ESP's Herman Maritz on Eskom's miraculous turnaround

Herman Maritz, one half of the pair that developed the ESP load shedding app (formerly known as EskomSePush), is grateful that Eskom may finally have load shedding licked – even if that means fewer people are using the app. Maritz, who returns to the TechCentral Show (TCS) – he was last a guest in 2021 – reflects on the past four-and-a-half months without load shedding, and what that’s meant for ESP – apart from giving himself and his business partner, Dan Southwood-Wells, to focus on other projects. In this episode of TCS, Maritz unpacks the impact of the suspension of load shedding, what that’s meant for advertising and subscriptions on the platform, and what’s next for ESP. He also chats about: • How ESP is helping communities with load reduction; • How they’re using generative artificial intelligence in the app; and • The opportunities to launch the software in new markets. Lastly, he reveals a few interesting statistics about ESP, including the number of times the app has been downloaded (it’s a staggering number).