On July 18, a panel on digitalization and its risks for African utilities was held in Dakar.

Digitization seems to impose itself to the electricity companies. This digitalization, said Regis Le Drezen, General Manager of Thinks Martgrid, allows to optimize the time of cut per year. Taking the example of his country, France, he informed that in 30 years of digitalization, the outage time has been divided by 10. Digitization would therefore allow to connect more, faster and cheaper. Although it offers many opportunities, it is not without risks, said Lawrence Jones, Vice President of Eei-International Programs. With the data access wars, companies that are in the process of digitization are exposed to cyberattacks. Unfortunately, lamented Thinks Martgrid CEO Regis Le Drezen, many of these companies are not prepared for digitalization. This session, led by experts from Africa and Europe, was attended by directors of African electricity companies.