SCHNEIDER'S ADMS GIVES UTILITY FIRMS BETTER SOLUTION

By Siti Noor Afera Abu

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- Energy consumption among Malaysians over the past two decades has experienced a significant increase, said Schneider Electric Industry (M) Sdn Bhd Business Unit Vice President Dr Riyaz Rashid.

He said according to the Energy Commission, electricity demand per person has risen from 1,400 kilowatts per hour to 4,000 kilowatts per hour due to rapid economic growth, higher urbanisation and technological advancements.

“More power is needed to manage their homes and businesses, power failure and disruptions can occur and give massive losses and impact on customers, and when we look at the recent power outage in Johor Bahru, I think utilities and consumers have lost millions because of that.

“Hence, the key challenge in the energy utilities industry today is how do we make the great more efficient, how we maximise the efficiencies and the reliability of the electricity distribution rate,” he told Bernama.

On Sept 7, Johor Bahru was plunged into chaos after a major power outage caused by the breakdown of a Tenaga Nasional Bhd substation, described as one of the worst in recent memory.

He said fortunately, there are a lot of things that utilities companies can do to minimise power disruption.

“A smart grid solution provides utility companies and consumers a better way to prevent any disruption while using electricity, by which they can determine how much electricity they want to use, how they want it to be more effective and monitor the power usage as well,” he said.

 He said Schneider Electric’s ‘advanced distribution management system’ (ADMS) is a smart grid solution to enable advanced monitoring, analysis, control, optimisation, planning and training functions, allowing utility companies to provide more reliable, safe and efficient power.

The ADMS basically presents clear and real-time broadcast so the utility that is managing via their command centre can monitor exactly where the outage disruption is and estimate how much time is needed to fix the problem, he said.

 Schneider Electric’s ADMS is an industry benchmark used by 75 utility companies that serve 70 million end-customers around the world.

-- BERNAMA