Siemens is working with French computing company Atos to create a smart grid for Onee, Morocco’s national office of electricity and drinking water.

Atos and Siemens are working on deploying a smart energy metering platform that will allow Onee to process the data collected by more than 100,000 smart meters that will be installed across the country, thus optimising energy consumption and management of the national grid while meeting Morocco’s growing energy needs.

Onee, which stands for Office National de l’Électricité et de l’Eau potable, has been supporting Morocco’s energy transition since 2012. It needed a scalable grid operating system as the deployment of smart meters is changing the operational and business models of public utilities.

The project is part of the country’s energy efficiency programme and encompasses the implementation of Siemens’ EnergyIP meter data management platform, which enables the automated use of the collected data, raises awareness about energy consumption among end users and generates a more secure revenue stream.

“EnergyIP, which we are implementing together with our strategic partner Atos, will help Onee fully leverage the electricity consumption data and optimise the overall management of the grid,” said Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO for digital grid at Siemens. “Our technology will support the digital transformation of Onee and will serve as a foundation for future technological evolutions. We are proud to be a part of this change to bring more intelligence to the power grid in Morocco and support the country on its way to a more sustainable, low-carbon energy future.

Atos experts will be responsible for IT infrastructure and security tasks and will ensure the consistency of all technology. They will also oversee the contract management and local services and will support the change management process.

This sophisticated new energy management system has the necessary functionality to meet the needs of an ever-changing grid and supports the national digital transformation agenda. For Atos and Siemens, this is the biggest joint smart grid project in Africa. This project reflects the strategies of both partners who are committed to supporting their clients’ environmental and decarbonisation approaches.

“We are pleased to support Onee in its great digital transformation efforts, in collaboration with our strategic partner Siemens,” said Giuseppe di Franco, head of resources and services at Atos. “With more than 40 years of experience in the energy sector and an unwavering commitment to the decarbonisation of our clients’ activities, Atos is ready to fully leverage the expertise of its NetZero Transformation Competence centre to support the Moroccan energy grid transition for the benefit of the country’s citizens. We are proud to make the power grid ever smarter, and to help Morocco optimise its energy consumption.”

Atos has 107,000 employees and annual revenue of over €11bn. A specialist in cyber security, cloud and high-performance computing, the group provides tailored end-to-end technology for all industries in 71 countries.