Ethekwini contractor for Beyond Wireless
April 2010
News
Local wireless machine to machine (M2M) communication solutions provider, Beyond Wireless, is in the final stages of rolling out a GPRS-based communications platform and condition monitoring system for the Ethekwini Municipality’s entire medium voltage electricity distribution network.
With phase 1 of the rollout already extending to more than 750 medium voltage sub-stations, the contract is one of the largest municipal contracts of its kind to date in South Africa.
“Electricity is the life blood of any city and this solution quite literally allows Durban’s electrical engineers to have their finger on the city’s pulse by giving them realtime visibility of the deepest parts of the distribution network,” explains Beyond Wireless CEO, Ian Lester. “By using the cellular networks as the core Internet Protocol communication platform, the system is rapidly scalable and most importantly it is affordable, as it requires no investment into complex and expensive proprietary communication infrastructure. This means that the system is not only able to serve the monitoring and control needs of large and sophisticated cities like Durban, but it is well within the reach of smaller municipalities as well.”
The system is also currently being trialled by City Power in Johannesburg where the technology has been deployed at both the medium and low voltage levels of Johannesburg’s distribution network, to meter consumption, monitor demand patterns, detect intrusion, monitor transformer oil temperatures and detect power outages.
Lester says: “In the tough current economic climate where capital is scarce and service delivery is top of the agenda, Beyond Wireless can offer real solutions to both challenges.”
For more information contact Ian Lester, Beyond Wireless, +27 (0)11 243 2960, [email protected], www.beyondwireless.co.za
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