Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has announced the deployment of a smart high-tension overhead fault detector for 11 kilovolts (KV) and 33KV high tension power lines, becoming the first of such Nigeria.
The General Manager, Corporate Communications, Oyebode Fadipe in a statement he issued on Wednesday, said AEDC partnered Aquivis Technologies Limited, a leading electrical technology firm in Africa, for the project.
The smart grid outage management solution deployed by AEDC is first of its kind in Nigeria and it is a pilot for AEDC, as it will expand it to other parts of its network.
The solution has been deployed in countries like United States of America, Canada, UK & Scotland, United Arab Emirates as well as South Africa to frontally address the long time it takes to repair faulty high tension circuits, prolonged outages such as the 11KV and 33KV overhead feeders, AEDC noted.
Industry players hold the view that the solution could not have come at a better time than now in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) when customers are becoming increasingly concerned about the service delivery in the sector.
The project will help especially in feeder and grid management where outages trigger the loss of power supply to numerous customers of different categories including homes, offices, medical and educational facilities which are just beginning to recover from the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aquivis and AEDC in the statement said, AEDC has continued to show great commitment to the reinforcement of her distribution network and the improvement of its services to customers.
The engagement of Aquivis to deploy the high-tension faults clearing solution forms part of AEDC’s initiative to reduce its Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses as well as improve network reliability of the 11kV and 33kV overhead feeders as well customers’ satisfaction.
The statement disclosed further that the deployment of the solution by AEDC is part of her network reinforcement programme. The deployment of the real-time overhead fault detection monitoring solution has brought about improved network visibility, reliability and operational efficiency in AEDC.
In his remarks, Managing Director/CEO of AEDC – Engr. Ernest Mupwaya, confirmed that the successful implementation of the smart overhead fault detection monitoring solution by Aquivis has enabled AEDC to address the operational challenges of incessant tripping, fault detection and prolonged outages on both the 11KV and 33KV feeder infrastructures where it was deployed in the Company’s network.
Speaking further, Engr. Mupwaya disclosed that the detection solution would substantially reduce the time required to repair faulty lines and reduce operational expenses; improve network reliability and operational efficiency; provide safer work environment for line crew and ultimately better customer satisfaction.
With the completion of the first phase of the project, AEDC would be extending this deployment to other parts of her network to achieve increased level of distribution automation. This will bring about clear grid visibility and a platform for the improvement of operational efficiency and service to AEDC’s esteemed customers.
On his part, Aquivis Managing Director/CEO – Mr. Jimi Kolawole disclosed that “our Smart Grid Management solutions addresses the technical and commercial challenges currently plaguing distribution link of the Nigerian power sector as well as create a ubiquitous, dedicated and highly reliable machine-to-machine communication network where all our solutions can leverage upon”. “AEDC”,
Mr. Kolawole said, “It was looking for real-time monitoring solution with two-way communication that will not only improve the company’s ability to monitor remotely, but also the ability to perform remote interventions.
“Together with our partner, Trilliant UK, we carefully reviewed their requirements and selected our award-winning communication platform, the wireless secured Mesh AMI platform to achieve the two-way machine-to-machine communication objective.”
Mr. Jimi Kolawole disclosed further that with this solution, AEDC will quickly and easily identify and resolve faults, resulting in more efficient operation and safer conditions for line crew; monitor feeder status in near real-time, prevent unscheduled downtime and safety risk; increase meter uptime; improve reporting to regulators among others.
He added that the solution will eventually be integrated as a distribution management system called SCADA.
