ETHEKWINI Municipality walked away with the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities’ (AMEU) award for top performing municipality project at the 72nd AMEU Convention in Limpopo on October 6.

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The award recognised the digital transformation initiative that has modernised how electricity services are delivered to residents and how the City’s electricity network is managed.

Digital systems in place

eThekwini Municipality have been advising residents to make use of their digital reporting systems (web, WhatsApp, USSD and contact centre channels) which has helped increase accessibility and efficiency.

“On the operational side, the municipality introduced electronic network diagrams in its high-voltage network control room in 2016. Since then, the control room has progressively adopted digital network tracing, loop detection, and outage-management tools. It has also introduced digital workflows for permits, faults, and work management, reducing reliance on manual switching logs and paper records,” said the municipality in a statement.

A great honour

For Philani Shange, director of electricity and energy, this award is a recognition of the team’s hard work.

“This recognition reflects the commitment, innovation, and hard work of the teams behind this initiative. I congratulate everyone who played a role in bringing this work to life and contributing to better services for the City and its communities,” he said.

Shange believes that digital transformation is about finding new ways to improve the customer experience and strengthen the municipality’s ability to deliver a reliable electricity service.

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