In this edition of Business Day Spotlight, our focus is on electricity consumption and power management in Africa in light of Eskom’s continued woes.

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined in studio by Seydou Kane, managing director of Eaton, a power management company with its products available in more than 175 countries and employing 99000 people globally.

The company builds and manufactures solutions that help customers with energy-efficiency and effective management of electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power.

In this discussion, Kane gives us a brief history of Eaton, saying it is a $22bn (R336.3bn) business that has been around for about 115 years old. He explains how Eaton’s business works, how it’s been received in the region; and details on some of the opportunities and threats available on the continent.

Kane says the future of national grids is probably a situation where the state has a centralised transmission platform where a number of smaller players create localised electrical grids that can then feed into the national network.

He shares his thoughts around power management on the continent and the place of renewable sources in the energy mix, together with statistics around power consumption and management.

The discussion ends with Kane giving his outlook for their business.

Listen in to hear thoughts around these and other questions.

Business Day Spotlight is a MultimediaLIVE Production.