Rubicon Group

SUPERCHARGING SMART SOLUTIONS ACROSS AFRICA

RUBICON GROUP

ENERGY & UTILITIES

ELECTRIFYING A CONTINENT Rubicon Group has a mission: to help every home, business and community in Africa become more sustainable and energy resilient Writer: Dani Redd | Project Manager: David Knott Photographer (Rubicon Group): Juliette Bisset, Sonder Content Photographer (Algoa FM): Eduan Adams, Studio d’Arc Architects

It is less, ‘Alexa, turn on my lights’ and more, ‘can I please have some light when the grid fails?’.”

I’m discussing smart technology and its application in an African context with Rick Basson, CEO of Rubicon Group.

“Internationally, ‘smart’ is quite a broadly used term,” Basson continues.

“It becomes a bit of a catch-all for quite a few technology trends.

Generally, it is a focus on making sites more connected and resourceefficient, on enhancing the ease of navigating that site, improving employee wellness and employee safety.

“There are some incredible smart buildings, particularly in the developed world. But we went to some of the international shows and while we thought the technology on offer was amazing, the application of it within Africa is somewhat niche. Our focus is a little lower on Maslow’s pyramid – we focus a lot on resilience and self-sufficiency.”

One reason for this is that Africa has a notoriously unreliable energy supply.

On the continent, 57 percent of the population lacks access to electricity,

Rick Basson serves as CEO of Rubicon Group having been influential in the company’s founding

often because grid infrastructure does not reach to its remotest corners.

The power sector also suffers from a lack of investment, inefficiency and inadequate infrastructure, while those connected to the grid are subjected to power outages and tariff fluctuations.

“When we talk about a smarter focus, we don’t mean if a building knows your coffee preference,” Basson says.

“It is more about the resilience of being able to operate in an uncertain environment, whether it’s a lack of security, lack of water or the energy supply – that’s where we focus in the private sector and our group has a massive role to play.”

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RUBICON GROUP “In order to build this resilience you first need to make sure your resource usage is as low as possible and that’s where our energy analytics, intelligent lighting and building automation divisions play such a large role.”

Because of the unreliability of the grid, the potential for renewables and the decentralisation of energy in Africa is vast – Basson refers to it as a “monster market”. Although it faces challenges, such as finding financial backers, it is also a very exciting space to be working in.

“Africa skipped the landline; it skipped the traditional telephone network. It’s largely skipping the formal banking sector through mobile money, and it will almost certainly skip the electricity grid through microgrids, mini-grids and distributed solar selfgeneration. That’s cause for a lot of optimism,” the CEO comments.

SMART SOLUTIONS, ALTRUISTIC PRINCIPLES Rubicon Group provides the platform to deliver sustainable technology to every business, home and community in Africa, a transition it drives through furthering the adoption of transformative technologies such as renewable energy sources, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, building automation, analytics, monitoring and much more. It does so in places where the need for energy and optimisation is greatest.

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INSIDE RUBICON GROUP Rubicon Group consists of the following divisions and cross-divisional services: RUBICON ENERGY is a product and services hub focused on the decentralisation, digitalisation and decarbonisation of energy in emerging markets. It is the preferred local channel partner and brand champion for the world’s leading renewable technologies.

RUBICON AUTOMATION is a leading industrial automation solutions supplier to the manufacturing sector and related system integrators in Africa. It imports and distributes the world’s latest technology components to fulfil a complete automation basket.

RUBICON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT assumes overall responsibility for Rubicon’s renewable and automation product portfolios, as well as internal product development. It develops unique products that fit its industries and emerging market client base.

RUBICON ANALYTICS is the analytical centre of excellence within the Rubicon Group, responsible for enabling more effective business development and project execution. It provides insights and holistic energy interventions to its engineering clients and end customers.

RUBICON PLUS provides customised and consolidated logistical, procurement, equipment supply and warehousing services to customers with complex requirements in the energy sector.

PROVINCE LIGHTING is a leading supplier of specialised certified commercial, industrial and architectural lighting solutions. It offers addedvalue services such as lighting design capabilities, customised luminaires and high levels of technical support.

PROVINCE AUTOMATION offers an automated building management system (BMS) and personalised associated hardware. It allows homes and commercial sites to maximise energy savings and work off a centralised platform.

PROVINCE MANUFACTURING creates contemporary linear lighting solutions, in line with the latest technologies and lighting trends.

Powering Africa Together

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elta Power Solutions is a world leader when it comes to power management. One of its specialities is comprehensive UPS solutions for mission-critical applications, ensuring companies have access to high quality, reliable power systems, back-up power, and monitoring systems.

“We are looking to expand globally by partnering with companies who have the competency, capabilities and footprint in that locality,” explains Ross Peringuey, Delta’s Regional Sales Manager for South Africa. “This will help us to achieve our goals and support our medium-to-long term relationships with our clients and partners.

“We identified Rubicon as a leader in the field of power and industry.”

For the past three years, Rubicon and Delta have been working together, supporting Rubicon’s key customers from a power perspective.

“Rubicon is a technology solutions provider. We want to partner with companies that expose us to the technology, to allow us to understand it and present it in a way everyone understands. This drive has led us to join Delta, because they are world leaders in their field,” adds Eldred Sterling, Head of Rubicon Automation.

The partnership is a mutually beneficial one: Rubicon benefits from Delta’s market-leading products and technology, while Delta can benefit from Rubicon’s local solutions capability. Rubicon always tries to focus on the holistic solution, and alongside its partnership with Delta is able to offer the competencies and expertise of its Automation division.

“As companies, we have very similar visions and goals, with regards to how we address the power problems of companies through high-quality products and a solutions mindset,” says Peringuey.

Both companies feel the partnership enables them to provide a value-added offering to their customers and are optimistic about its future.

“If we have to sum up our two businesses, Rubicon and Delta would like to make just a small dent in the universe, to prove we are here to stay and make a difference to people. We are both very peopleoriented businesses,” says Sterling.

Meanwhile, Delta expresses admiration for the way in which Rubicon incorporates its products into its full-service offering.

“The way that Rubicon is putting these offers together and the way they’re taking forward the total solutions capability means that they’ll be able to penetrate a huge share of the market. At the moment there is no other company in this region that offers a total harmonised solution from beginning to end from a power perspective,” adds Peringuey.

This is but one example of a successful partnership that Delta has built to introduce its products and offerings around the world. It is always looking to help prospective partners increase their competitiveness and expand their offerings by supplying them with critical power solutions.

www.deltapowersolutions.com

RUBICON GROUP Basson played an instrumental role in conceptualising and forming Rubicon Group, as well as in shaping its strategic direction together with the founders of the three core divisions. He previously worked in private equity and corporate finance, but his passion was for the operational side of business, rather than the dealmaking side.

“I just love long-term strategy, building teams, getting stuck in and helping companies achieve their potential by thinking about what makes them great,” he says.

He decided to get out of his comfort zone; to leave the private equity firm he worked for and begin raising capital with a partner. At this point he was introduced to the founders of Rubicon Energy and Rubicon Automation, Dylan Schnetler and Greg Blandford, and was drawn in by their passion for their business and its potential. He joined the group with his team, whose skillset, he explains, was a perfect complement to the business at the time.

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“They were so client-focused, product-focused, and forward-thinking on the technology side but definitely needed a bit of help on how to position and scale the business, and evolve their systems and processes,” Basson says.

“A lot of that was about supplementing the team and bringing in people with expertise in areas that they weren’t familiar with, and we had a bit more of a background in.”

Subsequently, Province Lighting and Automation, founded by Jurgen Chemelli, was brought into the group, which provided a complimentary offering in the areas of intelligent lighting and building automation.

Taking on the role of group CEO, he explains, is a lot about building trust.

Basson has endeavoured to preserve the dynamic culture and intimate client relationships the Group has, while still ensuring that the goal of digitalising and scaling up is being achieved.

I ask him what he thinks differentiates Rubicon Group from other companies operating within the same field.

“There are a lot of people playing in this space, but we are trying to have the maximum impact we can by servicing the whole market,” he replies. “We go horizontal, not vertical.

We work through our engineering partners, electricians and developers.

We like to say: ‘you’re Batman, we’re Robin’.”

The latter reference indicates Rubicon Group’s role as a “sidekick” and partner – using its resources to help serve the needs of its clients.

For example, it does a lot of work for small businesses, helping them with training and logistical support, and ensuring they have their products at the right price point. It can also provide design proposal support, providing outsourced backing so smaller enterprises can take on larger projects.

Meanwhile, it also provides logistical support to larger firms, helping with the consolidation of product lines, or

GoodWe GoodWe (Stock code: 688390) is a leading, strategically-thinking enterprise which focuses on research and manufacturing of PV inverters and energy storage solutions.

With an accumulative installation of 16 GW installed in more than 80 countries, GoodWe solar inverters have been largely used in residential and commercial rooftops, industrial and utility scale systems, ranging from 0.7kW to 250kW. GoodWe inverters offer reliable operation and excellent performance and are well recognised by customers worldwide.

GoodWe’s philosophy is to always create win-win partnerships with customers by identifying and integrating the most advanced components and techniques available, while offering an unparalleled aftersales service.

Technological innovation is GoodWe’s main core competence. With an in-house R&D team of approx. 200 employees in two R&D centres, GoodWe can offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions for residential, commercial and utility scale PV systems, ensuring that performance and quality go hand-inhand across the entire range.

Our partnership with Rubicon in South Africa, starting in early 2019, has proven to be nothing less than a win-win situation. We treasure their commitment to our products and are very proud to be their supplier in South Africa.

Our goal is not only to provide their customers with any inverter solution they need and to cooperate closely with Rubicon in all matters of aftersales needs and support, but also to carry on training and coaching their sales people and also installers on our products.

We will extend this support to them anywhere they go and are looking forward to a mutually beneficial future with Rubicon SA.

www.goodwe.com

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RUBICON GROUP

IDE Electric Over 30 years serving the electrical market IDE Electric is a major plastic boxes, metal enclosures and industrial plugs and sockets manufacturer for the low voltage and the telecom markets, selling in more than 80 countries, including South Africa.

Constant innovation, quality and news developments are our main drivers, positioning IDE as one of the leading brands protection people and components in the automation, electrical distribution and telecommunications.

“WE’RE MORE THAN JUST A DISTRIBUTOR, WE’RE A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PARTNER, A TRAINING AND SUPPORT PROVIDER AND WE REALLY TRY TO CURATE THOSE BRANDS IN OUR MARKET” in taking on a smaller project to avoid tying up key staff members.

“We make their lives easier so they can focus on what they do best, which is business development and engineering,” Basson continues.

“We help to make the market by arriving in a new African country and becoming a one-stop shop for the guys who’ve been struggling to get the right products, training and more.

It’s a big passion of ours to service and uplift the entire market.”

The Group is also passionate about helping companies become more energy efficient and resilient.

The former can be achieved through building automation and intelligent lighting solutions, which can track and monitor spaces to optimise use.

The latter can be achieved through providing backup power generators and installing renewable systems that both generate and store electricity, such as photovoltaic solar panels.

Not only do these services help the 10

individual company, they also feed into Rubicon Group’s larger mission: to help electrify Africa, while simultaneously decarbonising the economy.

Something else that stands the Group apart is its partner and supplier relationships. As a procurement, product, technology and distribution enterprise, it is built off the back of such relationships, many of which extend back several decades.

“What makes Rubicon Group a bit different is that in our market suppliers and customers rely on us a lot, because it’s far away and underserved,” Basson says.

“We’re more than just a distributor, we’re a business development partner, a training and support provider and we really try to curate those brands in our market. We always say, ‘if you commit to us, we’ll commit to you, and treat your brand like it’s our own’. If this is purely a transactional relationship it is probably not for us, and unlikely to last.”

Our range of enclosures designed for being used in several applications and external conditions will allow you to make the best choice.

www.ide.es

CITEL Since 1937, CITEL has been protecting installations around the world from transient overvoltages of atmospheric origins including lightning stokes.

CITEL designs, produces and sells millions of SPD yearly, with a thorough understanding of local norms, standards and regulations and a continuous investment in R&D. CITEL also conceives in-house their own components.

Our teams all over the world are proud to help the SPD sector develop with a comprehensive SPD product range and unique client-focused service quality.

Unique, as each of our client.

Unique, as our strategic vision that places financial independence, international technical collaboration and strong individual commitment, at the forefront.

www.citel.fr

ENERGY & UTILITIES

MANUFACTURERS OF BOXES AND CABINETS FOR THE ELECTRICAL SECTOR METAL CABINET

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IDE ELECTRIC S.L. · 976 451 080 · ide@ide.es

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SURGE PROTECTIONS for AC & DC NETWORKS

• Enhanced protection • Simplified plug-in • Longer life time • Disconnection indicator • Remote signaling function • Optimized TOV (VG version) • A 5-year warranty

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RUBICON GROUP

CASE STUDY

ALGOA FM Architects: Studio d’Arc EPC: Dorman Projects In January 2020, Algoa FM moved into its new, purposebuilt building in Port Elizabeth’s Baakens Valley. In doing so the South African radio station faced a 50–80 percent increase in its electricity bills. It wanted to become more self-sufficient and reduce costs by generating some of its own power. Rubicon was bought onboard to assist with the planning and technology to integrate renewables into the building.

metal awnings on the north-facing side of the building. These unique awnings serve a dual purpose. They contribute 11kW of power – more than a quarter of the building’s total solar generating capacity – whilst shading the building. Surprisingly, these striking solar awnings proved more cost effective than traditional solutions.

This is the first time in South Africa that these translucent solar panels have been used as awnings. Now, for approximately six hours each day, the building utilises mostly solar energy. In the six months since both the roof panels and the solar awnings were installed, they have covered 27 percent of the building’s total energy use.

Rubicon also provided four off-grid solar lights for Algoa FM’s parking lot. These intelligent, energy-efficient lights dim automatically at quiet times of the night and revert to full brightness when their built-in motion sensors detect movement. Bluetooth capability allows the lights to communicate with each other and to be controlled and programmed using a mobile device. An electric vehicle charger, powered indirectly by the building’s solar panels, was also installed in the car park.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels totalling 29kW were installed across the entire double pitch roof in east and west-facing orientations. In Port Elizabeth, solar panels are most effective when north-facing and at a 31° tilt.

The building design meant this wasn’t possible, so Rubicon used SolarEdge technology to select panels to optimise power generation at less-than-ideal tilts and orientations. This means every watt generated is used, even when parts of one or more panels are in shade.

In traditional solar panel arrangements, the power generating capacity of all panels decrease even when only one panel is shaded. The SolarEdge portal allows AlgoaFM to monitor and manage the performance of the panels.

Rubicon suggested another way to generate extra power for the building. Translucent, frameless mono PERC solar panels were used in place of traditional,

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Midway through construction, Province Lighting – another division of Rubicon group – got involved to provide decorative lighting for the building, which enhanced and filled gaps left by natural light and standard fittings. It installed an oval suspended Centaurus light in the boardroom, with one row of LEDs illuminating the ceiling and another the table. Circular lights were suspended from the ceiling in the open-plan office, used by the architects to symbolise champagne bubbles and celebration. The entertainment area draws in the eye with a long, wave-like light, designed to look like a soundwave that increases in volume as one walks further into the room. Algoa FM’s Technical Manager, Chris Wright, said that the lights had a “massive wow factor”.

ENERGY & UTILITIES

The Group is also investing considerable time into developing its electric vehicle charging offering. With many contacts within the automotive industry, it wants to ensure it can help support the charging infrastructure for its clients. Meanwhile, it will also continue to focus on the lighting and automation side of its business.

“We love off-grid solar lighting on a large scale, such as street-lighting and area lighting,” Basson enthuses.

“It allows for safer environments, it’s more energy efficient and cheaper than doing all the infrastructure for streetlighting. It just makes so much sense, and is a really cool area for us going forward.”

With a growing enterprise, one of his personal focuses, he explains, is the acquisition and training of new members of staff.

LOOKING AHEAD The Group has several key priorities for the upcoming year.

One of these is building out its B2B e-commerce platform, which involves developing an end-to-end online platform that incorporates everything from an lead generation tool to an online store, incorporating design tools and a training database. The offering is largely intended for smaller contractors to be able to build their businesses, as larger organisations tend to have the human resources and capital to develop such offerings themselves.

The CEO outlines a phased approach to development, which began with the recent soft launch of the ecommerce platform to key clients. Rubicon Group is aiming for the entire platform to be operational within the next 12 months.

“That digital journey for a lot of businesses is becoming nonnegotiable. But we are particularly putting a lot of effort into it now because we see the massive opportunity there, and the value-add for our customers,” Basson explains.

“WE LOVE OFF-GRID SOLAR LIGHTING ON A LARGE SCALE, SUCH AS STREETLIGHTING AND AREA LIGHTING... IT ALLOWS FOR SAFER ENVIRONMENTS, IT’S MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT AND CHEAPER”

Initially, Rubicon Group drew upon its industry knowledge and relationships to find staff by reputation, skillsets and contacts.

Having begun to outgrow this pool, Basson is developing a more processdriven approach to HR, which involves identifying new staff who both have the relevant skillset but also a similar value-system to Rubicon Group.

This will be necessary if the Group is going to continue to expand into other emerging markets – an opportunity it is looking into, although some of these opportunities may need to be deferred because of the current need in Africa.

“In many ways we are doing enough already, because at the moment we are struggling to keep up with the demand we’re facing right now. A big focus is in scaling our systems and operations in order to keep up,” Basson concludes.

It is clear that Rubicon Group has a fundamental role to play in providing sustainable, energy-efficient solutions to businesses and communities in Africa – a role that looks set to continue growing in the future.

www.rubiconsa.com www.provincelighting.com

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RUBICON GROUP www.rubiconsa.com www.provincelighting.com