Bhutan Government’s investment arm (Druk Holding and Investments, “DHI”) and its key subsidiaries (Druk Green Power Corporation, “DGPC” and Bhutan Power Corporation, “BPC”) will adopt the SAP platform across their national power generating facilities to enhance overall operations.

Sonam Lhundrup, Company Secretary and General Counsel, DHI, said: “At DHI, we are constantly enhancing business performance and improving corporate governance to benefit the people of Bhutan. The major output we are looking forward to from this partnership with SAP are the management dashboards providing real-time information; consolidated accounts and centralised billing enabling payment of bills independent of customer location; employee self service reducing administrative burden; as well as improving inventory, asset and project management overall. This solution will help steer us towards our ambitious targets and provision of electricity for all in Bhutan by 2013.”

DHI, DGPC and BPC will implement the SAP for Utilities solution to enhance business efficiency, reduce costs, gain overall operational synergy and improve on business intelligence management. Sonam added: “SAP’s comprehensive solution covers our requirements from end to end, and we are looking at the scalability of the solution given the challenges of managing Bhutan’s hydropower capacity of 10,000 MW by 2020.”

The SAP solution will serve as a platform where emerging technologies and the deployment of Smart Meters and Smart Grids can be based on. The single platform also enables DHI and the companies to leverage on a common technical skill set. “Bhutan wants to develop local talent trained in world class IT solutions and increase their employment opportunities in Bhutan and abroad,” Sonam also said.

To be deployed at DHI’s head office and all plants and offices of DGPC and BPC, the SAP solution will benefit around 3,500 employees. Francis Lee, Head of Emerging Markets, South East Asia, SAP, said.