Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Aquivis Technologies Limited, have announced the successful deployment of a smart high-tension overhead line fault circuit locator in Nigeria.
The smart grid outage management solution by the Disco and its partner is the first of its kind in Nigeria and a pilot project for the company, AEDC’s General Manager Corporate Communications, Mr. Oyebode Fadipe said in a statement.
According to the Disco, the technology which has been used in countries like United States of America, Canada, UK, Scotland, United Arab Emirates as well as South Africa would frontally address the long time it takes to repair faulty high tension circuits.
It would also take care of incidences of prolonged outages on the 11KV and 33KV overhead feeders, according to the company.
“This is especially in the area of feeder/grid management where outages trigger the loss of power supply to numerous customers of different categories including homes, offices, medical and educational facilities.
“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” AEDC noted.
The statement disclosed that the deployment of the solution by AEDC was part of her network reinforcement programme to bring about improved network visibility, reliability and operational efficiency in AEDC.
Managing Director of AEDC, Mr. Ernest Mupwaya, confirmed that the successful implementation of the smart overhead fault detection monitoring solution by Aquivis Technologies Limited has enabled the company to address the operational challenges of incessant tripping.
The statement quoted him as saying that it would also ease fault detection and prolonged outages on both the 11KV and 33KV feeder infrastructure where it was deployed in the company’s network.
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.
On his part, Aquivis Managing Director, Mr. Jimi Kolawole disclosed that “our Smart Grid Management solutions address the technical and commercial challenges currently plaguing distribution link of the Nigerian power sector.”
He added that it would also create a ubiquitous, dedicated and highly reliable machine-to-machine communication network where all its solutions can leverage upon.”
Kolawole disclosed that with the solution, AEDC would quickly and easily identify and resolve faults, resulting in more efficient operation and safer conditions for line crew.
He said it would help monitor feeder status in near real-time, prevent unscheduled downtime and safety risk, increase meter uptime and improve reporting to regulators.
