By Dwibin Thomas, Cluster Automation Leader at Schneider Electric

The generation, transmission and distribution of electricity is fraught with challenges, particularly in South Africa where stability of supply remains a prevalent and highly contentious issue.

Furthermore, the South African grid, like its international counterparts, is impacted by trends such as decentralisation, decarbonisation and incorporating alternative energy supply into an already aging infrastructure.

To address the above challenges, utilities must move towards a software architecture that leverages connected products to deliver insights, efficiencies and intelligence that can take them one step further towards harnessing the benefits that come with the smart grid.  And at the heart of it all, lies digitalisation.

Addressing immediate challenges

It is estimated that South Africa’s current fleet of power stations run at 65 percent availability; that means 35 percent is or not available at all due to maintenance and outages.  It’s a significant number which explains why the grid is volatile and so severely impacted by one or two generating units going offline.

Digitalisation can go a long way in preventing downtime, providing valuable visibility into both power and equipment conditions.  The reality is that many facilities still use a rudimentary level of technology to prevent power system failures and to minimise operational costs. This means faults are addressed in a reactive as opposed to predictive and proactive manner.

However, with digitalisation the ROI from both a fault finding, and operational cost perspective will be quicker than expected. With digitalisation, utilities can uncover opportunities to:

• Optimise energy use and cut costs. 
• Be warned of potential risks.
• Recover faster from problems.
• Streamline maintenance and reporting.
• Boost the performance and lifespan of equipment.  
• Step by step

Due to significant advances in technology innovation, digitalising a grid infrastructure might be less daunting than one would expect.  Some utilities are already on their way, so to speak, with smart devices such as digital power meters and smart circuit breakers already running on their infrastructure.

Connecting these devices and integrating it with analytic applications, enables utilities to obtain insight into actionable information that will assist in managing and optimising energy usage throughout the grid.

The good news is that even legacy equipment can be retrofitted with smart devices and sensors. These upgrades are still very cost-effective when considering the vast benefits and ROI of digitalisation.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is also enabling more connectivity and intelligence in various devices; from breakers and transformers to power quality monitors and busbar temperature sensors, to equipment with embedded sensors like protection relays, to automation equipment like RTUs.

Smart devices running on a power network can perform a lot of metering, logging, and analysis. IoT-enablement means that this data can then be shared with cloud-based storage and applications, while mobile apps can access each device’s onboard data and functions.

All of this means the utility’s operations and maintenance personnel get easy, fast access to important information and alarms from wherever they are, with the ability to collaborate across teams.

Optimising the above is powerful software applications that are aggregating and analysing data from across many facilities. And this is where the full potential of digitalisation is realised; providing utilities with visibility into every inch of the electrical system, be it supervising electrical processes, to early warning of risks or capturing opportunities to improve power, energy, and equipment performance.

A digitally connected power distribution system can provide utilities with the tools to maximise energy and life cycle efficiency while enabling condition-based maintenance. Moreover, it can prepare the grid to switch over to renewables in a seamless and less disruptive manner.