Top ICT tenders: National Treasury’s Smart Meter Project to get dashboard

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s delivery of his third National Budget has resulted in a lull on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal, as government departments take the time to understand how their budget allocations will be impacted by spending cuts.

Meanwhile, the South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) is focused on enhancing the monitoring, analysis and management of National Treasury’s Smart Meter Grant Project (SMG). Sanedi has been appointed as the implementing agent for the smart electricity meter rollout project.

In the tender document, the organisation explains that the SMG project is a strategic initiative aimed at modernising electricity management across South African municipalities through the large-scale rollout of smart electricity meters.

“This project seeks to enhance energy-efficiency, improve billing accuracy, and enable real-time monitoring of electricity usage for both municipalities and consumers,” it says.

A key component of the initiative is the development of an integrated API platform for which it is inviting proposals. This dashboard should be designed to consolidate and standardise reporting from multiple service providers and municipalities.

“By enabling seamless data integration and centralised access to critical insights, the project will support more informed decision-making, operational transparency and improved service delivery within the national energy sector,” Sanedi explains.

The dashboard should be robust, scalable and capable of supporting 250 000 meter points, Sanedi specifies. It must be able to integrate data from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of electricity and water smart metering consumption, municipal financial accounting and Eskom supplier billing.

Key deliverables include the development of a unified platform, seamless support and integration for each service provider, financial and vending systems, and effective project management throughout the development phase. The project will be based on an annual licensing model, calculated per meter point, to ensure the long-term sustainability and support of the platform.

“This dashboard will serve as a critical tool for monitoring, analysing and managing energy and water consumption, with seamless integration into the financial operations,” Sanedi believes.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The City of Cape Town is calling for the supply, install and maintenance of an audit electronic working paper solution. The municipality is currently using the Barnowl Risk Module to track the implementation statuses of all recommendations and agreed actions raised during the course of audits within the internal audit department.
• Limpopo’s Department of Community Safety and Transport Management is advertising for the supply and delivery of 310 laptop computers.Only service providers accredited on SITA’s RFB 740 transversal contract, registered under the Limpopo province, will be considered for this bid. The department notes the replacement programme is critical as most of its officials are still using obsolete laptops.
• The department also requires supply and delivery of 100 desktop printers. It says it is currently using a printing solution that provides leased medium to large printers through transversal contract RT3-2022; however, there is a “dire need” for desktop printers to supplement the equipment acquired through that contract.
• The State Security Agency (SSA) is inviting companies with the necessary SAP skills to apply for affiliation. The agency notes it is embarking on a journey to enhance operational efficiency and streamline the SSA business processes to serve South Africa better using the existing SAP system.
• Transnet National Ports Authority is calling for the supply of support and maintenance services for IBM hardware. It reveals Transnet Pipelines has on-premises IBM server hardware to host the SAP-based server environment, supporting critical systems such as finance, procurement, IS OIL and many other modules, including a development, quality assurance and production environment. The IBM servers were purchased in 2018 with a three-year support and maintenance contract, which in 2020 was extended by a further three years, terminating in December 2023.
• eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality metro wishes to procure automated case management software for forensic investigations, with configuration, licensing, maintenance and support. The metro reveals its integrity and investigation unit currentlyrelies on manual processes for case management, leading to inefficiencies, compliance risks and data security vulnerabilities.
• The Development Bank of Southern Africa seeks a professional service provider for the provision of on-demand strategic support, monitoring and evaluation support and integration facilitation between the National Treasury Cities Support Programme and the National Development Partnership Programme. This request for additional resources is exacerbated by the management and oversight of the new proposed Urban Development Financing Grant for metros and the introduction of PPPSG for secondary cities, as well as the staff turnover experienced in the past six months, it says.
• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) wishes to procure a three-year maintenance and support agreement for its remote environmental management systems. The contract will include professional services to customise the solution to cater for specific integration requirements not included as part of standard maintenance and support, the agency says.
• The Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture is calling for the supply and delivery of 162 bulk laptops for extension and advisory services. The department notes it is in the process of standardising the whole environment of endpoint machines. This means the departmental environment is mostly dominated by a specific brand that is preferred and currently used. Bidders will need to consider the departmental standardisation, it warns.