• Customers in Africa will receive the necessary skills and training closer to their home countries.
• High quality practical & online modules for all energy and automation categories.
• Power Academy can accommodate 450-500 students per year.

Siemens Energy has inaugurated the first of its kind Power Academy in South Africa on the 11th of August 2021. Located in Wadeville, this innovative learning centre serves as a major milestone in the advancement of the sustainable energy industry in Africa.

Some of the attendees at the inauguration included Thabo Molekoa, Siemens Energy MD of Southern & Eastern Africa, Dan Taylor, Siemens Energy Vice President of Service & Digital from Siemens Energy and a few guests, Dr Rüdiger Lotz, Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economics and Global Issues Department at the German Embassy, South Africa; Jan-Christoph Kuntze, Programme Director of South African - German Energy Programme (SAGEN), GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit); Bonga Mashazi, General Manager of Camden Power Station at Eskom; Gersh Bonga, General Manager at Turbo Gen Services. The event was limited to a small number of delegates due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The training facility offers high quality comprehensive practical “instructor-led training” course modules and online “web-based training” modules for all energy categories and will provide training for customers, industry clients, “concentrated solar power” plants as well as major customers from Africa’s power producers in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Mauritius. Thabo Molekoa, during his speech at the inauguration said “The Siemens Energy Power Academy is a solution that supports occupational training to engineers and technicians in all industries and offers them the opportunity to develop their skills in a variety of topics, including automation. We provide our customers with a training experience that is applicable to their daily challenges and needs.”

The academy’s training portfolio comprises of basic and advanced training of the SPPA – T3000 (Siemens Power Plant Automation), the fourth generation Control & Digitalisation System to boost profitability, reliability and ease of use. It offers information from basic knowledge and fundamentals of automation and Control & Digitalization to detailed engineering, maintenance and operation skills for all Energy Categories. The training portfolio also comprises of the turbine controls, an innovative solution for turbines (SPPA-R3000). Dependent on the demand of the users further training opportunities can also include cyber security, Malware projections and the electrical systems. The classrooms can accommodate 450-500 students in one calendar year.

Dan Taylor, Siemens Energy Vice President of Service & Digital in his remarks stated that “In the past, Siemens Energy required all students to travel to Germany to undertake controls training courses, placing the costs out of reach for most. Thus, causing companies to select just one or two people to be sent on courses, doing the minimum required to safely operate their plant but not the most they would want to do for the development of their staff. By opening this centre, we will not change the world, but we will change the lives of some people. We will enable South African companies to add value to their operations, to upskill their staff and find the talent they did not know they had. We will allow people to be curious and maybe some of them will change the way things are done.”

Dr Rüdiger Lotz mentioned “We all face the challenge how to provide the needed energy supply for tomorrow´s world while not damaging further the world climate. Therefore, it is important to train experts who can contribute to tackle this global challenge.” The Academy will create a competitive advantage by offering high-quality training to employees and customers in Africa. The courses are extremely flexible offering comprehensive practical instructor-led training courses and web-based training that can be adjusted for each student. Siemens Energy looks forward to the impact that the Power academy will have on the community through the accessibility of skills development in Africa.