The new year has started off on a positive note on the technical front, with Siemens Southern Africa launching SINOVA, a range of low-voltage electrical products into the local market.

This is promising for two reasons. Firstly, the products, which are designed for simplicity, reliability and affordability, are intended to make electricity access more widely available across the region.

“In today’s energy-dependent world, it’s important to ensure that emerging market consumers are not left behind. This is why Siemens is making more advanced and user-friendly electrical systems and solutions available in Africa and other emerging markets around the world,” explained Kruben Bennie, Country Business Unit Head for Electrical Products which is part of the Smart Infrastructure division at Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa. 

What SINOVA offers to the market

At its recent launch in Sandton, the company explained that SINOVA simplifies electrical installations across three categories – electrical protection, final distribution and safety control.

“The SINOVA electrical products are designed for various applications including industrial applications, buildings, infrastructure and utilities. Crafted with Siemens’ trusted quality, it ensures effortless operation and cost-effectiveness in electrical systems,” continues Bennie.

“The product range offers electrical protection, control, switching and metering capabilities, to simplify the work of electrical planners and consultants, contractors and installers, distributors, panel builders and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). What sets it apart is that it does all this, while being energy efficient, low-cost and able to reduce environmental impact. It helps industry professionals to streamline their processes and complete projects quicker,” he adds.

Beyond that, it is also promising because it signifies a greater push into South Africa, which, in recent years, has seen loadshedding aim a spotlight on the importance of electricity and effective power management.

The company explained that SINOVA was also recently launched in the Southeast Asian region and is specifically geared towards solving electrical installation issues in developing economies.

The second reason that the launch was promising came from an observation that Siemens made about the quality of employees in the country.

Amitabh Singh, the business development head for Africa, explained that the company’s partnerships in South Africa are largely similar to those in other developing countries (with the exception of India). ‘’However, what differentiates South Africa is that I find the level of professionalism is at a little higher scale out here, the competency of the employees, of partners in South Africa is at a little higher.

‘’Additionally, the quality of engineering in this country is much better when compared to a lot of other countries where we are active,’’ he notes.

 While loadshedding made an unwelcome return earlier this month, it is  heartening that international companies seem to be favouring their  local operations, and may just bode well for possibly brighter business times ahead.