Nabil Haddad, CEO at IPT Powertech Group, delves into the exciting plans for development and delivery of power solutions in Africa.
GUARANTEED SAVINGS ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT
With offices in 11 countries, IPT Powertech Group serve top clients in the region, and it is with the dedication of our 2,500 experts that our portfolio encompasses thousands of implemented projects, delivered to more than 60 operators in more than 50 countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone Algeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Afghanistan and many more.
While it has an operational presence in 11 countries in the MEA, Africa and Southeast Asia, it also has manufacturing facilities in Romania and Lebanon.
Nabil Haddad, Chief Executive Officer at IPT Powertech discusses the exciting developments of the Company’s operations in Africa and the secrets to the success of its guaranteed savings model in Nigeria.
Q&A WITH NABIL HADDAD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IPT POWERTECH
Could you describe IPT Powertech’s latest offerings, projects and developments in Nigeria and the main challenges faced along this year?
Nabil Haddad (NH): This year was an exceptional year across all our geographies, including Africa, Middle East and Asia. IPT Powertech Group is engaged in Nigeria with the largest tower company in Africa, on the major project of Guaranteed Savings across the African continent, supplying energy efficient power solutions including management, maintenance, and OPEX optimisation exercise under a long-term contract. We are proud to be the one of the largest suppliers of power efficient solutions and the main contractors ensuring the Guaranteed Savings Model.
The Guaranteed Savings Model is the combination of the design, production, supply and deployment of energy efficient solutions along with the field maintenance service and continuous OPEX and CAPEX optimisation. The Guaranteed Savings Model is a risk-free approach ensuring the operators and Towercos full economisation and savings by reducing the Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditures (OPEX), leading to optimal Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while maximising the lifetime of the equipment. We guarantee the performance and savings of our own solutions while respecting the contracted KPIs and SLAs.
However, the existing power transmission infrastructure in Nigeria and its operation is the weakest link in the power value chain. Transmission is responsible for many instances of stranded generation, thus the improvement of its operational performance and efficiency remains fundamental to attaining stable and reliable power to all Nigerians. Sometimes only 20 percent of the sites are grid connected, and often the grid is unreliable. The impact of high energy OPEX is considerable, thus the challenge of providing energy efficient power solutions with the lowest TCO possible, while ensuring the optimal mean time to respond (MTTR) in order to maximise uptime. Other challenges in such environments are high temperature and dust, which in turn entails deploying specific solutions, conducting maintenance in a different manner and using different tools.
The fact that our group is the only solution provider in the region offering and merging Hybrid and Renewable Energy Solutions with Telecom Infrastructure and field Managed Services and maintenance, and a pioneer in combining our product R&D to our assembly facilities, made IPT Powertech Group well positioned to become a leader in the implementation of the Guaranteed Savings Model in Nigeria and the African continent.
How have IPT PowerTech come to be so trusted by Nigeria’s leading Towerco?
NH: We started working with the largest Towerco in the African continent in 2003. At that time, it was a site construction contractor. Over the years, we developed a strong relationship with them by repeatedly re-engineering our proposed solutions to match the growing sites requirements. It wasn’t long before it became the largest tower company in Africa. Our stellar achievement was the deployment of hybrid concepts on their sites, which eventually got us selected as their Preferred Power Solution Vendor in multiple countries.
Now, we are engaged with the largest Towerco in Nigeria on the largest project of Guaranteed Savings across the African continent. We are proud to be one of the largest suppliers of power efficient solutions and one of the main contractors ensuring the Guaranteed Savings Model.
The Guaranteed Savings Model is a risk-free approach for securing full economisation and savings for the operators and Towercos. The model works by reducing the CAPEX and OPEX to reach the optimal Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while maximising the lifetime of the equipment.
Can you brief us about your scope of work particularly in power and telecom services in Nigeria?
NH: IPT Powertech Group has been operating in Nigeria since 2009, and it is with the dedication of our indigenous and international experts that we were able to provide a wide range of active and passive managed services to many telcos, Towercos, OEM and Mobile operators in the African continent and especially in Nigeria.
For the passive section, our Group provides Preventive Maintenance (PPM) services, covering our AC/DC TRION generators, electro-technical, environmental, and tower infrastructure maintenance in addition to other site security services. We also ensure the functionality of all commissioned alternative power generation systems (DC Genset/Deep Cycle Batteries/ Solar combinations) installed in the power network portfolio entrusted to the Group, so our respective clients can extract best value from their OPEX saving model opportunity. Furthermore, our janitorial services and waste management services ensure clean sites through environmental and waste management compliance. We provide 24/seven corrective and emergency maintenance program guaranteeing our clients a network availability exceeding 99.5 percent.
Moreover, we offer end-to-end diesel supply – haulage management – as well as grid connectivity services by connecting sites to the grid, whenever suitable. The Group also prides in providing first and second tier maintenance and support services to a selected group of OEM vendors.
What is the secret behind the success of the Guaranteed Savings model in Nigeria?
NH: IPT Powertech Group is proud to be the initiator for the Guaranteed Savings model in Nigeria and the African continent. The success of this model is attributed to several factors varying between the quality of our products, technical knowhow of the technical team, constant remoting along with adequate O&M training.
To begin with, the IPT in-house designed and developed Hybrid Power solution is built with high quality and robust components meeting high standards. Furthermore, our technical team continuously tracks and monitors the guaranteed savings system’s performance with RMS tools, by constantly checking the daily system performance, routine maintenance programs and diesel consumption.
The Group ensures that our Guaranteed Savings criteria in the contracts are met through constant site inspections, audits and repairs.
Moreover, we believe that the Power System Maintenance training program is considered as an integral factor for the success of the model allowing the upskill of our O&M resources in order to maintain the health of our implemented systems.
Finally, what can you tell us about IPT PowerTech’s future plans?
NH: IPT PowerTech’s dedicated team is always seeking new challenges where we can recreate new power solutions, add advanced features to our wide portfolio, and redefine services to guarantee optimal performance at the lowest cost possible, while bringing value to our customers.
As for the geographic footprint, we are always looking to expand organically and non-organically into new territories as long as that growth is profitable and aligned with the strategic direction of the business.
