Exploring the digital capabilities of a private utility for society 5.0 at a selected organisation in the Western Cape

Abstract

While the systems that control the supply of electricity and other utilities to our homes operate with computerised automated controls, they operate under a limited scope of functionality, brought on by several factors, namely legacy systems, cybersecurity concerns, cost constraints, integration complexity, reliability and redundancy, human oversight, data and communication limitation, and skill shortage. Given the problem narrative, the main objective of the research was to investigate the digital capabilities required by the private utility environment to participate and remain competitive in Society 5.0. In addressing the main objective, the main research question was to determine the digital capabilities of a South African private utility to participate and compete in Society 5.0. The research focused on the interpretivist approach to put forward the perceptions within the private utility environment that formed part of the study. The study conducted an investigation by means of participant observations and interviews conducted using a qualitative research approach. Owing to the selected qualitative approach, the study used purposive sampling, a non-probability sampling strategy frequently used in qualitative research.