responsible for operating most of the electricity transmission and distribution system in Kenya.

Prepaid Energy Services

Indra will also highlight another solution which African power companies have been particularly interested in. In this context, Álvaro Arguiñarena, manager of Indra's Center of Excellence for Commercial Systems, will give a presentation on November 19. He will explain the advantages of using one single solution to manage prepaid and postpaid energy customers (a very common option in the region). What sets this solution apart is the fact that companies will be able to manage prepaid and postpaid contracts with a single system, with no third-party integration. This results in major reductions in operational costs, and support for fraud prevention and detection.

A leader in the implementation of energy solutions in Africa

Indra is a strong leader in the implementation of energy solutions for utilities in Africa. The multinational has been involved in some of the most important modernization processes of the last 15 years. The Spanish multinational's management systems for energy companies help manage the utilities in Kenya (KPLC, KenGen, NCWSC), Zimbabwe (ZETDC), Zambia (ZESCO), Ethiopia (EEPCO), Uganda (UMEME) and Cameroon (Eneo), among others. Its most recent projects include the implementation of its support solutions for commercial processes and management of the distribution network of EDM (Electricidade de Moçambique), Mozambique's public electrical power company, and ECG (Electricity Company of Ghana), Ghana's biggest electricity distribution company.

Indra, chaired by Javier Monzón, is one of the world's largest consultancy and technology multinationals, a leader in Europe and Latin America and is expanding in other emerging economies. Innovation is the cornerstone of its business, which is highly focused on the customer and on sustainability. The multinational is one of the leaders in its sector in Europe in terms of investment in R&D and innovation, having invested more than €570M in the last three years. With sales approaching €3,000 million, it employs 43,000 professional and has customers in 138 countries