The Enlit Africa 2026 Programme

Why It’s Essential: Co-located with Enlit, this stage explores water scarcity, industrial strategies and the water-energy-food nexus—critical for a climate-stressed continent.

Sector Trends in 2025:Desalination, smart metering and climate finance are rising as water security intersects with energy needs. “South Africa’s National Desalination Initiative” and “Innovations in Water Reclamation” led the charge.

Star Speaker in 2025: Sean Phillips, Director General, Department of Water & Sanitation, South Africa —his desalination push was a lifeline for water-scarce regions.
Natasha Ramikirpal, Group Lead: Water Security, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, South Africa – her discussion on “Driving Industrial Water Security: Innovation, Regulation & Revenue Strategies” was a game changer.

Why It’s Essential: This separately bookable network connects financiers, developers, tech providers and regulators to fuel projects like Mission 300 (300 million Africans electrified by 2030) and cross border interconnections.

Sector Trends in 2025: Private investment and regional power pools are key to closing Africa’s infrastructure gap. “Power Up Africa: Challenging the Status Quo” and “Unlocking Private Investment” spotlight funding innovations.

Star Speaker in 2025: Cathy Oxby, Co-Founder & CCO, Africa GreenCo —brings authority to discussions around overcoming bankability challenges.

Why It’s Essential: The Strategise Stage tackles the big-picture decisions utilities and private companies face—system planning, market dynamics and innovative partnerships. These sessions are your roadmap to navigating Africa’s energy transition.

Sector Trends in 2025: With renewable energy surging and regional interconnectivity on the rise (eg Southern African Power Pool projects), strategic planning is critical to balance supply, demand, and sustainability goals. Panels like “Innovative Public-Private Partnerships” and “Regional Interconnectors” addressed the financing and infrastructure challenges head-on.

Star Speakers in 2025:Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens South Africa —her vision for Africa’s energy transformation, backed by Siemens’ tech prowess, made her a standout. Dipak Patel, Senior Advisor, PCC was a key voice in unlocking funds for green projects.

Why It’s Essential: The Innovate Stage dives into the nuts and bolts of tech deployment—smart grids, nuclear prospects and battery storage. It’s where ideas become reality for utilities and large energy users.

Sector Trends in 2025: Digitalisation and energy storage are booming as Africa modernises its grids to handle renewables. Sessions like “Smart Grids and the Future of Energy Management” and “Integrating Battery Energy Storage Systems” showcased solutions to intermittency and reliability woes.

Star Speakers in 2025: Nick Singh, Head of Smart Grid at Eskom—his work on containerised microgrids for EV charging and grid resilience was a game-changer. Monde Bala, Group Executive: Distribution, Eskom also shone, bringing pertinent insights to smart grids and the benefit of analytics.

Why It’s Essential: Tailored for South Africa’s municipalities, this stage tackles illegal connections, energy efficiency and tariff pressures—issues hitting local governments hard.

Sector Trends in 2025: With Eskom tariff hikes looming and ageing infrastructure straining budgets, municipalities need practical fixes. “Combating Illegal Connections” and “Managing Demand: Energy Efficiency” offer actionable strategies.

Star Speaker in 2025: Phindile Madiba, GM at Eskom—her expertise in research and development brings real-world solutions to municipal woes. Mario Marais of the South African-German Energy Programme is another must-see for his energy efficiency insights.

Why It’s Essential: Open to all attendees, this hub unpacks grid constraints, financing and renewable adoption—vital for scaling clean energy across Africa.

Sector Trends in 2025: The push for universal access by 2030 and battery storage innovations reflect the sector’s renewable revolution. “Grid Capacity Improvement Plans” and “Operational Strategies of BESS” are unmissable.

Star Speaker in 2025: Dino Petrarolo, CEO of Next Renewable Generation (20 May)—his 6 MW solar project for Vodacom exemplifies corporate renewable leadership. Ayodele Oni of Bloomfield LP, Angel Modutwane, Managing Director, ATM Investments and Oliver Johnston, Founder and CEO, Solink stand out for tackling investment innovation.

Why It’s Essential: Free on the exhibition floor, the Power Hub offers technical insights into generation, transmission and distribution—perfect for engineers and operators.

Sector Trends in 2025: Grid modernisation and AI-driven operations are transforming power delivery. “Mastering Digital and Grid Modernisation” and “Nuclear Power” highlight cutting-edge advancements.

Star Speaker in 2025: Jacqui Mills, Senior Solution Architect, Schneider Electric —her expertise in grid modernisation is a must. Richard Brayshaw, Senior Engineer, NTCSA and The AI Copilot session also promise a futuristic edge.

• Technical insights
• Water efficiency and technology innovations for large water users
• Desalination – A solution to water scarcity?
• Groundwater management and aquifer protection
  
  
  
  
  

The Utility CEO Forum is an exclusive by-invitation-only opportunity for CEOs to meet and discuss issues of common concern, determine opportunities to collaborate with their peers with a view to developing a roadmap for Africa’s power and energy development. All discussions will take place under the Chatham House Rules

Why it’s essential: this stage goes beyond representation to challenge the sector’s entrenched culture, addressing systemic barriers like gender-based violence and biased promotion paths. It’s a platform for reimagining leadership models to retain talent and drive inclusivity, which strengthens innovation. “women in green energy” (21 May) and “creating safe, inclusive workplaces” (21 May) tackle these issues head-on.

Sector trends in 2025: gender equality is critical for sector resilience, with initiatives like Standard Bank’s future females in energy fostering youth and women’s leadership.

Star speakers in 2025: Maudene van Rooyen, Specialist for the Power and Sustainable Solutions Standard Bank—Standard Bank’s future females initiative sets a model for scalable empowerment.
Candice Hartley, Chief People Officer, Eskom Holdings - her experience across multiple sectors provides deep insight and multiple industry touchpoints

Our best-in-class keynotes connect delegates to the latest conversation in the African energy ecosystem with leading global speakers and thought leaders.

The Main stage content includes insight into the complexities and opportunities for improving the performance of utilities by enhanced service delivery and reliability of supply.

• A three-pronged approach to energy in Africa
• Dimensions of utility management – performance metrics and technology
• Battery storage and changing sector dynamics
• Independent Power Producers – Your time has come!
• Securing finance for Africa’s power sector – the power of private participation
• Carbon emissions and the thin green line

Insights into the complexities and opportunities for improving the performance of utilities by enhanced service delivery and reliability of supply. Gives the opportunity to deep dive into some of the most important topics of interest for today’s energy professional.

• The practical energy transition – mobilising the scale of capital required to fund a just energy transition
• The role of stakeholders in accelerating energy access
• Productive use of energy – unlocking the true value of energy access
• Hydrogen’s place in Africa’s energy landscape
• Experiences, opportunities and challenges in delivering sustainable water and energy
• Sector coupling and Power-to-X: energy and mobility
• Regional, country and technology spotlights – gas to power, desert to power, rural electrification and hydrogen in Namibia

Join our dynamic meeting place for energy leaders to develop alternative solutions. Particular attention will be paid to the priorities of the Commercial & Industrial sector, security and stability of power supply.

• Unpacking energy storage as transmission and distribution assets
• Considerations for the successful implementation of energy storage
• The economics of energy storage
• Understanding grid connection requirements for renewable energy
• Principles of wheeling and the South African Energy landscape
• Demystifying the democratisation of energy – public and community ownership
• Changemakers: project investment pitch sessions

This track provides practical solutions and insights to ensure that utilities operate at optimal levels, exploring the application of technology across generation, transmission, and water assets.

• Metering, meter tampering and revenue management
• Distribution grid operations
• The water/energy nexus
• Practical generation operation
• Changemakers: Junior investment pitch sessions
• Grid management and skills development
• Transmission, asset maintenance, substations and switchgear

The Municipal Forum will help municipal leaders understand how they can prepare for the energy transition and how this transition will support their mandate of local economic development.

This Forum is designed to provide viable approaches for municipalities to consider in order to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy programmes within the highly regulated municipal environment. The discussions will also unpack frameworks that will work for the procurement of energy from IPPs.

The Municipal Forum will look closely at the fundamentals and legal complexities of electricity wheeling in South Africa: unpacking how municipalities can improve their financial health and provide continuous development and capacitation of finance and governance practitioners at local government level.

• Subsidised local government delegate passes
• Build a strategic plan for achieving energy security
• Municipality teams networkign to share best practice solutions

Enlit Africa 2024 will once again be providing annual site visit tours exclusively to our attendees.

The tours will take place on 24 May 2023 and attendees have an option of five sites to choose from which include visits to local power plants and some of Cape Town’s top tourist attractions.

Our site visits equip our delegates with knowledge and first-hand learnings, making this an unforgettable experience.

The sites available for 2024 are as follows:

• Robben Island : solar installation
• Innovation tour : Hydrogen and battery storage
• Western Cape Water Tour : Visits to wastewater and water treatment sites.
• Distribution tour : Battery energy storage installation and electrification sites
• Hydrogen Tour : Hydrogen innovations at Freeport Saldanha and the ArcelorMittal Green DRI project.