New technology to DisCos address incessant power outages

Incessant power outages may be addressed in the country with a new investment targeting the reduction in persistent tripping, fault detection and prolonged outages.

With over 40 per cent aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) loses being recorded by the distribution companies (DisCos) in Nigeria, the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), had reported that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), recorded N119.46 billion deficit in the fourth quarter of 2019.

NERC had equally noted that the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies only remitted a total of N74.20 billion out of the N193.66 billion invoices issued to them for energy received and administrative charges during the period.

Being a development linked to AT&C losses, the new investment made by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and a leading energy company in Africa, Aquivis Technologies Limited deployed smart high-tension overhead line fault circuit locator that would address the long time it takes to repair faulty high tension circuits and prolonged outages such as the 11KV and 33KV overhead feeders.

Coming at a time when service delivery in the power sector remained epileptic as public outcry lingers, the smart grid outage management solution is expected to mitigate outages in homes, offices, medical and educational facilities and others.

Speaking about the project, Managing Director of AEDC, Ernest Mupwaya, told journalists in Abuja that the successful implementation of the smart overhead fault detection monitoring solution enabled the DisCo 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.

Mupwaya said the detection solution would substantially reduce the time required to repair faulty lines and reduce operational expenses; improve network reliability and operational efficiency; provide a safer work environment for line crew and ultimately better customer satisfaction.

With the completion of the first phase of the project, he said the company would be extending this deployment to other parts of her network to achieve an increased level of distribution automation and bring about clear grid visibility and a platform for the improvement of operational efficiency.

On his part, Aquivis Managing Director, Jimi Kolawole said the Smart Grid Management solutions address the technical and commercial challenges currently plaguing distribution link of the Nigerian power sector as well as create ubiquitous, dedicated and highly reliable machine-to-machine communication network where all our solutions can leverage upon.

Kolawole said: “We were looking for a 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.”