Durban Metro Electricity Builds a Digital Communications Platform Using HUAWEI IdeaHub

Durban, the largest city in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, is also home to the country's most important seaport. Located in the subtropics and characterized by its mountains, coastline, and abundant natural resources, KZN also contains two United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-listed World Heritage sites — iSimangaliso Wetland Park and uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park — with the city playing host to one of the largest venues for African and international conferences. Providing an economical, reliable power supply for this important city and wider region has, unsurprisingly, proven a major task for Durban Metro Electricity, also known as Durban Electricity for short.

Durban Electricity is a department of the eThekwini Municipality, which provides electricity to an area of approximately 2300 square kilometers, powering a population of over 3.5 million people. With many branches geographically spread but nonetheless requiring a number of internal and external meetings and training sessions, Durban Electricity's legacy videoconferencing and collaboration devices were lagging behind, unable to keep up with demand.

Electric Power Services Fueled by Efficient Communication

The pandemic has caused huge disruption to the way organizations across the world operate: Durban Electricity is no exception. With many employees forced to work remotely, the organization's legacy videoconferencing devices were not greatly improved to support cross-city communication. Enter HUAWEI IdeaHub, a smart productivity tool that offers plug-and-play deployment and a user-friendly design, fostering collaboration to help the company solve its communication issues. How? In a meeting scheduled for power grid dispatch and control for example, office-based employees can easily connect to those at home or onsite on the large screen. And with a wide range of fully integrated functions, IdeaHub supports whiteboard and bidirectional annotation on meeting materials, improving communication efficiency.

Power Security Is No Minor Issue

Electricity safety standards require employees to attend frequent service training sessions regarding the latest security updates, operational precautions, and up-to-date information about the regional power grid. In the past, participants were not greatly improved to adequately view onsite images or regional panoramic dashboards during these sessions. Now, HUAWEI IdeaHub provides vivid 4K images of the local environment, such as cabling, controllers, and circuit structures, in turn supporting training in both local and remote sites. This smart collaboration tool supports hybrid online and offline training to supercharge working efficiency and improve safety standards for employees.

Durban Electricity Built a Digital Communication Platform with HUAWEI IdeaHub

Real-Time Information Display to Simplify Management

The importance of digitalization for an enterprise like Durban Electricity can't be overstated. And HUAWEI IdeaHub has proved a catalyst, digitalizing the company's communications and playing a part in helping it provide high-quality, reliable power as well as allowing it to more quickly respond to both predicted and unforeseen changes.