Brief

Enzen Global enters into a JV with Closed Gap

Satheesh Kumar

Enzen Global Solutions, a solution consulting company that was founded in 2006 has entered into a joint venture with Closed Gap, a Netherlands based firm, to offer customer care, metering and billing solutions over the Internet in a SaaS (Software as a Service) model.

Under this deal, Enzen would partner with Closed Gap for providing solutions to all Indian utilities. The government of India plans to provide electricity to an additional 600 million users by 2012 through its ‘Energy for All’ initiative. The responsibility of ensuring that consumers receive power in an efficient manner falls on distribution companies. Enzen believes its solution will help distribution companies reduce losses, improving commercial collection and curbing power theft.

Satheesh Kumar, CEO, Enzen Global says, “We are committed to supporting the government’s initiative at lower costs and without any upfront investment having to be made., Distribution companies will have a Customer Information System (CIS) system at their disposal, enabling the possibility of re-routing more capital investments to the Energy for All programme. This is a significant contribution to the Indian energy distribution sector, which is faced with aggregated technical and commercial losses to the tune of 50 percent.”

Enzen and Closed Gap will host the CIS solution. Data collection will be handled by means of handheld devices The CIS solution will be integrated with a Geographical Information System (GIS). Strategic partnerships are being established with GIS solution providers and handheld terminal manufacturers.

Enzen and Closed Gap are convinced that making energy available to all is a major step towards the realisation of the millennium goal of, “Poverty Reduction in the world”. The JV offers distribution companies the freedom to focus upon their core competencies and singularly pursue the goal of distributing energy to a growing population. Electricity is considered a key driver for the targeted eight to ten percent economic growth of India, it is imperative to concentrate on effective distribution and management of energy rather than purely focusing on power generation.

Enzen is working with a number of service providers to introduce industry practices and products into the Indian energy and utilities markets. The Closed Gap JV will relieve power distribution companies of routine management hassles and will help them focus on illuminating more households and business enterprises in the hinterland.

The initiative began in October 2006 when Closed Gap, accompanied Laurans-Jan Brinkhorst, Vice Prime Minister of The Netherlands who undertook an eight-day business tour to India. During this visit he met with the Ministry of Power (MoP), Central Electricity Commission (CEC)), Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Distribution Companies (Discoms) and many other organisations from the energy sector.