Accenture and Siemens have announced that their joint venture company, OMNETRIC Group, focused on smart grid solutions, would expand operations to Brazil and, in future, throughout Latin America.

OMNETRIC Group, formed in 2014 and based in Munich, brings together Siemens’ products and solutions with Accenture’s management and technology consulting, systems integration and managed-services capabilities. This unique combination offers the energy industry advanced and innovative solutions and services to help obtain greater reliability and efficiency of grid networks.

The services and solutions offered by OMNETRIC Group allow an efficient and customized integration of IT systems supporting smart metering, energy consumption and work and asset management with operational technologies (OT), such as distribution management and real-time grid operations. This provides for more transparent and integrated management of all network applications.

"By combining the strengths of Siemens and Accenture, OMNETRIC Group brings the highest level of expertise and execution to a rapidly changing global market. In Brazil, we will have a dedicated structure, with highly-skilled and global support to meet the highest demands of the Brazilian market," said Maikel Van Verseveld, chief executive officer of OMNETRIC Group.

OMNETRIC Group will begin operations in Brazil later this year. Once operational, the company will be based in the city of Belo Horizonte, which is also a hub for Siemens smart grid research and development and an Accenture office location.

"The launch of OMNETRIC Group in the country will help meet the growing local market demand for advanced solutions that facilitate smart grid management,” said Adriano Giudice, managing director of Accenture’s utilities industry group in Brazil. “Through effective convergence of IT and OT, these solutions will help Brazilian utilities to better integrate new technologies, such as renewables and microgrids, into electricity networks. They will also help to improve grid operations with reduced costs and increase capital effectiveness by enabling more-informed business decisions based on real-time data from the grid.”

Through a system integration platform, the solutions offered by OMNETRIC Group will be demonstrated at the Latin American Utility Week in Sao Paolo from 23-25 September, at the Siemens booth. Visitors can see the potential benefits that the integration of IT and OT can bring from better management, monitoring, diagnosis and planning of power distribution networks.

"We believe that no other company will be able to help manage this integration better than OMNETRIC Group, which brings together in a single organization the best industrial know-how and deep experience in IT. The arrival of OMNETRIC Group in the country reinforces the commitment and future vision of the opportunities for Siemens related to the development of Brazil," said Guilherme Mendonca, senior vice president of Energy Management division of Siemens Brazil.