According to the World Health Organization in its 2022 Energy progress report, 568 million Africans are living without access to electricity and clean energy. The African continent has for a long time remained the least electrified continent in the world.
Due to the poor access to electricity ravaging the African continent, Nigeria energy tech startup, Beacon Power Services (BPS), has stepped in to address the issue, by creating a technology that will help give millions of Africans access to electricity.
Beacon Power services (BPS) is a company that provides energy management software and analytics for utilities and mini-grid operators. The company just recently closed a $2.7 million seed round, stating that the new funding would enable it to improve its current products (product upgrades to add new features and incorporate automation) and expand into new markets beyond Nigeria and Ghana, where it is currently operating.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
The company cited challenges in Africa where a majority of power companies on the continent are unable to supply customers with reliable and affordable electricity. As a result of this epileptic power supply, it has no doubt impeded the growth of businesses in the region which has also affected the economy.
In a bid to address this problem, Beacon power services (BPS) has developed an AI-enabled smart grid platform, Adora, that provides real-time visibility on network performance for electric utilities. Adora connects to every utility asset and customer node on the grid, allowing energy providers to preempt outages, identify network losses, and distribute electricity more efficiently.
Speaking on how this technology will provide a solution to Africa’s poor electricity access, founder and CEO of Beacon Power Services, Bimbola Adisa disclosed that the BPS technology was well tailored after careful observation to improve the daily grid supply of electricity.
In his words, “Africa is home to the fastest growing cities in the world, but when most people think of energy access in Africa, they think of the rural areas with little or no access to electricity at all. However, it is impossible for Africa to develop without significantly improving electricity access and reliability across its major cities.
“When we realized that solutions designed for mature markets fail to address the unique infrastructure challenges Africa faces, we developed a tailored solution for power companies on the continent to improve daily grid supply of electricity”.
It is interesting to note that Beacon Power Services (BPS) is not just offering theoretical solutions, but rather they are walking the talk as the BPS team has demonstrated success by helping their utility clients reduce network losses significantly, recovering unrealized revenue and improving electricity reliability for over 30 million consumers and businesses.
Asides from offering electricity access to businesses, BPS technology is also having a real impact on sustainable economic development and climate change in Africa by reducing the continents’ reliance on diesel generators.
This is a highly commendable initiative from Beacon Power Services as they are on the mission to connect millions of businesses on the African continent to electricity access. One major challenge that has continued to hinder the growth of economies in the African region is attributed to poor access to power supply.
It has affected the ease and cost of doing business in the region, where businesses most especially small businesses have their growth stifled. With small businesses being described as the cornerstone of a nation’s economy, once they are faced with a myriad of problems, majorly poor electricity access, it becomes hard for them to grow economies.
The African region has so much potential, but it might unfortunately not be attained until a large percentage of the people in the region have access to energy. Kudos to Beacon Power Services for taking up this challenge, to provide millions of people in the region with access to electricity.