DisCo acquires smart high-tension fault detector

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Aquivis Technologies Limited have announced the deployment of a smart high-tension overhead line fault circuit locator in Nigeria.

In a statement on Wednesday, Oyebode Fadipe, AEDC’s spokesperson, said the smart grid outage management solution deployed by Aquivis, a leading company in Africa’s energy sector, to its distribution network is the first of its kind in the country.

He said the solution will address the long time it takes to repair faulty high tension circuits and prolonged outages such as the 11KV and 33KV overhead feeders.

Fadipe said the energy innovation has been deployed in advanced countries like United States, Canada, United Kingdom (UK) and Scotland, United Arab Emirates as well as South Africa.

According to him, the deployment of the real-time overhead fault detection monitoring solution in its network has brought about improved network visibility, reliability and operational efficiency.

Ernest Mupwaya, managing director of AEDC, said the fault detection system has enabled the company to address the operational challenges of incessant tripping, fault detection and prolonged outages in its network.

Speaking on the development, Jimi Kolawole, Aquivis managing director, said the communication platform remains the best choice for smart metering, smart grid and smart cities.

“AEDC 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,” Kolawole said.

“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.”