ICE develops renewable energy models for businesses, communities
It is no longer news that Nigerians spend an estimated $14 billion a year on generators and fuel to avoid crippling downtime for their businesses.
It has also been established that more than 215 million people in Nigeria lack access to reliable electricity due to poor infrastructure
However, in order to change the narratives, ICE Commercial Power, a Nigeria-based renewable energy provider, has developed solar power models that connect small businesses and underserved communities to clean energy reliable and affordable, to monitor their energy consumption online. and better manage their energy consumption.
According to the company, businesses and communities participating in the program would see exactly how much energy they are consuming and the associated cost.
Prior to partnering with Microsoft, ICE said it rolled out an initial pilot project as a proof of concept for its new last-mile off-grid electrification model.
For this work, the company said it deployed 20 solar micro-grids connecting 170 underserved micro-enterprises in three communities.
However, the company said it found that much of its maintenance and operations procedures involved multiple manual steps and required significant human intervention to ensure a smooth customer experience for connected micro businesses.< /p>
ICE said it had a significant impact during its work with Microsoft.
Commenting, ICE Commercial Power CEO Emmanuel Ekwueme said ICE has partnered with Microsoft to develop a robust cloud and software back-end to support microgrid maintenance and management arrays deployed in the field.
In addition, he said the company is working with Microsoft to increase efforts to train and employ young people in target communities.
“Our work on the Ignite program led to the digital skills enhancement of 47 young people to engage three communities and identified 12,885 underserved micro-enterprises to deploy,” he explained.
ICE Commercial Power co-founder Maxwell Okperi says partnering with Microsoft and having access to Microsoft tools and developer teams has been very beneficial.
"A typical example is the Microsoft team, which gives me access anywhere in the world to contact my team and monitor day-to-day operations.
"With the Azure platform, I can monitor business operations, and I can track all the data I need to track, I can monitor revenue, I can even predict when I'll have calls from maintenance,” he said.< /p>
On ease of payment, Ekwueme further revealed that ICE has developed a USSD workflow to centralize and enable seamless digital payments for clean energy by micro-grid-connected micro-enterprises.
This platform, he said, facilitated by Azure, enabled ICE customers to directly track their energy usage and make mobile payments seamlessly with their features and smart mobile phones .
“This approach has greatly simplified our maintenance and operations workflow. Specifically, it has streamlined payment collections from up to 12 different payment methods into one user-friendly USSD workflow. also contributed to a noticeable 48% decrease in recurring maintenance calls requiring human intervention,” Ekwueme said.
He said the business development support that came with being a Microsoft ATO portfolio company was second to none.
“Partnering with Microsoft allows us to leverage a powerful cloud platform to deliver quality service to our customers,” he said.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
It is no longer news that Nigerians spend an estimated $14 billion a year on generators and fuel to avoid crippling downtime for their businesses.
It has also been established that more than 215 million people in Nigeria lack access to reliable electricity due to poor infrastructure
However, in order to change the narratives, ICE Commercial Power, a Nigeria-based renewable energy provider, has developed solar power models that connect small businesses and underserved communities to clean energy reliable and affordable, to monitor their energy consumption online. and better manage their energy consumption.
According to the company, businesses and communities participating in the program would see exactly how much energy they are consuming and the associated cost.
Prior to partnering with Microsoft, ICE said it rolled out an initial pilot project as a proof of concept for its new last-mile off-grid electrification model.
For this work, the company said it deployed 20 solar micro-grids connecting 170 underserved micro-enterprises in three communities.
However, the company said it found that much of its maintenance and operations procedures involved multiple manual steps and required significant human intervention to ensure a smooth customer experience for connected micro businesses.< /p>
ICE said it had a significant impact during its work with Microsoft.
Commenting, ICE Commercial Power CEO Emmanuel Ekwueme said ICE has partnered with Microsoft to develop a robust cloud and software back-end to support microgrid maintenance and management arrays deployed in the field.
In addition, he said the company is working with Microsoft to increase efforts to train and employ young people in target communities.
“Our work on the Ignite program led to the digital skills enhancement of 47 young people to engage three communities and identified 12,885 underserved micro-enterprises to deploy,” he explained.
ICE Commercial Power co-founder Maxwell Okperi says partnering with Microsoft and having access to Microsoft tools and developer teams has been very beneficial.
"A typical example is the Microsoft team, which gives me access anywhere in the world to contact my team and monitor day-to-day operations.
"With the Azure platform, I can monitor business operations, and I can track all the data I need to track, I can monitor revenue, I can even predict when I'll have calls from maintenance,” he said.< /p>
On ease of payment, Ekwueme further revealed that ICE has developed a USSD workflow to centralize and enable seamless digital payments for clean energy by micro-grid-connected micro-enterprises.
This platform, he said, facilitated by Azure, enabled ICE customers to directly track their energy usage and make mobile payments seamlessly with their features and smart mobile phones .
“This approach has greatly simplified our maintenance and operations workflow. Specifically, it has streamlined payment collections from up to 12 different payment methods into one user-friendly USSD workflow. also contributed to a noticeable 48% decrease in recurring maintenance calls requiring human intervention,” Ekwueme said.
He said the business development support that came with being a Microsoft ATO portfolio company was second to none.
“Partnering with Microsoft allows us to leverage a powerful cloud platform to deliver quality service to our customers,” he said.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
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