Eskom Distribution, South Africa

Eskom is South Africa's primary electricity supplier and supplies some 95 per cent of the country's electricity requirements - more than half of the power generated in the whole of Africa. Eskom is responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity from its 24 power stations, with a combined nominal capacity of 40,585 megawatts, over 16,442 miles (26,461 kms) of transmission lines.

The Challenge

Maintenance and repair of Eskom's huge electricity transmission network requires an efficient communications system capable of covering the vast areas supplied with electrical power, allowing for rapid deployment of repair crews when required.

Eskom has its own radio infrastructure, made up of a conventional all informed radio network that covers all of South Africa. The network is divided up into seven regions, with each region having a central control point to which all repeaters in a region are connected via various bearers.

Before the introduction of the mobile data system, all job despatching was done via voice communications. There was no vehicle location system in use - such a system would have allowed a service unit closest to the job site to be despatched.

The Solution

The SMK mobile data system (specifically developed for Eskom) was designed and built by the Research and Development division of Emcom Africa, which is the exclusive Southern Africa distributor for Tait Electronics. The mobile data system is made up of a combination Mobile Data Terminal (MDT)/enhanced control head, a radio controller/modem and a GPS unit fi tted to Tait mobile radios, which have specially modified firmware.

Eskom's existing radio communications infrastructure was used without modification except for the addition of modem arrays at the control points.

Eskom's existing Tait mobile radios were retro-fitted with the mobile data equipment as required, and a number of additional complete new mobile radio units were supplied to make up the 2000 required.

The computer-aided despatch system used by Eskom was linked to the new mobile data system, allowing automatic job allocation and recording of job progress milestones. Vehicle position information was also made available to Eskom's GIS system, allowing more efficient allocation of technical resources.

After the system was made operational, Eskom reported that voice traffic on the radio network was drastically reduced and efficiency of job turnaround increased by some 40 per cent. Misunderstandings between despatcher and operator have also been significantly reduced thanks to text despatching, and a noticeable improvement in customer satisfaction has been recorded.

In addition, operator security was increased by having a panic facility available should the need arise.