Beacon Power Services raises $2.7 million to improve electricity access for cities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa's share of the world's population without access to electricity stood at 77% in 2020, according to reports. Furthermore, the average daily electricity supply in some of Africa's largest cities is less than 12 hours. As a result, individuals and businesses are finding other options and substitutes, such as generators, to deal with their power issues; however, these solutions can be expensive to use or affect the climate.

While solar arrays and panels are another viable option and present compelling use cases for end consumers, there is still an opportunity to launch products aimed at utility companies, and that is where Beacon Power Services (BPS) plays. The energy technology company, which provides data and network management solutions to help Africa's power sector distribute electricity more efficiently, today announces that it has closed a $2.7 million funding round. dollars.

Founder and CEO Bimbola Adisa, an aerospace engineer, started the company in 2014 after several years working for a power turbine manufacturer and as an investment banker covering the electricity sector in the States -United. For the latter, most of its customers included electric utilities, service providers and manufacturers. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said these experiences gave him insight into the application of technology in the power sector and he saw an opportunity to apply it in Nigeria and across the country. 'Africa.

Adisa launched BPS in 2014 to address the insufficient supply of electricity to electricity distribution companies. The US and Nigeria-based utility company provides energy management software and analytics for utilities. Its AI-powered network management platform, Adora, solves one of two fundamental problems facing power utilities in Africa.

The software provides real-time visibility into network performance for electric utilities and connects to every utility asset and customer node on the network, allowing energy providers to anticipate outages and identify network losses, respond to them quickly and distribute electricity more efficiently. “The result is that utilities can operate more efficiently, recoup more revenue and, by reducing outages, customers benefit from an increased supply of electricity (more hours supplied daily), so everyone wins” , BFS said in an email response to TechCrunch about how Adora works. .

The other problem is data-driven, solved by the company's proprietary platform called Customer and Asset Information Management system (CAIMs). Utilities in Africa struggle to maintain an accurate database of their customers, assets, and network topology (the relationship between assets and customers). CAIM solves this problem by taking into account the unique conditions in which African utilities operate, for example, poor addressing systems, and helps them digitize their data, which is the basis for network improvement. /p>

“Africa is home to the fastest growing cities in the world, but when most people think of energy access in Africa, they think of rural areas with little or no access to electricity. electricity. However, it is impossible for Africa to grow without significantly improving electricity access and reliability in its major cities," CEO Adisa said in a statement. realizing that solutions designed for mature markets were failing to address the unique infrastructure challenges facing Africa, we developed a bespoke solution for power utilities across the continent to improve daily supply in electricity from the network."

Bim Adisa (CEO)

Adisa told TechCrunch that BPS has grown from a single utility in Nigeria to four utilities in two countries including Ghana, covering more than 8 million...