An interview with Schneider Electric’s Taru Madangombe
Taru Madangombe, Schneider Electric’s vice president for energy in Southern Africa, says the digitalisation of the South African electricity supply industry will improve the efficiency and reliability of the electricity grid, and help to reduce carbon emissions.
Speaking to Energize at the recent Africa Energy Indaba, Madangombe said that the South African electricity system needs to be updated with modern digital products. This would help the sector as it adopts the Just Energy Transition to benefit from the advances that have been made in digitalisation and automation technologies and devices.
Demand side management is important, he added, because efficiencies there result in lower demand from the generation side of the system. And in South Africa, lower demand could result less coal being burnt, and fewer greenhouse gases and CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere.
However, to improve demand side efficiency, one must monitor and measure existing patterns and manage demand according. To obtain the most accurate results, software intervention in the monitoring and management processes should be employed.
But monitoring on its own is not enough. The data obtained through the monitoring process must be analysed to help understand where inefficiencies and other challenges lie. This analysis must be done in real time so that the data can be used to control or manage the system effectively. Better use of the data results in better decisions being taken, he added.
The use of microgrids and minigrids helps to manage the overall system, Madangombe said. Microgrids, with their own electricity generating technologies such as rooftop PV or larger systems with energy storage, add to the security of supply which is so needful in the modern age.
Traditionally, microgrids were installed in rural areas where it was deemed too expensive to bring grid power. But these days, he said, microgrids are being deployed in cities and urban areas to assist in the stabilisation of the electricity network.
An example of such a microgrid could include rooftop solar, a large hydrogen-powered fuel cell, and some batteries to store energy storage for use during peak demand.
These microgrids could be privately owned and operated, or run by a local municipality, he added.
Schneider Electric, Madangombe said, offers both hardware and software solutions to monitor the network, analyse the data, and manage the system. He added that the company is busy improving electricity networks and systems in many parts of Africa, including South Africa.
He explained that the best way to tackle technical losses in electric grids is to deploy the correct software tools. To this end, power utilities need to have a digital roadmap in order to create an integrated system with appropriate technologies – with both software and hardware tools – to manage the electricity system from the point of generation to the user’s application – or, as Madangombe put it: “from plant to plug”.
South Africa’s need to migrate to generation technologies with lower carbon emissions creates an opportunity for it to adopt digital systems to improve decentralisation, grid maintenance and management, increase energy efficiency, strengthen industrial applications, adopt more renewable energy systems with energy storage, improve demand side management, and modernise communications and automation for infrastructure.
But the country’s need for additional generation is only one aspect of the total overhaul the electricity system needs. While more generation capacity is essential to overcome the challenges associated with load shedding, the management of the distribution of electricity to points of load must also be updated and modernised.
Modern, “smart” switchgear, which uses air instead of SF6, and which can be remotely controlled and remotely configured, would improve the overall efficiency of the distribution network, Madangombe explained.
Sensors, embedded in strategic places, could assist in predicting faults before they happen, which would improve the overall network’s reliability significantly.
Ultimately, one wants to improve SAIDI – the System Average interruption Duration Index – by monitoring and managing the system for efficiency and reliability.
Modern software tools and sophisticated sensors can also be used to improve system security and prevent electricity theft. Such equipment is now available to make this easier than ever before. These modern tools are also more resilient against cyber attacks. This is very important as grid networks all over the world are often attacked in an attempt to take control of the network. The company’s latest products are virtually immune to such attacks, Madangombe concluded.
