Schneider Electric has partnered Ikeja Electric to improve electricity distribution in its network in Lagos and Ogun states.
The collaboration between both companies would address common problems faced by electricity distribution companies in the country, namely the lack of traceability when faults occur on the network, leading to extended period of outages.
Vanguard gathered that Schneider will set up a digitized grid, starting with smart transformers.
Speaking on the partnership in Lagos, Ikeja Electric, Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Folake Soetan, said: “This partnership exemplifies Ikeja Electric’s desire to leverage innovation and technology to improve customer experience, so it is driven largely with interest of customers at the heart of our business.
“We are delighted to partner with Schneider Electric on this project as it becomes imperative that we adopt a more strategic approach in managing our network.
“The introduction of smart Distribution Transformers will not only assist in drastically reducing downtime, but it will also further drive efficiency as we are able to better manage and maintain our network proactively. The digitization is in line with our mantra, Customer First, Technology Now.”
On his part, Schneider Electric, Business Development and Access to Energy, Anglophone West Africa, Director, Marketing, Mojola Ola, stated that, “Our collaboration with Ikeja Electric reflects a true commitment from both parties to drive the digital transformation of the grid, which would result in greater efficiency and access to energy for the population.
“With a proactive maintenance approach in place on the transformers, the frequency of downtime will drastically reduce, instead of having reactive maintenance after a technical interruption, we offer a more proactive approach on the equipment as they can be set to trigger alerts for any issue on the network requiring attention, before downtime occurs.
“We are very much on the ground. One of the things that we do strongly in West Africa is to have a solid knowledge transfer culture. We put in a lot of effort and resources into human capacity development to ensure the project is sustainable.
“We are one of the few original equipment manufacturers that have a local services team to perform regular maintenance and we leverage our coverage across the country to respond swiftly to any fall out as they arise.”
Source: Vanguard
